Rating: 
Summary: more style than substance but still fun to watch
Review: Spy Game is a good-looking movie, in the sense that the settings are interesting and that it's fun to watch Robert Redford and Brad Pitt. naturally, the film works best when Muir (Redford) and Bishop (Pitt) are in the same scenes, as when Muir indoctrinates Bishop into the world of a CIA operative or later during their falling out when Muir thinks Bishop has compromised his position by falling in love with an unsuitable woman. Unfortunately, the film didn't make the case for love and the character of the woman is extremely underwritten. Also, Redford tells a lot of the story in flashbacks as he's sitting in a conference room with his sinister CIA bosses, but I thought this muddied the drama and confused the action without adding much. Two commentary tracks are available with the dvd -- one by the director and one by the producers. Reading between the lines of various comments, it seems obvious they had two high maintenance actors on their hands! ('Brad wanted to reshoot this scene,' 'Robert wanted to do this.' etc etc) Must have been a lot of fun! Still, these are two charismatic actors and it's fun to watch them work. (Do you suppose Pitt had something to say about the slo-mo shots of him framing the pivotal scene of carnage and destruction? -- 'Yes, people are hurt and there are explosions, but let's slow it down here so we can see that Brad is really emotionally distraught -- and his hair is blowing so nicely in the wind!') Extra features also include icons that appear and allow you to access trivia or comments while the film plays; a trailer; a list of CIA requirements; a three minute script-to-storyboard featurette; 5 deleted scenes; and 4 alternate scenes, including an alternate ending. These are fun to watch, but also should act as a warning that there was not a coherent vision of how this film should play out. In addition, all three commentators spend a fair bit of time explaining the plot -- not a good sign either! Though I have to say that I enjoyed the film more after listening to the commentary tracks, ultimately it was not worth the effort. Audio tracks are in English or French, and subtitles are English closed-captioning or Spanish.
Rating: 
Summary: Actually something of a spy story
Review: It's Nathan Muir's (Redford) last day at the CIA, and his former protege, Tom Bishop (Pitt), has gotten himself caught by the Chinese trying to break someone out of prison. So begins this interesting movie that goes through the history of Muir teaching Bishop the "rules" of how to live through a career running operations at the CIA. Unlike the typical "spy flick," this one doesn't involve Muir fighting off a succession of sexy chicks in order to triumph over some chortling villain. He never leaves the office until the very end. It is entirely entertaining to watch Muir explain his "rules," only to, on his last day, break them, one by one. Even more entertaining, in a rewatch, is to try to figure out just how many times he speaks bald-faced lies, and, better still, how often the people lied to choose to accept the lies, even when they know better. There are numerous occasions where his rescue attempt could have unravelled if someone found it in their interests to poke holes in his lies. It's a bit of a period piece; Muir is one of the bloody-handed "operational guys" from the days when the CIA was pretty clear about their need to act on the world stage. His successors are nowhere near as clearly bloody-minded, as the CIA has since moved into more of an "analytical" model. Of course, a Bishop, dead in a Chinese prison, is as dead whichever group leaves him to die... Also interesting is that Muir presents a pretty strong apologia for doing bloody deeds. His character believes that, nasty or not, they are doing needful things. It is by no means clear that the successors have any better ethics than he had. The stories about ex-wives keep popping out of the woodwork, supplying considerable humorous material. The REAL story emerges only at the very end, leaving no time to reflect on Muir's REAL character. He behaves throughout as one who well deserves to have wives leaving him, in droves. Reality is that all anyone sees, most of the time, is the facade that Muir wanted them to see, and it's worth reflecting on how different his internal reality is from the impressions you start with. At the end, the story is a pack of lies, with a few flashes, here and there, of Muir's REAL character. In a sense, he is a failure, since he only rarely gets to express his real beliefs. This is a little like the "About Schmidt" character, who, after years of hiding his true desires, completely fails to express the things he believes truly important. But unlike Schmidt, Muir does have enough courage to act on his convictions to actually make some difference.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Movie
Review: This is a very suspenseful movie, despite the times where the viewer is quite capable of predicting what will happen in the following scene. The storyline is interesting, and the reconstruction of war torn lebanon, is a quite accurate depiction of what the atmosphere was like during that period of civil unrest. Nevertheless, there was one flaw in one of the scenes. The scene where Robert Redford, Brad Pitt, and his lady friend are in a bar. The music playing in the background, an arabic song, Nour El Shams, is a contemporary song, yet for some odd reason, it seems to have been played in a time, which was way back when. This song didn't even exist, neither did the singer sing, so why was it being played? Who knows?! Nonetheless, a great movie that is enjoyable to watch.
