I do enjoy a good action film with a CIA plot, however this film was filled with far too many disappointing performances. Most noticeably was the irritating musical score which I am sure was intended to keep us in suspense. Rather than keep me in suspense, I found the music's constant rise in volume the movies failed attempt to try and keep the audiences' interest from waning. Unfortunately it didn't work.
I am a big fan of Richard Gere's body of work and again I was very disappointed in his performance. "Richard, what were you thinking?"
Now let's talk about the plot. There is a Russian assassin known to the CIA by the name "Cassius". Two CIA agents the retired Paul Shepherdson (Richard Gere) who is un-retired by his former boss Tom Highland, (Martin Sheen), and a rookie CIA agent who has never been in the field Ben Geary (Topher Grace). Cassius is suspected to be dead, but when a U.S. senator is murdered the CIA believes the murder was committed by the phantom Russian assassin Cassius as evidenced by his trademark murder style of slashing the neck.
Ben Geary the rookie CIA agent wrote his thesis on Cassius and explains to his veteran partner Shepherdson that he knows everything there is to know about Cassius and the murder trademark of the senator's slashed throat is the work of Cassius, thus the two agents are assigned to find Cassius and eliminate him. Well.... this sounds like a reasonable plot to work with and one would think the next 90 minutes of action and suspense should be interesting. Unfortunately, not.
I watched the movie with Mrs. Shullivan and we both kept looking at each other and questioning the sequence of events and the plausibility of a veteran CIA agent as Shepherdson (Gere) being such a terrible shot with a gun that he cannot shoot to kill a Russian spy who is only 15 to 20 feet in front of him. Also, for a rookie CIA agent Geary (Topher Grace) who wrote his thesis on the Russian spy Cassius, and is supposedly a genius on Cassius's Modus Operandi why he couldn't spot his new partner Shepherdson, in historical pictures of previous murder scenes in not one, not two, not three. but NUMEROUS murder scenes that the CIA investigated previously but were unsolved? Please!!!!
It is just one of those movies that you expect the story line and actors to be a lot more believable, and the musical score not to be the driver trying to entice a sense of urgency and endangerment.
This is not a movie with any value and I would compare it to the feeling you get with buying a knock off product of a name brand product. You get what you pay for, and I am sure Topher Grace's salary in his next feature film will be commensurate with his (lack of) box office draw for The Double. Save your money folks.
I am a big fan of Richard Gere's body of work and again I was very disappointed in his performance. "Richard, what were you thinking?"
Now let's talk about the plot. There is a Russian assassin known to the CIA by the name "Cassius". Two CIA agents the retired Paul Shepherdson (Richard Gere) who is un-retired by his former boss Tom Highland, (Martin Sheen), and a rookie CIA agent who has never been in the field Ben Geary (Topher Grace). Cassius is suspected to be dead, but when a U.S. senator is murdered the CIA believes the murder was committed by the phantom Russian assassin Cassius as evidenced by his trademark murder style of slashing the neck.
Ben Geary the rookie CIA agent wrote his thesis on Cassius and explains to his veteran partner Shepherdson that he knows everything there is to know about Cassius and the murder trademark of the senator's slashed throat is the work of Cassius, thus the two agents are assigned to find Cassius and eliminate him. Well.... this sounds like a reasonable plot to work with and one would think the next 90 minutes of action and suspense should be interesting. Unfortunately, not.
I watched the movie with Mrs. Shullivan and we both kept looking at each other and questioning the sequence of events and the plausibility of a veteran CIA agent as Shepherdson (Gere) being such a terrible shot with a gun that he cannot shoot to kill a Russian spy who is only 15 to 20 feet in front of him. Also, for a rookie CIA agent Geary (Topher Grace) who wrote his thesis on the Russian spy Cassius, and is supposedly a genius on Cassius's Modus Operandi why he couldn't spot his new partner Shepherdson, in historical pictures of previous murder scenes in not one, not two, not three. but NUMEROUS murder scenes that the CIA investigated previously but were unsolved? Please!!!!
It is just one of those movies that you expect the story line and actors to be a lot more believable, and the musical score not to be the driver trying to entice a sense of urgency and endangerment.
This is not a movie with any value and I would compare it to the feeling you get with buying a knock off product of a name brand product. You get what you pay for, and I am sure Topher Grace's salary in his next feature film will be commensurate with his (lack of) box office draw for The Double. Save your money folks.