Reviews

After seeing the trailer, I thought this might be worth watching. Nope. It was tedious, boring and lifeless. A good cast wasted with a tepid script and rather confusing story line.

This story of Robert Hanssen, arch spy embedded in the FBI has all the makings of a fine story but it is oddly unemotional and cold. It has a fine performance by the always excellent Chris. Cooper but he is still not able to breathe much life into this script. Hanssen's motives are unclear and the trap the FBI sets up seems to banal that it just doesn't make one give a hoot. Laura Linney is also in this film and she, too, is a fine actor. It could have been a contender but.

The climactic of the incredible raid on Entebbe was hijacked by the inclusion of a dance routine (while perhaps interesting in a dance festival) that took the air out of what could have been an exciting film. The actual raid was a mishmash of random shooting, dancing, more shooting, more dancing.. The acting was satisfactory, especially the always impressive Eddie Marsan playing Shimon Peres. I could have been much better and would have been without the dance nonsense.

Cannot, for the life of me, see why this would get any low ratings. Mark Addy and Stephen Graham are tremendous, the writing taut, the supporting acting way above par. Great storytelling, highly recommended.

Good film, a bit heavy on some technical banking terminology. Very nicely shot with fine acting. A minor point: the scene on the golf course..were there still operating golf courses in Holland during the war and why was the chap on the green using a putter from the 1980s?

This reminds me of a updated version of The Shield, with a rogue cop able to solve cases in a day or so. Rubbish dialogue, stupid story lines, mediocre acting. Lots of folks I like in this but they are wasted in this.

Someone must have thought this would be an interesting scenario for a spy film - a drunk professor from America pitted against a Soviet Grand Master. All this set in Warsaw during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. It makes zero sense and it is rather boring to watch someone intoxicated the whole time. Perhaps if the characters were written better, the plot was sensible and the acting was passable, I could have rated it higher. But alas, it is rubbish to its very shallow, silly soul.

Mark Wahlberg makes some terrific films - The Departed, for one. This, however is not one of those "terrific films". Improbable story, huge plot holes, ridiculous fight scenes ("I got a gun but I'm gonna toss it so we can have a punch up" nonsense). There are some very appealing characters, Iliza Shlesinger is fun as Wahlberg's on again, off again love interest, Alan Arkin's character is hilarious and Winston Duke as Hawk is underplayed (perhaps too underplayed) but still enjoyable. Wahlberg's tough guy is top notch but all these folks can't save this film from mediocrity. It is worth a couple of hours of mild diversion but not much to see there, folks, move on.

I was not expecting much. However, I was surprised that it was a pretty good film, considering the paucity of its budget. Generally the acting was good, particularity the lead, Leone Frisa. The low budget aspects (Russian becomes Normandy as the same location is used for both) are distracting but the story is compelling. It is a bit slow but stick with it and you may be surprised.

While I enjoyed the first 2 seasons very much and, for the most part, season 3, I find the characterization of LBJ to be rather shallow and not really representative of what Johnson was really like. He was sharp, astute, caring, tough. This shows him as a buffoon and he was never a buffoon, never. It's a stereotypical portrayal of a Texan. He was gruff, no doubt, but never like he is shown to be. But other than that, it has still been a well made series.

It started a bit slow - in fact I thought John Krasinski was not right for the part of Jack Ryan. But as the show continued, I find he was fine the role and the story just zipped along, lots of action, with pretty smart writing and great locations. I have been a Wendell Pierce fan for a long time and I often found myself hollering "Bunk! Be careful, man!". Piece is very good as Greer and, like his role in the excellent "Treme", he just fills out the screen so well. Highly recommended.