Tag Archives: Spy

The Union – Movie Review

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TL;DR – While it is a perfectly okay spy film, all it does is remind me of better films.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid for the Netflix service that viewed this film.

Shooting targets.

The Union Review –

Today, we look at a film that should have everything going for it. Big names to anchor the proceedings, big action scenes, car chases, hopping across the world. Everything that you would want from a Spy Film. However, while watching it, I just kept thinking the whole time that I have seen this done better elsewhere.  

So, to set the scene, Agent Hall (Halle Berry) is working on what should have been a simple extraction of an asset from a hotel Trieste. However, just as they are about to leave, things start falling apart as the team is picked off one by one. Soon, all but Hall are dead, and the hard drive is taken. Meanwhile, in New Jersey, Mike McKenna (Mark Wahlberg) is living his life, working on bridges, being a good friend, and living paycheck to paycheck. When Roxanne Hall, his old high school flame, walks into the same bar. It is time to reconnect, time to get knocked out, and time to get kidnapped by the not-CIA spy agency, The Union. Because they need skills, only Mike has: a nobody with no history.

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Mr. & Mrs. Smith: Season 1 – TV Review

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TL;DR – This fascinatingly compelling series that took the essence of the film and then turned everything up to eleven while providing a slightly more plausible scenario.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Amazon Prime service that viewed this series.

End Credit Scene – Infidelity & A Breakup have mid-credit scenes.

Donald Glover & Maya Erskine

Mr. & Mrs. Smith Review –

If you are of my age, then you know about the cultural moment that was Mr. & Mrs. Smith even if you never watched the film. I did get to watch the movie at the time, and it was funny, entertaining, and incredibly hot. However, that was such a moment in pop culture history that, understandably, no one has attempted to take another stab at it before now. But after a troubled production, can the show reach the heights of where it came from? I would say yes. 

So to set the scene, we open in a small house in the middle of nowhere. It is here where John Smith (Alexander Skarsgard) and Jane Smith (Eiza Gonzalez Reyna) are enjoying a glass of wine until an unannounced car arrives and kills the both of them. Later, we see two anonymous people going through the application process to join an independent spy agency. This application process is about finding a compatible partner as well as seeing if they are a good fit for the agency. But as John (Donald Glover) and Jane (Maya Erskine) Smith settle into their new brownstone in New York, they soon discover just how intense this job can be. We will be looking at the season as a whole from here, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.

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Argylle – Movie Review

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TL;DR – A film that makes one of the worst mistakes it can: constantly remind you of better films you could be watching.

Rating: 1.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid to watch this film

Agent Argylle is captured.

Argylle Review –

Today is a bit of an awkward review because I am exploring a work from people both in front of and behind the camera who I have deeply loved before. However, today, I am looking at a film that fails at almost every single step. It failed so badly that I had moved from frustration to disappointment, to wholly checked out by the time I rolled my eyes at the mid-credit scene. With that in mind, we will explore just what went wrong because, like many things, it was not just one road bump that led to this.

So to set the scene, we open with Agent Argylle (Henry Cavill) infiltrating the lair of Lagrange (Dua Lipa) and initiating a pretty intense dance-off. However, Lagrange knew he was coming and what he looked like because someone in his organisation was a mole. In fact, it could be one of his teammates, Keira (Ariana DeBose) or Wyatt (John Cena). However, just as the big reveal happens, we discover that this story is not real. It is a novel written by noted author Elly Conway (Bryce Dallas Howard), whose Argylle series of spy novels are best sellers. However, as Elly takes a train ride with her cat Alfie (Chip) to her mother Ruth (Catherine O’Hara), she is interrupted by the unkempt Aidan Wilde (Sam Rockwell), who might be leading her into a world she wrote about in fiction, that just might be real.

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Role Play – Movie Review

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TL;DR – There are some moments when the film shines. However, there is a lot of space in between those moments filled with missed opportunities.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid for the Amazon Prime service that viewed this film.  

Role Play Review –

In the Spy and Spy-adjacent world, one of the core narratives that we see is when a spy’s family does not know what they do for a day job. The most famous is probably True Lies, but we see a lot of them moving from the more comical to the more serious, depending on the vibe that they want. That is if you can choose a vibe.  

So to set the scene, on the surface, the Brackett family is your perfectly normal middle-American suburban unit. The father, Dave (David Oyelowo), is an architect. They have two wonderful kids, Caroline (Lucia Aliu) & Wyatt (Regan Bryan-Gudgeon), and oh, by the way, when Emma (Kaley Cuoco) says she is going out of town to work cooperate management, she actually is a very successful assassin. Emma wants to have some time at home, but her handler, Raj (Rudi Dharmalingam), wants her back out in the field. After Emma forgets their anniversary, they decide to have a fun night out where they pretend to be two strangers meeting in a bar. One long ride stuck in the tunnel and the poor advances of Bob (Bill Nighy), and it looks like the night might be a bit of a mess. It would be the wrong time for someone’s cover to get blown.   

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NCIS: Sydney – Blonde Ambition & Full Season 1 – TV Review

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TL;DR – They may have saved the best for last with a banger of a season finale.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Paramount+ service that viewed this series.

The surf off Sydney.

Well, we have come to the end of the first season of NCIS: Sydney. It has been an odd season, with moments of highs and also a lot of frustrations. However, things started to coalesce towards the end, and I wondered if the show could stick the landing.   

So to set the scene, we open at a kids birthday party where a deeply bad clown is performing for the kids, but things turn sinister when the clown steals the birthday boy. Meanwhile, they have the secretive woman Anna (Georgina Haig) they captured in Bunker Down, who has been a thorn in everyone’s side since Gone Fission. The team is wondering why Anna feels so secure even though she is in handcuffs and locked to a desk when the call comes in that the child that was stolen was JD’s (Todd Lasance). We will be looking at the episode and season as a whole from here, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.    

