Spy Game Review
by Jon Popick (jpopick AT sick-boy DOT com)November 21st, 2001
Planet Sick-Boy: http://www.sick-boy.com
"We Put the SIN in Cinema"
© Copyright 2001 Planet Sick-Boy. All Rights Reserved.
Spy Game feels a lot like an episode of The Agency, so it should come as no surprise to learn it was written by Michael Frost Beckner, who happens to be that series' principal scribe. While most people will be flocking to see the film just to get a gander at Brad Pitt and Robert Redford (something for every generation to enjoy), most won't have a clue that they'll be sinking their teeth into something as surprisingly substantial as Beckner's story. Maybe it has something to do with Monsters, Inc., Shallow Hal and Domestic Disturbance, but Game seems a lot more adult than anything I've seen in a while.
Game is set, primarily, over one day in 1991, which is supposed to be CIA operative Nathan Muir's (Redford, The Last Castle) last on the job. As his resourceful secretary (Marianne Jean-Baptiste, The Cell) dutifully packs his belongings, Muir longingly gazes at a brochure for beachfront property in the Bahamas at which, presumably, he will spend his retirement days. Muir's daydreaming is interrupted when he is called into a task force meeting whose focus is one of his ex-protégés.
The protégé in question is Tom "Boy Scout" Bishop (Pitt, The Mexican), a mole hired and trained by Muir after the two met in the closing stages of Viet Nam. Game's first scene shows Bishop attempting a bold rescue of a mysterious, shadowy-type figure at a filthy Chinese prison that would give Amnesty International an ulcer. He is caught, tortured and will be executed in 24 hours, according to the CIA taskforce. Because the outcome of an upcoming trade negotiation with China hangs in the balance, the agency decides the best course of action would be to not lift a finger to help their comrade.
As you can imagine, this doesn't sit well with Muir, who, despite having had a falling-out with Bishop six years earlier, holds the lad in high regard. But how can a guy with nine toes out the door do anything about it, especially when he's spending the bulk of his day answering the task force's questions about Bishop's background? But that's what makes Game such an entertaining flick, even though Muir doesn't do much and what he does isn't that exciting. Instead, the big set pieces come in flashbacks as Muir describes how he met and trained Bishop.
At first, I groaned upon learning the film took place on Muir's last day, thinking it would be yet another Lethal Weapon-style action film about a brash ladies' man and an uptight retiring guy who's getting too old for this shit. But Game actually wants us to think Muir isn't much older than Bishop, despite the cavernous age difference between Redford and Pitt. In ordinary circumstances, it might be a little more believable, but not when you're showing a flashback from the mid-'70s and a character in his 30s has giant crevices in his face. With the state-of-the-art makeup and special effects available today, you'd think there would be some kind of cyberspackle they could use to smooth him out. The guy looks like he's been soaking in a tub for the last three years.
Director Tony Scott (Enemy of the State) uses different color tones for each of Game's many locations (it was filmed in five countries on three continents), which kind of makes it look a bit like Traffic (a good thing), but his somewhat spastic editing and a non-stop sweeping zooms also make it look like Armageddon (a bad thing). Scott's overuse of time stamps to let you know how many hours Muir has to save Bishop gets kind of annoying, but, then again, maybe it just seems that way after seeing multiple episodes of 24, which offers a similar struggle against the clock. So if you're looking for other stuff to compare Game to, start with 24, Peter Straub's Koko and just about any John LeCarré novel.
2:00 - R for language, some violence and brief sexuality
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
