Spy Game

[cross posted from http://bloomiboy.blogspot.com/2006/08/movie-review-spy-game.html]

(2001) DVD - "It's not how you play the game. It's how the game plays you."
Starring: Robert Redford (as Nathan Muir), Brad Pitt (as Tom Bishop), Catherine McCormack (as Elizabeth Hadley)
Rated R for language, some violence and brief sexuality.
Runtime: 126 min
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I happened to see this movie over the last few days. I'm pretty certain you can find many review over the 'net, but here's mine anyway. Compared to the recent crap movies being released, this comes as a nice change although it is in no ways "recent".

Robert Redford gets the bulk of the screenplay. He is simply superb. The way he exudes class shows how someone can take the most suave of CIA agents for a ride.

The movie starts off with an exciting rescue mission in China that is botched up. The build up after that is pretty exciting. Not much is known about why the mission happens or who is responsible for it; all that is known is that Nathan Muir is somehow connected to Tom, who has now ended up in prison. Throw a few other CIA agents into the mix who are for some reason interested in muffling the news of the arrest, coinciding with the visit of the President of the United States to China.

Elizabeth is another interesting personality who Nathan suspects and she apparently has "doubts" built into her character that makes it so intriguing. As expected, Tom is smitten by her so much as to risk his life for her.

There are some nice flashbacks that set a well-paced story rolling. At about the end of an hour, things seems to fall in place for Nathan, then just before he is to leave the CIA headquarters finishing his last day of work, and to hand over his security card, he sees a newscast rushes back in. Then follows another half hour of riveting drama that takes the final plunge into suspense.

The happenings of 24 hours are chronicled in this 2 hour rivetting drama.

All in all, a decent movie to spend a Friday night watching.