Red (2010)

Retired and Extremely Dangerous the stamp given to retired spies Frank Moses (Bruce Willis), Joe Matheson (Morgan Freeman), Marvin Boggs (John Malkovich) and Victoria (Helen Mirren). This movie takes its inspiration from a comic book published by DC comics imprint Homage. Directed by Robert Schwentke directing a screenplay by Jon Hoeber and Erich Hoeber.

Frank is not really enjoying his retirement, its well, boring, its lacking all the espionage and intrigue of his life as a spy. He spends his days working out, wiling away the hours and talking to Sarah (Mary Louise Parker) a customer service rep who loves tacky romance spy novels. His life takes a turn for the more interesting when a hit squad shows up at his place.

This movie is really fun, its not to be taken seriously lets not forget it is based on a comic book. The roles are all familiar Willis is the ass kicker, how many times have we seen Malkovich do crazy and Freeman do poignant. Mirren is fresh and surprisingly fun. Two thumbs up fun holiday viewing.

And in weirdness it came in second behind… Jackass 3-D in its opening weekend with a cool $22.5 mill.

Chuck Season Four (2010)

Team Chuck is back and cooler than ever. This show has not disappointed its fans by staying true to the things that made it great! The plot twists are clever and the show is still well paced and thoroughly entertaining.

Season Four sees Chuck following his fathers legacy and trying to track down his mother played by none other than Linda Hamilton who is as kick ass as ever! Dolph Lundgren even puts in an appearance.

The Buy More has been rebuilt but seems to be running eerily efficiently. Will Jeff and Lester ever stop running from the Po Po? Will Chuck be able to keep his new agenda of finding his mother a secret from Sarah and Casey? Will Morgan successfully date a secret agent? What could happen to Ellie and Awesome that would make their life more awesome? Will Chuck be able to find a normal job and keep his promise about leaving the CIA to Ellie?

Stay tuned, don’t be afraid to glue yourself to the tv and cut out bathroom breaks!

And remember if you download this and watch it without your partner…

It is cheating.

Nikita (2010)

So first there was Nikita (The French film), then there was the butchered American version ‘Point of No Return’ then the flailing tv show ‘La Femme Nikita’ now there’s this.

I didn’t have high hopes, its been done before and before and before would they add anything new, would it hurt my eyes to watch it, would it make my brain itchy?

Anyway thanks to smart scripting, good solid plot points that move the story along quickly and clever casting and good acting it works.

It sounds cliched but trust me folks its all in the delivery.

So Nikita (Maggie Q) used to work for a top secret govt spy thing called (insert jaws music here ‘dom dom dommmm’) ‘Division’. Then its the Alias plot ‘Waa I fell in love and they killed my boyf so now I’m gonna bury them.

Maggie Q was trained by Jackie Chan, she does all her own stunts and her looks are thanks to her Irish and Vietnamese heritage and yes she was originally a model. She is awesome!

Nikita faces off against her ex handler Michael (Shane West). Lyndsy Fonseca
is Alex divisions latest recruit who knows more than she lets on.

Miscast? Aaron Stanford as Birkhoff. He is annoying and doesn’t fit the character at all. Honestly how hard is it to find a geek looking for an acting gig anyway!

Salt (2010)

So finally after all the hype I got to see the film for myself and the verdict? Well I wasn’t disapointed! Salt is impressive it delivers action, adrenaline, suspense and a pretty good plot. Evelyn Salt (Angelina Jolie) is a CIA agent that goes rogue after she’s accused of being a russian sleeper. Originally the part of Salt was meant to be a male character and was offered to Tom Cruise.

I think it was a smart move for them to recast Jolie over Cruise and adjust the plot. We’ve already seen Tom Cruise in the Mission Impossible movies and I think him in this would have just been ‘Hey another Tom Cruise action movie’. I think Jolie makes it memorable. To the question does Angelina Jolie have more balls then Tom Cruise… I say hell yeah! Not to mention Jolie did all her own stunts can Tom do that? I don’t think so.

Critics were a hung jury with this film, some even claiming ‘the holes in the script were big enough to drive a bus through’. I think the plot held and the film works. Its got some seriously cool action scenes and theres only one scene where the cg makes it all look too unreal and this detracts from the film. But aside from that one scene the stunts are impressive and the fight scenes well choreographed! Plus no boring bits unlike the recent Bond films.

