Rating: 
Summary: Fantastic Well Thought Out Movie
Review: I don't know why anyone would consider Tom Clancy's stories set in reality. Most of his stories have far more Hollywood like qualities than this movie.
The acting was great. The story riveting and intense. It is a movie worth watching a few times. And each time you get a different thought about the key scenes.
If you want a well thought out story with great settings and cinematography, this is it!
Rating: 
Summary: All American Boy Saves Leftist Terrorist, Hooray.
Review: Another forensically interesting example of Hollywood's view of the world. Brad Pitt is an American-as-apple-pie CIA operative who unaccountably falls in love with a limey leftist terrorist whose only crime, apart from being not-so-loosely affiliated with Hezbollah, was bombing a Chinese embassy. "It was supposed to be empty, but it wasn't. And I have to live with that." Wait, let me get out my handkerchief: this babe's got it rough. Apparently her murderous terrorism didn't clear her brain of her leftism any, because here she is collaborating with terrorists in Beirut. But the whole thing of the movie is that she eventually is nabbed by the Chinese authorities - and rightly so - and is rotting in some Chinese prison - and rightly so. However, the human rights groups may be having some effect on the place, because she, despite her confinement, is softly lit, seems to have some art up on the walls and is burning a copious supply of incense. Anyway, Pitt gets wind of all this and he flips his wig, goes in there on his own recognizance to bust her out don't you know. And naturally he gets busted - and rightly so - and so his old boss Redford commits massive fraud all over the CIA to commandeer a US spec ops strike team to bust the two of them out of the Chinese pokey. In reality this would involve American and Chinese casualties incurred in the act of wrongly liberating these two dingbats and would lead to a probably very serious diplomatic problem between two nuclear powers but Hollywood prefers not to think about that. The only world they're interested in is the pretend kind.
Rating: 
Summary: good action
Review: i love when a movie comes out that's not all bloody...action doesn't have to be bloody....Spy Game is a wild ride!
Rating:
Summary: Intriguing Look At The CIA!
Review: I recently viewed the new Robert Redford movie "Spy Game", and really enjoyed the experience. As someone who worked within the federal bureaucracy for decades, I can readily verify that those aspects depicting the inner workings of the Central Intelligence Agency are certainly accurate and on point in this new film with Robert Redford and Brad Pitt. Pitt plays an agent who possibly has gone rogue, and who has been taken prisoner by the Chinese. Redford plays his former handler, now re-engaged to decipher Pitt's action on the day of his own retirement, who smells something foul in the skunk works at the last moment of his own incumbency, and starts playing double-dare internal spy games with other CIA officers within the facility who seem to have some hidden ulterior motive for wanting to throw Pitt's character to the wolves. Of course, one does well to recognize Redford's masterful hand in all this activity, since he has a well-earned reputation for questioning the nature of our intelligence agencies, their inbred culture of gamesmanship, and the way they work. Like spy thriller author John LeCarre (The Constant Gardener), Redford seems most interested in exploring the darker side of the so-called invisible government and its corrosive effect on the character of the men who populate it, and in the first hour or so, the film builds the tension between someone who wants to do right thing by an agent in the field and an agency looking to protect its own political agendas. As a result, Redford starts going out onto that precarious limb he had long ago advised Pitt never to venture onto, and learns some things about himself in the process. The truth is revealed in layers of deceit and games, and one has to keep his wits about him in understanding why Redford takes some of the actions he does and what the agency is doing in the meantime. Yet at the conclusion all is clear, and the standoff ends with Redford driving his older Porsche off into the sunset of his own career and a much different future than he had imagined just a day or so before. Pitt plays his own part quite well as an iconoclastic recruit who learns enough about himself and the spy-game to understand there has to be a better and more purposeful way to live. This for me is the real strength of the movie, and the understated message Redford wants us to get; Our intelligence agencies work in service to goals often so twisted and altered from their original purpose as to be preposterous monsters, yet such conduct is all too common within the framework of how they operate. This is a cautionary tale told with purpose; to convince us the game is out of control.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting but not very realistic
Review: The story is actually interesting, but unlike Tom Clancy, the writer(s) don't create a story around a true view of reality. Instead, they start with a warped Hollywood view of intelligence operations and CIA agents, and then develop a story that makes heroes out of their two primary stars. It's pure Hollywood, but it is entertaining. If you're a Brad Pitt or Robert Redford fan, you'll like it.
