Spy Game (2001)

Is there anyone from China writing reviews about how nonsense details they have in the movie? the script writer and even the whole crew need much much more homeworks to do. I mean geographical details at least. I knew that the script writer wanna to set the coincidental maps between Bahamas shore and east China coast shore. but you'd better put the Amrican military base in Okinawa, Japan. there is no base in Penghu, Taiwan, and Okinawa is shorter flying to Shanghai. and they need to set the prison site at Tilanqiao prison in Shanghai, the Suzhou pirson is far inland of China, I do not think that the helicopters can fly over the Shanghai air-defense zone unless you cut all the power grid of eastern China rather than only Suzhou city.it's the year of 1991, why there are so many cultural revolution slogan on the prison wall. which had taken place in 60s-70s. do you think it's the graffiti wall in a bar. and the accent of those Chinese actor are cantonese ,not standard mandarin. it might be not easy to find a group of Chinese actors who from mainland China to speak the local accent or mandarin as I guess. I believe that there might be no one knows about it, to the western audiences and the movie crews, they are all the same. and those uniform of prison guards is big farce, the crew might not know the details too. I do not want elaborate more on this.The van used in the film in Suzhou prison, then used the same van in Beirut, Lebanon. I do not think you are short of budget, which then you can rent several helicopters to film. and the scence that all prisoners knock their rice bowl on the cell fence togehter, that only will happen in american movie, it doesn't look like China at all.Despite those weakness which I do not want list them all, I also want to say it's standard and good hollywood movies though, no big mistakes on other elements of the film. from this point of view, the only way can explain all this is that the u. s. film industry or amrican hoi polloi have little knowledge about China, even they want to work hard on it. so I also begin to doubt about American movie that depicts Middle East, Russia and Africa then, it's all your own imagary pictures of them.

SPY GAME - 2001Directed by Tony SCOTTStarring Robert REDFORD and Brad PITT.Plot Overview: Redford stars as CIA operative Nathan Muir, who is on the brink of retirement from the field, when he learns his protégé Tom Bishop has been arrested in China on a charge of espionage. No stranger to the machinations of the CIA's top echelon, Muir hones all his skills and irreverent manner in order to find a way to free Bishop.Considering the stellar cast and crew that made this film, this was a very disappointing, bland, forgettable experience. This isn't a BAD film. Most of the key ingredients are there to make it a good movie. They were just mixed together incorrectly. It is such a bland and boring movie that I just can't understand the rating is currently has. The story for this movie is so disappointing. I had infinitely more interest in the small stories told by Redford about him and Pitt. The modern day story for this film was so uninteresting and boring that even the film tries to sideline it for the majority of the film. Even the ending was very anticlimactic and uninteresting for me. And I knew exactly what I was supposedly getting into. I knew this was a drama/political thriller. I wasn't expecting The Avengers to pop up, or some huge action set piece. I just found the movie inexplicably boring and inefficient of what it was attempting to achieve.I do like things about this movie, however. Both Robert Redford and Brad Pitt were excellent in their respective roles. Their performances were easily the highlight of the movie, as was seeing two powerhouse actors working of off each other.On the subject of positives, the cinematography and editing were both decent and I do appreciate Scott's visual style.Despite these positives, Spy Game was just boring for me. It wasn't interesting and was an overall chore to watch. I cannot recommend this movie, it really isn't that good. I'll rate this film a disappointing 4 Flashbacks out of 10!

Here's an atypical but enthralling thriller from sure-hand director Tony Scott which plays out most of its tale in various flashbacks, but is held together through an excellent leading turn from Robert Redford. Redford is an ageing CIA agent and on his last day of work before retirement (gee, where have we heard that one before?) he learns that his young protégé has been captured for spying in a Chinese prison and is due to be executed the following morning. Much of the film consists of him relating previous experiences and adventures to his superiors as the clock ticks down towards his partner's imminent death. Whilst this might not sound to be very interesting viewing, the flashbacks are invariably exciting and involve lots of secrecy, death, and open warfare in some cases (an excellent interlude in Beirut for example), elements all woven together well.The present scenes of Redford using his own contacts and methods to help his captured chum are excellently portrayed and even if the film comes a little loose towards the ending, it still engages the senses through the quality of the acting. Here's a film with some fleshed-out characters brought to vivid life through the strong actors playing them. Redford and Pitt are excellent in their two very different roles, and we also get strong support from Catherine McCormack as Pitt's love interest and Stephen Dillane, excellently snide as an enemy of Redford's at the intelligence agency. Flashily directed by Scott and never lulling for a moment, this is an exciting and intelligent movie with plenty of incident and dynamism to recommend it.

Spy Game (2001): Dir: Tony Scott / Cast: Robert Redford, Brad Pitt, Catherine McCormack, David Hemmings, Stephen Dillane: Superb film about our attitude towards violence and danger. Shown mainly through flashbacks regarding the relationship between Robert Redford and Brad Pitt. When an operation goes wrong an agency wishes to give reason for the Chinese to execute Pitt whom is captured and tortured. Redford acts on behalf of Pitt and is questioned but underneath he is thinking beyond them. We learn that they met in Vietnam and were involved in many combat operations. Pitt became involved with a woman whom Redford viewed as bad news. While formula in structure the film is entertaining and directed with insight by Tony Scott who also made True Romance and The Hunger. Here he does a war film that is a far cry to that overrated farce he made called Top Gun. Redford is clever in his dealings around the corrupt officials who are applying pressure. Pitt is seen mainly through torture segments but flashbacks broaden his back story. Catherine McCormack plays the mysterious woman involved with Pitt whom Redford cannot quite trust. David Hemmings is a fine actor but wasted in a flat role. The film is well made visually but its message doesn't seem to be as played up as the action. The result is an insightful and entertaining film at best. Score: 9 ½ / 10