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Monarch: Legacy of Monsters – The Way Out – TV Review

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TL;DR – This is the first week where we have an almost restrained jump around the timeline.  

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Apple TV+ service that viewed this series.

Monarch holding facility in Alaska.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Review –

It has been a couple of good years for Godzilla, and this year has been no exception. But coming off the hot heals of the delightful Godzilla Minus One, we dive back into the world of intrigue and more than a bit of family dysfunction.

So to set the scene, at the end of Parallels and Interiors, Cate Randa (Anna Sawai), Kentaro Randa (Ren Watabe), May (Kiersey Clemons), and an old Lee Shaw (Kurt Russell) got rescued by the skin of their teeth just before they became titan food, or just succumb to the Alaskan Cold. The only issue is that their rescuers were Monarch who imprisoned them. Deputy Director Natalia Verdugo (Mirelly Taylor) and Duvall (Elisa Lasowski) wonder just what to do with the group and decide to let them go with a long leach to see what they dig up. Well, one quick trip from Nome, Alaska, to the ruins of San Fransisco because if their father had one secret office, he might have a second. We will be looking at the episode as a whole from here, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead. 

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Spy Kids: Armageddon – Movie Review

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TL;DR – While it does not quite hit the heights of the original, it was still a fun time.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid for the Netflix service that viewed this film.

Map Room over lava.

Spy Kids: Armageddon Review –

All the way back in 2001, there was this oddly delightful film full of delight and odd clay hand monster abominations. Spy Kids was this strange series that was always on the cutting edge. I think I remember a smell scratch and sniff one time, and 3D before 3D, 3D’d. But it is also one of those series you don’t feel need a reboot. With that in mind, can they bring this franchise into the 21st century, or will it feel like a relic of a time past?

So to set the scene, the Torrez-Tango’s are a perfectly normal family bar for some overly dramatic tech lockdowns. Tony Torrez-Tango (Connor Esterson) likes to play the scoundrel using his tricks and cheats, while Patty Torrez-Tango (Everly Carganilla) likes to play fair with integrity. But little do they know that their parents, Nora (Gina Rodriguez) and Terrence (Zachary Levi), are spies. But when some malicious code is hidden in the video game, Hyskor steals the secret Armageddon Code. Well, it just might be the kids that come to the rescue.    

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Kandahar – Movie Review

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TL;DR – It is a solid action film that is, unfortunately, not really sure what it wants to say.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid for the Amazon Prime service that viewed this film.

Fighters line up with guns.

Kandahar Review –

Some artists get known for periods in their career. Picasso had his Blue Period,  Monet had his Water Lilies, and James Cameron has his Avatar saga. But one new era that I have been particularly interested in is Gerard Butler’s one-word action films. So far, we have gotten Geostorm, Greenland, and Plane. Today, we look at the next entry with a spy mission that goes very wrong.   

So to set the scene, we open in Qom, Iran, where a team works on a telecommunications substation under heavy armed guard. But this is a secret CIA project led by Tom Harris (Gerard Butler) to monitor and disrupt Iran’s nuclear program. However, this gets leaked to a journalist, Luna Cujai (Nina Toussaint-White), from someone in the Pentagon. Tom is stuck in Herat, Afghanistan when the news is released. In Herat, the Taliban have taken over, and foreign spies from Pakistan, Iran, India, China, Pakistan, ISIS, and more roam the streets. There are no good options, but he needs to escape before he is publicly executed, and the only escape is MI6 black Ops pick up in Kandahar that will be on the ground for one minute in 30 hours.   

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Operation Fortune: Ruse de guerre – Movie Review

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TL;DR – It never reaches the heights it is aiming for, but it is deeply entertaining in parts.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid for the Amazon Prime service that viewed this film.

A car chase.

Operation Fortune: Ruse de guerre Review –

I love spy films. I like it when they play them seriously and when they are more whimsical. When it comes to Guy Ritchie, you could get either or both. Add a cast you know can deliver and even a comeback or two, and you have a premise I want to see.

So to set the scene, it is a lovely Sunday morning when Nathan (Cary Elwes) is summoned to the intelligence headquarters in London by Knighton (Eddie Marsan). For you see, something just got robbed from a facility in Odessa. What no one knows, but the wrong people are interested in it, so that makes it a top target. Knowing traditional intelligence apparatuses would be too slow, they bring in the team that you need for cases like this, led by Orson Fortune (Jason Statham), who is now rudely having his Moroccan holiday interrupted, and worse, they will need the famous movie star Danny Francesco (Josh Hartnett) to pull it off.

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Heart of Stone – Movie Review

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TL;DR – A shallow experience that never finds its feet.

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid for the Netflix service that viewed this film.

Stone walks across sand dunes.

Heart of Stone Review –

We have seen many different films attempt to capture the allure that James Bond has over the spy genre. In fact, in the last year, streaming services alone have tried Citadel, Ghosted, and The Gray Man, to name but a few. But all of them have fallen flat. However, there always is a chance that the next attempt will be the one to land, and this is what we are looking at today.

So to set the scene, it is the Italian Alps and Rachel Stone (Gal Gadot) and her MI6 team are targeting Europe’s biggest arms dealer. Stone is just a tech assist, but this mission forces her into the field when she needs to hack a phone to let Parker (Gal Gadot) and Yang (Jing Lusi) deeper into the complex. However, when things go to pot, we discover that Stone is no lowly tech analyst and is not just playing for MI6. She works for Charter, a clandestine spy organisation that works above national borders. But who watches the watchers?   

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