Final thoughts:
This is the chick equivalent to Jason Bourne and it was $130 million well spent.

For Your Height Only (1970′s)

This really has to be seen to be believed. I haven’t watched the movie, but this clip is a good laugh.

Ernesto de la Cruz is Weng Weng secret agent 00. When a scientist is kidnapped by the badie ‘Mr Giant’ Weng Weng is sent to save the day. At 83 cm (2 feet, 9 inches) tall, Cruz is in the Guinness World Records as the shortest adult actor in a leading role. The film did so well it even got a sequel ‘The Impossible Kid’.

Jake 2.0 (2003)

Jake is a government paid geek who wants to be an agent but is stuck fixing computers instead. He stumbles accross someone stealing the NSA’s research and sounds the alarm, in the crossfire he becomes infected with nano-bots. The nano’s make him all million dollar man unbreakable. The show aint great but its not terrible either, its good family viewing. The plot reads like an earlier version of Chuck but you know not as funny, clever, or well produced.

It was cancelled in the US due to low ratings with four eps unaired.

Duplicity (2009)

George Clooney was the name on everyones lips for the role of Ray Koval Luckily for us he turned it down suggesting Clive Owen instead. The film is all the stronger for it Owen he brings a vulnerability to his character that you wouldn’t have believed from Clooney. Owen had a hand in choosing his co star Julia Roberts to be Claire Stenwick which was a smart choice. The two powerhouses are fantastic together.

Koval is MI 6, Stenwick is CIA they’re spies who decide to retire from their relative agencies, they seek out work as corporate spies hoping to steal something to fund their retirement. Can they outsmart the corporates and trust each other long enough to get paid?

This is an intellects rom com. Its smart, sassy, intelligent and intriguing, the plot is clever, the script is solid, the direction flawless and the cinematography brilliant.

The second scene in this is pure genius. Slow motion video plays without audio as two CEOs face off in the funniest fight scene ever! Dick Garsik (Paul Giamatti) and Howard Tully (Tom Wilkinson) are hilarious with their exaggerated faces, floppy jowls, finger pointing, pushing and shoving each other like children in a playground. Its a brilliant scene it just grabs your attention and draws you in. You’re laughing your arse off thinking ‘Who are these idiots?’

Leverage (2008)

The plot: An ex insurance investigator Nate (Timothy Hutton) is approached by a company to retrieve their stolen data from a rival company. The rest of the team is made up of Eliot (Christian Kane) retrieval, Parker (Beth Riesgraf) thief explosions expert, Alec (Aldis Hodge) computer geek/hacker. The plan goes to shit and the team decide to do what they do best, be bad. Sophie (Gina Bellman) joins the team later and improves the shows appeal. When the team come into some money they start their own firm ‘Leverage’, where they lie, cheat, grift and extort money from the bad guys and redistribute it to the good guys.

Its a reasonable show but not brilliant, its a bit predictable at times and lacks some of the pizazz of other heist tv shows most notably ‘Hustle’. Its b-grade and its enjoyable. Its ok in the downtimes when your faves shows go on hiatus and start filming series 2. The biggest issue I had was with the acting. Hutton, Hodge and Bellman carry Kane and Riesgraf. Riesgraf is the weakest link in ep 1 she was flat, all over the place and couldn’t seem to keep up with the others. No wonder they needed Bellman! I hope she improves as she ‘settles’ in the role, or dies by episode three that would be ok too.

Top Ten Spy Movies

Bourne Identity, Supremacy and Ultimatum
Mr & Mrs Smith
Ronin
Spy Game
Traitor
Mission Impossible III
Taken
Infernal Affairs 1,2,3
Duplicity
I Spy

Fave Movie Spys:
Nikita (Anne Parillaud) – La Femme Nikita
Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) – Bourne Identity, Supremacy and Ultimatum
Ray Koval (Clive Owen) – Duplicity
Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) – Mission Impossible 1,2,3

Burn Notice

Another clever, funny original show stuck in a crap timeslot.  Michael Westen (Jeffrey Donovan) is a spy who got burned and disavowed.  His cover blown, he’s broke and stuck in Miami doing random PI jobs for cash and trying to work out who burned him.  The writing is clever and refreshing as are the characters.  Gabrielle Anwar as Fiona his love interest is fantastic as a buff balsy arms dealer.  Well worth watching, very entertaining.  There’s an uncomfortable stand off in my house if an episode of this show is missed.