Rating:
Summary: Good Action Flick with Smarts.
Review: My title says it all. Way better than the cream of the crop crap action flicks. My girlfriend says any fellah willing to get his girlfriend out of a Chinese Gulag by shock-trocuting himself wins her heart any day.
Rating:
Summary: Hunkfest turns out to have some meat
Review: Though I like both major actors, I avoided this movie for awhile, mostly because the the prominence of the mugs of two of the biggest movie pretty boys of all time posititioned prominently on the cover. And the start of the movie didn't help, either. You've got Younger Hunk waltzing into a Chinese prison, allegedly as a doctor giving out cholera shots to the prisoners. Just like the start of a James Bond film, you're expecting Younger Hunk to escape the prison using some new-fangled gadget like flying shoes while a hot babe is ready with his cold drink as soon as he's out of immediate danger. Well, surprises on top of surprises, the movie doesn't head that way. Instead, Younger Hunk gets captured, and spends 99% of the rest of the movie in the slammer, getting his hunk face messed up quite a bit, probably by guards whose girlfriends like Brad Pitt way to much to suit them. But don't worry girls (and some guys). We get to see him in his glory through most of the movie, as Older Hunk steps in to see what he can do to rescue Younger Hunk. Problem is, Older Hunk is on his last day at the CIA, most of his security is gone, and a lot of his co-workers wish he would just go away. So O.H. has to explain his connection to Y. H. to these people, which gives us a lot of scenes with OH showing Y.H. the tricks of the spy game. I liked several things about the movie. While the whole point of the movie is for O.H. to spring Y.H., and the final scene to do this does involve force, it's not your usual action picture where everything is settled at gunpoint. It's the planning of the operation, where O.H. has to dig in his past, and cash in some major favors with people to get it done, while keeping certain CIA managers in the dark. How he does it is probably very unlikely, but at least brains, and not brawn drive the movie. I also like where several times during the movie, both Hunks need to pause to question how down and dirty they are willing to get to get a mission done. For example, Y.H. is given instructions at the end of a mission to leave a person he was rescuing behind enemy line, almost insuring the death of that person. O.H. asks his collegues at one point if they remember when it was easy to tell the good guys from the bad guys. We are taken all over the world on several missions, where we see that the spy game is rarely a black-and-white, good guys vs. bad guys situation. That, and having Y.H.'s face get really messed up make this a very intelligent thriller.
Rating:
Summary: Full scream edition?
Review: There's no dead letter drop secret enough to hide this turkey from the world.
Rating: 
Summary: A very interesting start but...
Review: ...it faltered during the way. With the very attention-catching beginning, I expected the rest of the film to be exciting & action-packed. I was disappointed to find the film quite bland & lacked emotion. Majority of the movie consisted of flashbacks which 'SUPPOSEDLY' explained the close ties between the master spy & his protege. But despite establishing their proximity, the emotional link seemed poor. Either the movie failed to impart such degree of closeness to the viewers or I simply failed to grasp it. In any case, I found the plot interesting...but bland.
Rating:
Summary: interesting concept, great acting
Review: a very well done storyline, combined with great actors and action sequences.....there's nothing else to ask for...seriously, not one of the BEST flicks to hit DVD in 2002 but surely will do....Redford is brilliant....and of course, the the Pitt-meister plays his usual cocky, arrogant-self once again, except this time...he plays the GOOD guy instead of the BAD and awesome directing of course (tony scott)....and if you're still not convinced to go check it out....maybe the usual "dvd special features and extras" bribary routine will convince ya....and take it from me....this dve collector's edition is packed with em! cuz if the movie doesn't satisfy you, then go BEYOND it.....i would've given the flick a solid 5 stars but there were no HOTTIES in it (female hotties) that is, lol
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