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best movie i've ever seen.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Nathan Muir (Robert Redford) is about to retire from the CIA when he is given a tip-off that an old colleague Tom Bishop (Brad Pitt) has been captured and is being held in a Chinese prison. Upon discovering that Bishop will be executed within the next 24 hours and with the CIA seemingly being prepared to do nothing about it, Muir takes it upon himself to do his utmost to get Bishop freed within the 24 hour deadline...To all intents and purposes this is a fairly good action/thriller with plenty of Tony Scott's trademark touches; quick and flashy editing, some decent shootouts and explosions. It isn't all style though and what you actually get here is a reasonably good story - it's one that is well-developed and through Redford's narration we do get to learn quite a bit about Muir and Bishop (there's certainly enough here to become invested in the story). One other positive with this film comes with Muir running his own 'operation' in order to try to facilitate Bishop's escape (this in itself makes part of the story exciting and throws in a couple of interesting plot turns).Part of the problem with this film is that it is a bit plot heavy and crammed with far too much exposition - whilst it all serves a purpose and nicely pieces everything together in the end I couldn't help but feel that a little trimming here and there wouldn't hurt. It's also fair to say that clocking in at just over 2 hours it is a little on the long side.Redford and Pitt are both solid here and they are both developed quite well as characters, but the downside of this is that they aren't given a great deal of screen time together meaning that they are never really given much of an opportunity to build up any kind of rapport together.Still when the focus is on Tony Scott doing his 'thing' and Redford running his own operation the film rarely disappoints. However, when the focus switches to Redford's narration it becomes a bit plot heavy and wearying and at times tarnishes some of its greatness.

The title of Spy Game is perfectly suited to the film; half of it is an action thriller, and the other half is a cheesy comedy. If you watch the preview, you'll hear tons of one-liners flying back and forth between Robert Redford and his younger self, Brad Pitt. If you're chuckling, go ahead and rent it. If you think it's silly, skip this movie and stick to Three Days of the Condor.Bob and Brad are CIA agents; the former trained and taught the latter. The most memorable line from the film is when Brad gestures for Bob to go ahead in a shoot-out: "Age before beauty." This line demonstrates the real problem with the film. Let's face it, you're either a Robert Redford fan who thinks Brad Pitt is a young upstart, or you're a Brad Pitt fan who thinks Robert Redford should retire. It's not possible to root for both of them! So, in the film, when Brad gets captured by the Chinese and Bob sets out to rescue him, you're either thinking, "Stay home, don't risk your neck for that kid!" or, "You don't need any help from that old timer!" My advice is to watch the preview. That's as good as it's going to get. Then, rent your favorite film from whichever blond beauty you're partial to. I know what I'm watching tonight, old sport!

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!

This spy thriller opens in China in 1991 as an ambulance approaches a prison. Once there its occupants start inoculating the prisoners. One of the 'Doctors' fakes his own death before trying to break out one of the prisoners; he is nearly gets out but is caught at the last moment. It emerges that he is CIA operative Tom Bishop but the agency isn't keen to help him even when the Chinese announce that he is to be executed the next day… his operation wasn't authorised and acknowledging him could threaten an upcoming trade deal.As the CIA decide what to do they call in Nathan Muir, a case officer who is retiring that day, because he was the man who recruited Bishop. As he tells them key details about Bishop we see flashbacks of his recruitment in Vietnam and operations in East Berlin and Beirut which ultimately explain just what he was doing in China. We also see Muir making moves to help rescue Bishop without the knowledge of his superiors.This is a solid spy thriller even if its central conceit is a little far-fetched. It was interesting that between the opening, where Bishop was captured, until his ultimate rescue we only glimpsed him in captivity; he wasn't a 'super-agent' like Bond or Bourne. Instead the flashbacks show him in action where he is forced to make compromises that ultimately leads to his disillusion. Brad Pitt does an impressive job as Bishop but it is Robert Redford who stands out in the role of Muir; not an action man but a plausible character who uses contacts to save Bishop rather than getting in physical danger himself… that doesn't mean there is no tension though; there is the feeling that he could be caught and if he was Bishop would certainly be doomed. The action we do see is mostly plausible even if the final rescue requires some suspension of disbelief as it involves US forces actually going into China. There are some flaws that are pretty basic such as references to a US Embassy in Honk Kong rather than a consulate and referring to 'Hong Kong, China' when Hong Kong was a British Dependent Territory in 1991… silly early mistakes that make one wonder what other details are wrong. Overall this might not be a must see film I'd still recommend it to fans of the genre.