COLUMN: ‘Spy Game’ provides entertainment even though it’s a flashback movie
I was born in 1973, OK, stop subtracting to see just how old I am and focus. Being born in 1973 means that I wore red, plaid, bell-bottom pants as a kid, I watched a lot of The Electric Company and VCR’s were things that only rich people had.
I guess it shouldn’t come to any surprise to me that the same time African-American pro athletes are sporting more and more afros, the pants my sister-in-law bought for my five-year-old daughter flare out at the bottom, the inside of them covered with fur and movies are purposely taking on a grainy, ’70s film look.
Spy Game, the new movie by director Tony Scott (Enemy of the State, Crimson Tide) is one of the latest movies to use a new style of movie making that feels raw and over the top, while still maintaining its cool. These movies will pause mid-movement and then speed back up at a rapid rate to catch up with themselves. They have brash soundtracks and overly-exaggerated wardrobes.
Probably the first big film of this type was Pulp Fiction, a violent, ultra-character driven crime drama that was so different from the mainstream movie making of the time, that it took movie watchers by storm. The next film that comes to mind is Snatch, another Brad Pitt movie that had more characters than the average Disney on Ice show and has a better story than 98 percent of all movies released by Hollywood each year. Recently, both Training Day and Heist have taken the artistically raw road with rich characters, complicated stories and strategically chosen dialogue to back them up.
A large portion of movies that have adapted to this style of film making are about stealing money, jewels or gold, but in Spy Game the commodity on the line are secrets and people.
In the film, Robert Redford (The Last Castle, The Horse Whisperer) plays a retiring Central Intelligence Agent on his last day of work that finds out his protégé, played by Brad Pitt (The Mexican, and the upcoming Ocean’s Eleven) has wound up in a Chinese prison with no hope of being rescued by the CIA.
Redford’s performance was solid, but not remarkable on any level. Pitt’s performance was much better.
The impressive portions of the film were the sets and especially the effort and detail Scott put into matching the older television footage with the age the story took place. I never doubted the events I was watching weren’t happening. Simply put, this movie is put together very well.
Other characters in the movie were played by Catherine McCormack (The Tailor of Panama) and Marianne Jean-Baptiste (The Cell).
The overall plot was pretty involved, but enjoyable. It is a spy flick driven more by its characters than by the gadgets they use, which is refreshing to watch and even more enjoyable to see played out.
GRADE: B+