Showing posts with label spies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label spies. Show all posts

8/26/2011

Sleepers (1991) Review

Sleepers (1991)
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I've waited for years to see this thriller again. It's an example of what BBC was once able to do: create the nearly perfect drama. Everything about this classic is right. The casting is perfect; in a just world, Clarke would have been given many awards. There is much humor. And the spy story keeps your interest from beginning to end. How delightful to see this available. Don't miss it.

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The Cold War is over but all the players are still ready for a rumble As seen on Masterpiece Theatre Soviet agents Sergei Rublev and Vladimir Zelenski so successfully infiltrated the culture they were sent to spy on in 1965 that they have become more English than the English. Now living as financier Jeremy Coward and brewery worker Albert Robinson, the "sleeping" spies are horrified to learn that, after 25 years, the KGB is looking for them. The hunt also awakens the bumbling bureaucrats of MI5 and their ultra-paranoid CIA counterparts, who work themselves into a lather trying to figure out what the KGB is up to. The poignancy of the sleepers' predicament plays out amid a hilarious cross-cultural send-up of the secret agent game. Nigel Havers (Manchild, A Perfect Hero) and Warren Clarke (Dalziel and Pascoe, The Onedin Line) star in this touching human comedy, remembered as one of the best British exports of the 1990s. DVD SPECIAL FEATURES INCLUDE cast filmographies and scene selection. Note: due to music rights, this program has been modified for home video presentation.

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8/14/2011

John Le Carre's A Perfect Spy (2006) Review

John Le Carre's A Perfect Spy (2006)
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An outstanding adaptation of the Le Carre's book. Long and deliberately slow moving, it may not be for everyone. Very little 'action' as such, but an exceptional character study of what makes a 'Perfect' Spy. There is a certain sadness which permeates the film, and becomes quite powerful at the end. Highly, highly recommended for those who prefer thoughtful, deliberately paced movies.

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What traits of nature and nurture go into the making of a master of deception? British agent Magnus Pym's training begins in a chaotic childhood. His charismatic con man father trades secrets for love, bouncing in and out of jail and his son's life. Schooled at Oxford and mentored by two masters of espionage, Magnus is poised for greatness-except that his mentors are on opposite sides of the battle. With characters drawn from his own life, le Carré weaves a gripping tale of international intrigue brilliantly adapted for the BBC by Arthur Hopcraft, who also adapted le Carré's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy for television. A Perfect Spy stars Peter Egan (Reilly: Ace of Spies) and Ray McAnally (A Very British Coup) with an exceptional supporting cast featuring Alan Howard, Peggy Ashcroft, and Sarah Badel.

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7/29/2011

Salt (Deluxe Unrated Edition) (2010) Review

Salt (Deluxe Unrated Edition)  (2010)
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There are 3 versions of Salt available for viewing, the Theatrical, Extended, and Director's Cuts. They run 1:39:56, 1:40:58, and 1:43:59 respectively (credit to Interzone_Records for the correction). Here are the major differences as compared to the base Theatrical Cut, e.g. Theatrical vs. Extended, and Extended vs. Director's Cut. Note, SPOILERS follow below, so read at your own risk. There are a few major, significant differences between the versions.
The Director's Cut makes the most sense plot-wise, and includes some better character development, in my opinion.THEATRICAL vs. DIRECTOR's CUT
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1) Evelyn Salt's opening interrogation scene in North Korea is longer and more brutal. The soldiers force a tube down her throat and subject her to more intense questioning, followed by several kicks to the abdomen.
2) Extended scene of Orlov training little kids who will be future sleeper agents. As the kids finish a race through the woods, Orlov asks which kid was first, and which was last, whipping the last kid with a riding crop.
3) Abduction of Michael (Salt's husband) by Orlov's thugs is shown.
4) Additional scene where Michael tells Salt about a new species of spider that he has discovered.
5) Childhood scene between Salt and Schnaider at Orlov's training camp.
6) Salt's husband is NOT shot in the Director's Cut; rather, he is slowly drowned and Salt is forced to watch. Michael's death is much more harrowing in the Director's Cut.
7) Salt kills Orlov with a broken bottle, and the stabbing is shown in more detail, rather than off-screen.
8) Salt's rampage through Orlov's freighter HQ is more graphic.
9) Gunfights depict more bullet holes and blood, but nothing overly gory.
10) Winter kills the president in the Director's Cut, whereas in the Theatrical cut, Winter only knocks him unconscious. I always thought the Theatrical cut never made much sense, because the President would easily be able to identify Winter as the traitor.
11) At the end of the movie, there is a voiceover that subtly suggests that the vice president is actually one of Orlov's sleeper agents, setting the stage up for a sequel. This voiceover is not present in the Extended Cut.EXTENDED CUT vs. DIRECTOR's CUT
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1) The changes listed above in the Director's Cut are also done in the Extended Cut, with the exception of the differences below.
2) The President is only knocked unconscious in the Theatrical Cut (and killed in the Director's Cut). In the Extended Cut, Winter attempts to make his way towards the unconscious President, who is being wheeled away on a stretcher, in order to kill him.

3) The biggest difference in the Extended Cut is that Salt doesn't kill Orlov until the end of the movie. So the entire sequence in the Theatrical and Director's Cuts where Salt annihilates Orlov's thugs on the barge is missing.
At the end of the Extended Cut, she is being interrogated by Peabody, where she fakes suicide and is taken to a hospital. She subsequently escapes from the hospital, finds Orlov (back in Russia somewhere), and kills him.


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Angelina Jolie stars in Columbia Pictures' Salt, a contemporary espionage thriller. Before becoming a CIA officer, Evelyn Salt (Jolie) swore an oath to duty, honor, and country. She will prove loyal to these when a defector accuses her of being a Russian sleeper spy. Salt goes on the run, using all her skills and years of experience as a covert operative to elude capture, protect her husband, and stay one step ahead of her colleagues at the CIA.

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