Rating:
Summary: Better Than Your Average
Review: In general, "Spy Game" is a pretty standard Hollywood espionage flick. The plot is improbable, the dialogue a little overdetermined, many of the characters [typical]. Yet, despite its faults, I find it to be quite a bit better than the average spy flick. The set-up in itself is interesting: Robert Redford's character becomes something of a spy within the CIA; the line between good guy and bad guy is not so easily drawn here. The script is merely serviceable, but the film creates an adrenaline-soaked atmosphere through its jumpy camera-work and unexpected ... twists. Unlike most action movies, it gives you something to think about, a ... situation to consider and question. Plus, how many big Hollywood flicks have a juicy, sly Charlotte Rampling cameo? That in itself deserves credit.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best depictions of espionage ever...
Review: Spy Game was a superb movie that will keep you guessing until the end. With the intrigue and the wonderful plot of going backwards showed the two worst places the United States has involved itself in, Beirut and Vietnam. The soundtrack to this movie also keeps the viewer on edge with its combination of fast paced action music and some music from the area, for example stringed intruments with China and deep wood instruments for beirut. The casting was also superb not only with Pitt and Redford but the CIA executives along with other minor characters was very well performed. This movie is just a plain great movie that everyone should watch. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes the James Bond series, Tom Clancy movies, and any movie about war.
Rating:
Summary: Trumps similar CIA hotshot/mentor tales
Review: We went to a double feature, ostensibly to see David Mamet's 'Heist' and stuck around for 'Spy Game.' This Redford/Pitt thriller was the far better movie. It really grabs you right from the beginning and never lets up. 'The Recruit,' a 2003 release starring Al Pacino and Colin Farrell, tries to mine the same vein of hotshot CIA recruit with wizened mentor. Again, 'Spy Game' is the far better movie. Two things worth pointing out: 1) The depiction of 1980s-era war-torn Beirut was spectacular. The only setting in recent memory that ranks with it is Ridley Scott's depiction of Mogadishu in "Black Hawk Down." 2) Redford is fabulous here as a guy pulling all the levers and working every back channel he can in Langley. God knows if it was realistic, but it sure felt a lot more believable than the CIA environment depicted in 'The Recruit'. Definitely worth your time to check out 'Spy Game'.
Rating:
Summary: Well worth your money
Review: Spy Game kept me glued to the set from start to finish. The movie was fast paced and didn't stay stuck in one place for too long, starting in China, and moving through South Vietnam, East Berlin, and civil-war torn Beirut, all the while making periodic pitstops back at Langley, VA. Seasoned CIA operative Redford uses his field experience against present-day supertechnology to ruse his overconfident and underestimating superiors in order to save his friend/co-agent from Chinese execution. The bulk of the movie takes us through their missions together, illustrating the ethics, trials, and blowback of counterintelligence work. Though I'm positive only the tip of the iceberg is adequately covered in reflecting the ethical downside of espionage, the movie (and Redford) do a good job of justifying such policies as the "lesser evil". After a mission in East Berlin goes awry, ending in the assumed death of a traitorous contact, Pitt plays the role of a naive, hesitant public with excellence. Reflecting their abandonment of his German contact Schmidt, Pitt argues, "Don't tell me it's for the greater good!" Redford shoots back, "That's exactly what it's for". As Pitt does his job reluctantly, all the while intentionally ignoring blatant truths (like his German contact was probably a Soviet spy, or that his British girlfriend was a radical, Hizballah-affiliated terrorist), Redford nails the necessary role of the in-your-face nasty truth about the world we live in, a reality that Pitt and many others simply cannot stomach. Two things I didn't like, which explains only a four star rating... 1) It's doubtful that any CIA agent is either so stupid or so blinded by puppydog love that he'd attempt a highly improbable prison rescue (in China, of all places) for a woman he'd been dating for a month...over a decade ago. And had he miraculously succeeded, how would his superiors handle the news of him executing an uncleared mission into a hostile country to rescue a known terrorist with ties to radical Shi'ite extremists? How would that go over with our closest ally Britian, knowing a CIA agent risked life, limb, and world war to rescue a British terrorist? How would Americans feel if news surfaced of an MI6 agent breaking into a Jordanian prison to free an al-Qaeda terrorist? I'm sorry, but I felt absolutely no pity whatsoever for that woman's plight, nor did I buy her self-righteous "apology" to Pitt about the consequences of her terrorism. I would've been happy to let her rot in the bowels of that prison forever, if no other reason than to let her realize how opponents of her precious Hizballah-supporting Iranian dictators feel. Also, what happens to the Chinese agents posing as doctors that help Pitt? Are they left in the prison? 2) While I support Redford's decision to help his fellow agent escape the prison, what the movie doesn't reveal is that once it became clear to the CIA exactly what happened, Redford would not be driving merrily off the compound and into retirement. He'd be arrested immediately and charged with dozens of felonies, ranging from compromising classified material to fraudulently ordering a military strike on hostile foreign soil. Overall though, great movie with some serious lessons that more than a few people today need to learn.
