walion This is quite a movie, I'd say. A movie that yanks you in the depths of the very spy games and the insides of CIA. A movie that grips you and refuses to let you go until the final whistle. 126 minutes of pure exultation and suspense that holds you at the edge of your seat, mingled with top-notch screenplay from the director of Top Gun - Tony Scott.This is the story of a retiring CIA agent Nathan Muir (The marvelous Robert Redford), who's trying to free his old friend Tom Bishop (The flamboyant Brad Pitt) from a Chinese prison, which he trained to become an infallible spy. When Nathan finds out that Tom is captured and tortured in China for espionage, he tries to work ways out to get him out of there alive. That's where the spy game begins.The CIA is trying to hide from the world that they have a captured spy in Chinese territory and they put no efforts to get him back, but exactly the opposite, they want him killed. Nathan's cunning mind and the contacts that he's made throughout the years will eventually help him get closer to saving his friend.The movie is very well-paced, you're brain is forced to work all through the movie in order to realize what's really happening, because of the fast changing scenarios. It's a real well-made movie about one man standing up to his friend and his own morals against the system that crushes everyone in its path.This is a movie plentiful of ravishing A-one actors, unified with a rigorous script with all its amazing details. A spy movie that everyone should watch.

Joropukki I'd missed the Spy Game until it came on cable tonight.This is probably Tony Scott at his best, a twisted tale on the meaning of silent understanding of organizations and the complexity of the modern world. If only Tony had been there to direct Moses.Redford can carry a movie like few others and I was happy to see Brad Pitt put to good use, too. The scenes in Vietnam, East Germany and Beirut were unexceptionally great, too.There was remarkably little sentimentality or the all-too-common romantic add-ons in the story. An almost-British cynicism did a favor for the movie. Why I only give eight points is because of the ending. The trump card is a bit too thick, but still quite passable. I was happier with the storyline than the finale, but the latter is good enough.

simondclinch-1 Frankly, the 7.0 average rating is a gross annoyance, because 7.1 is the minimum for IMDb to classify it as "liked". So I only just got around to seeing it and only because I couldn't find anything I hadn't seen in the genre with a higher rating.Fact is that this is one of the best spy films I have seen. It keeps your attention from the get-go. Well worth seeing.Also it has a rich mix of intrigue, action, politics, spy-technicality, you name it!Could it be that the genre as a whole is just too complicated for the average reviewer? Possibly looking at some of the other ratings for top spy films!

fung0 Spy Game is almost a good movie. Unfortunately, it fails to pay off on any of its worthwhile ambitions.At first, it seems like some sort of inside look at the 'spy game.' Brad Pitt's character is going to learn something about life and morality, as in a LeCarre thriller. Pitt does eventually make a big realization, but it's abrupt, with very little psychological lead-up. And the subsequent evolution of the story is barely sketched in. Early on, Pitt looks like one type of character. Later, we're told he's another type. The only thing missing is the good stuff in between.Meanwhile, as we see what Redford's character is up to, we're tempted to think this may be some sort of cat-and-mouse intellectual exercise, reminiscent of the brilliant Hopscotch. But Redford's 'cleverness' just isn't all that clever, or even interesting. He reads the back of a memo. He uses the phone in a neighbouring office. He steals a key card. Big deal. Not only are they banal, most of these events (such as his final exit from the film) are completely implausible. Unless you put your brain on 'Park,' you're constantly asking yourself "But wouldn't they see that?" "Couldn't the world's biggest spy organization just send some people to stop him?" "Aren't there procedures that anticipate this sort of simple trick?"And again, as with Pitt, we are left totally in the dark as far as Redford's ultimate change of character. Why does he act against all the weighty advice he gives Pitt early on in his training? We see that he's undergone some sort of transformation, but never given any insight into it. One minute, Redford is an unchanging brick of a character, a bastion of the amoral CIA philosophy. The next, he's a malicious prankster with an over-riding personal morality. This key transformation happens off-screen (like Pitt's), with no explanation. That's not clever, it's just annoying. If I wanted to write my own movie, I wouldn't be watching this one.Along the way, there are endless plot holes. The biggest of all being the basic framework of the story. Why is a committee of CIA top brass sitting around for two days, listening to Redford's reminiscences? Someone says it's to 'get something' on Pitt's character. That's not remotely plausible. We actually see a manufactured press item on the news, at one point, showing how easily the whole problem can be addressed, without listening to hours of Redford's banter, and without giving Redford hours to take action, as he's left to wander unsupervised through CIA headquarters.Spy Game isn't unpleasant to watch. It's nicely produced, with some genuinely interesting episodes. Unfortunately, those episodes fail to connect into a coherent whole. The Redford and Pitt characters are intriguing, but we never learn what makes them tick. They're ciphers at the end just as they were at the beginning.Watching Spy Game is like reading the outline of a movie. A good movie, to be sure. Maybe someone will make it someday.