Mini Review: Spy Game

I’ve got to admit, I disagree with the majority on this one, but we’ll get to that, Spy Game was released in 2001 and starred Robert Redford and Brad Pitt. It made some money, not much, only $143m on a colossal (for this kind of movie) $115m budget. Bearing in mind that theatres take a cut of that and any promotional expenditure, I’d be surprised if this wasn’t a loss for the production companies.

The movie met with reasonably positive reception, a 66% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, a 7/10 on IMDb and 63% on MetaCritic but as my first statement told you, I’m not going to be one of those people. Why not, well, let’s take a look?

So, the movie starts with Tom Bishop (played by Brad Pitt) attempting to use a medical vaccination truck as a cover to break out one of the prisoners. He made the idiotic mistake of giving one of the prisoners gum, which the guards noticed and rumbled his scheme, I think this calls for another pound in the jar.

On his last day before retirement, CIA officer Nathan Muir (Robert Redford) is called into the high offices to answer some questions about Tom and his history. They’re looking for an angle to hang him out to dry to save relations with the Chinese government since there’s trade negotiations about to start there. Can Redford save his former apprentice from the hangman?

The answer is obviously yes, and we come to my first problem with the movie. There’s never any tension, ever. The majority of the story is told from the present about the past, meaning you know both Nathan and Tom are getting out of every situation alive. The first time we find out about Tom’s girlfriend, we find out she’s imprisoned, so when watching the entire story you know where her character is going to end up. And of course you know that tensions about morality will eventually drive a wedge between the two, that’s hammered in very early on in the movie.

And of course they won’t give the movie the sad ending of having Tom die and will instead go for the sad ending of major international incident between the US and China. In trying not to vilify either side of this debate, they’ve ended making it so there’s no ending that could come out that could be fully satisfying. In fact, this is arguably the worse of the 2 endings for most people involved.

Then we come to characters and if there’s a likeable character amongst this lot… I suppose there’s the black secretary, she was likeable… but she was only a minor character. Yeah, neither Tom nor Nathan are fully likable characters. Nathan clearly has toed the line between morals so often he can barely see the line any more. He’s happy to let assets die or risk major military escalation for the sake of killing a target and has major trust issues. Sure, you could argue his actions in the present are a redemption arc of sorts for him but see my previous point about how this would undoubtedly cause an international incident.

Then we come to Tom, and I’ll give them this, they at least try to make him the more likable of the two, he does question morality, he does try and defy Tom but more often than not he’s painted in the wrong for it. That and his stupidity with this op makes him just as irredeemable in my eyes

Of course, his girlfriend is partially responsible for a bombing at a Chinese embassy so I can’t really like her either. And all the bureaucrats in the meeting are deliberately assholes, even if their arguments put them more in the right. So, who the hell am I supposed to side with here?

Now, I’m guessing the greatest defence for this is ‘it’s more realistic’ and yes, you could probably make that argument. Spy work is likely more about making friends than fighting every other scene ala James Bond. The problem is realism is not something I look for in a movie. If you want realism, the news is full of it, and it’s depressing. I want escapism.

And before you throw everything I’ve ever said back at me there’s a difference between realistic and grounded in reality. A grounded in reality show may still require suspension of disbelief but if must follow basic logic as well as any rules it establishes itself. It’s not that it’s grounded that I dislike, I dislike the fact that everyone is out to get everyone else, everyone has a side-motive and will betray you at a drop of a hat. I dislike that it’s a depressing view of the world around us.

But by far the biggest problem with the movie is that it’s boring. Imagine the Phantom Menace but take out the awful dialogue and racism for a plus, but then take out all the creativity and action, and replace it with more talking scenes. That is essentially what Spy Game is. It’s hard to tell exactly what all that money was spent on, likely location shooting.

But there are only 2 major action scenes in the movie and they’re guys shooting at each other which means it’s not that entertaining to watch. The first action scene where it’s Tom and another guy vs a helicopter of unknown origin is the better of the two. But it still fails since we don’t know where the helicopter came from and it contributes little to the overall plot. The second action scene definitely contributes to the plot, as the film’s climax, but it’s generic military soldiers vs generic prison guards, it’s not very exciting.

This movie fails on most levels for me and honestly I can’t recommend it, so why not a full rage review? Mostly it’s down to the fact that whilst there are failings in multiple areas, it’s not laden with plot-holes or unbearable to watch. It does not enrage me watching, if anything it just bores me.

Rating 35/100

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Images/clips used in this review are from Spy Game and belong to their respective owners. All images in this review are subject to fair use