Rating:
Summary: Redford plays the master and Pitt plays the student
Review: While listening to the director's commentary on the deleted scenes I discovered that "Spy Game" could have been even more complicated than the movie I just watched. The hook comes before the title as Tom Bishop (Brad Pitt) almost succeeds in getting Elizabeth Hadley (Catherine McCormack) out of a Chinese prison in 1991. Of course, we do not know who either of these characters are at this point in the film, but rest assured that Nathan Muir (Robert Redford) will explain everything to us in his own good time. Just to make thing even more interesting, this is Muir's last day at the C.I.A. and to top it off, he is "old school," which means he is going to spend the day butting heads with superiors. We quickly learn that Bishop, who is going to be executed by the Chinese in 24 hours, was recruited by Muir. However, because Bishop did this operation as a rogue and there is a big economic summit with the Chinese coming up, the C.I.A. has no interest in saving his hide. This means that Muir is going to have to save his protégée and do it without leaving the C.I.A. building. The story of Bishop's recruitment and his training by Muir is juxtaposed with Muir's efforts to find out what is going on and doing something about it. Fortunately Muir has a faithful and competent secretary (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) and the fact that nobody in the building is a field agent (i.e., they are collectively blithering idiots), which means it is really not a fair battle of wits. The flashbacks on Redford training Pitt (sometimes it is hard to remember these guys are playing characters) are interesting, but sketchy, as are the missions out in the field. Muir lays down the lay for Bishop, which includes such gems as "Don't EVER risk your life for an asset. If it comes down to you or them... send flowers." Of course, Elizabeth Hadley turns out to be just such an asset and ends up coming between the two men. One of Muir's other laws is that if Bishop goes "off reservation" he will not come and get him. Muir says this with such force and emphasis that we know he is going to be a pushover when push comes to shove. "Spy Game" is basically the triumph of style over substance, when the message is conveyed more by jump cuts and other fancy editing tricks than by dialogue and characterization. In fact, for the most part Redford and Pitt have their best moments when all they have to do is look good and thoughtful (not necessarily in that order), something at which they both excel. Michael Frost Beckner's screenplay gives Redford a few lines that are real mouthfuls, but whether it is acting or spy craft we are talking about a seasoned pro here. The tagline for this movie is that "It's not how you play the game. It's how the game plays you" and the same logic applies to this film. Ultimately, at the heart of this movie are the relationships between the three characters. Unfortunately, we are told rather than shown the depth of those relationships, which makes the final results rather shallow.
Rating:
Summary: Twisty!
Review: I like this movie. It's a story of a teacher-student relationship that takes place over a period of years in nasty places, between a veteran CIA agent and a kid he recruits. It's told through flashbacks. Oddly enough, although the flashbacks cover 20 years or more, neither character looks any younger or older in any of the scenes... that tripped me out. There's no explanation for it, the movie's just that way. Oh well. Anyways, there's a problem and this operative is in trouble, and the agency is asking the older dude for information about him... I love the ending. It's a very clever movie.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding movie, very rich and full of qualities
Review: This movie is a perfect example of entertainment at its best. Nothing lacks: superb actors, good story, action, thrill, suspense, dialogues, magnificient pictures, exceptional camera work, great focus, good variety and choice of locations, good soundtrack, happy end with a morale... this movie was just made in quality. It's really close to perfection at its best.
Also, contrary to some other movies where the course of the story may be difficult to follow, in this one, the story unfolds in a very clear, pleasant way (even though the scenario is not simple, dealing with several places in time and space).
What I liked very much, infact, is the story itself, the gentlemanship of Nathan, who is so devoted to save his ex-partner Tom; he manages to save Tom by himself at his own risks, as the CIA stops for fear of political incidents.
So this movie is not only well filmed, it is also showing some of the good sides of human nature, which definitely adds to the pleasure.
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