Spy Game - Der finale Countdown

I made the mistake of only watching this film once the first time around. I did end up buying it, though I was never sure why. Then, years later, I got around to watching it again... and again... and again... While Spy Game is so fast-paced that it's difficult to keep up the first time around, I think that's what makes it such a great DVD.

There are performances in this movie that defy description. You almost get a sense that if you were to meet him in the street, you'd get someone named Nathan Muir playing the part of Robert Redford - the transformation is that complete. In several scenes, but especially the scene on the Berlin rooftop, Redford gives a performance that is unlike almost anything I've ever seen in cinema. It's that perfect. Brad Pitt also does an amazing job, but Redford steals the whole movie.

I had to re-watch Spy Game three times before I felt I got a complete understanding of everything going on. There is almost nothing given away for free in this movie - none of the standard Hollywood "shove-it-in-your-face-so-you're-sure-to-get-it" fare. Every decision, most plot points, and a lot of what would normally be called "meaningful looks" are written on Muir's face for a split second, then they're gone.

This is one of the few movies that's intellectually challenging to watch. It takes patience and a quick assessment of each scene to understand and keep up. None of the acting is over the top or explicit; most everything is controlled, subtle, and delicately handled.

All in all, Spy Game is an exceptional movie, IMO, to watch and in some ways to study.

Or is it? Maybe it is easier to ... play it, if you consider it a game? One thing is for sure, Tony Scott is a masterful player ... behind the camera. You can tell with this movie, how he likes to shoot movies and how he likes to create tension, even in a simple scene, where Redford is only holding a cup of coffee and going from one room to another ... insert, camera moves with him, towards him, cut little snippets in and make it seem like something urgent ... masterclass in shooting and editing I'd say.

But that is not all we have here. You also have two wonderful actors ... two people who surely admire each other and play off each other very well. Even if their characters may not agree on many things ... there is some level of respect even in the movie and their playing off each other.

The Spy Game is not something that can be seen lightly ... and something that plays with human life. Where certain scenarios are considered wins, even if a lot has been lost ... you'll know once you see this. I'm surprised I never had seen this before the other day ... but there is only so many movies one can watch, right?

That's my big takeaway for this film. It reminds me of good old-fashioned filmmaking where there was a good script, there were good actors and there was good videography. You just can't make them like this anymore. People who have seen the Sting with Robert Redford will feel a bit nostalgic watching this film. I also put the Mechanic in my title because it reminds me of when Jan-Michael Vincent and Charles Bronson made another fabulous film about spies and espionage.

Some people call this a spy film but I disagree, this is a film about two spies who have a deep respect for each other and know their craft well - or at least Mr Muir knows his craft so well that he fools even people he works for, anticipating their suspicions. It's about not leaving someone behind.

Redford is such a stand out actor, he's truly one of a kind. Many reviews mentioned that Redford and Pitt seem to work well together but what a lot of people don't know is that Redford actually hand-picked Brad Pitt and his first feature chatacter was in a Redford film called A River Runs Through It in 1992. Redford is quoted as saying that Pitt reminded him of himself and he had big plans for him. So one would assume they are probably friends, which probably also answers the question someone else had which is why Pitt did not choose to star in the Bourne identity instead of Spy Game - he already had a successful working relationship with Redford. Furthermore Pitt did not need to do the Bourne identity, he had already done Oceans 11 and Ocean's 12 along with a myriad of other incredibly High grossing films, much higher grossing than those that Matt Damon did in a similar time period.

As for people saying that the plot was confusing or poorly written, I disagree on that point as well. Because it has a beginning, it has a middle and it has an ending. The film starts out showing us how Pitt's character gets thrown into prison in a foreign country; the middle part is kind of shown along with the present activities of Muir setting up Tom's rescue while at the same time telling how he and Tom met and worked together in the past. And all this while the audience knows that Muir is planning to rescue Tom but we don't know how until really the final moments of the film, which is the sting more or less. The inserted memories were masterfully done.

For anyone who watches AGT and wonders how those illusionists trick the panel into saying certain numbers and drawing certain pictures, you will learn a lot by watching this film because those psychological mind games of training your audience of what to chose and what to see are very real and they did, in fact, start in the spy arena.

Nail-biting and exciting movie about terrorism , spies and geopolitical issues . The film deals with a spy chief called Nathan Muir (Robert Redford) who's on the verge of retirement from the Central Intelligence Agency. Then the veteran spy learns that his one-time protege Tom Bishop (Brad Pitt) , a CIA operative serving in various countries , has been incarcerated. Tom has gone rogue and been taken prisoner after attempting to smuggle a prisoner out of China . Although Muir and Bishop had once been close friends , sharing long periods of thrilling adventures from Vietnam , Berlin , to Beirut where Muir schemed a plot to chase a mastermind terrorist . As in Lebanon , both of whom formed a solid and shaky alliance to break the terrorist ring which previous bombed US military targets with a lot of casualties . Things go wrong when Bishop falls in love with an aid-worker (Catherine McCormack) . As his memories of their friendship come flooding back , Muir sets about managing the rescue of his old friend from a Communist prison . Meanwhile , the super-powerful CIA uses technological-gizmo-surveillance satellites and modern surveillance systems for people spying and hound terrorists relentlessly . It's not how you play the game ... It's how the Game Plays you. It's not how you play the game. It's how the game plays you. "Poor is the pupil who does not surpass his teacher" . In the end, only friendship matters!

Story's core is interesting and script is dense with information and drama . The ultra-brisk editing and rapid scenes movement leaves little time to consider some inadequacies . Regarding a peculiar relationship between two top-of-the-range spies whose long knowledge has developed bad blood and resentment between them , in spite of the two men haven't seen each other in years . Here Brad Pitt is reunited as a co-star with his A River Runs Through It (1992) director Robert Redford for this espionage thriller from Tony Scott , and both of them giving awesome interpretations . Engaging and twisted thriller concerning the spy-world on Middle East , China and other countries . Robert Redford and Brad Pitt sustain interest enough in this tale of friendship , betrayal , sacrifice and terrorism . Brad Pitt is good as tough super-spy as well as sniper operative and Robert Redford 's cool displaying an enjoyable performance as the elderly and regretted CIA agent . The use of geopolitical messages to add weight to a romantic subplot between the spy and the beautiful nurse , well played by Catherine McCormack , though feels a little forced , at times. They are well accompanied by a good cast , such as : Stephen Dillane , Larry Bryggman , Marianne Jean-Baptiste , Shane Rimmer, David Hemmings, Benedict Wong , Ken Leung , Matthew Marsh , Michael Paul Chan , among others .

The film packs adequate , evocative cinematography by Dan Mindel and rousing musical score by Harry Gregson-Williams . The motion picture was well realized by Tony Scott . He was a good filmmaker whose works received some great reviews , his first big hit happened when was asked by producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer to direct Top Gun (1986) starring Tom Cruise . He would work again with Cruise on another high adrenaline film Days of thunder (1990) , which proved less successful . He followed the success of Top Gun with the sequel Beverly Hill cop II (1987) with Eddie Murphy , which was well received . In 1993, he directed the cult movie True Romance (1993) , which was written by emerging director Quentin Tarantino but Scott had a lot of control over the film . While Unstoppable (2010) was Tony Scott and Denzel Washington's fifth and final film collaboration. The others were Red tide (1995) , Man on fire (2004) , Déjà vu (2006) , and Pelham 123 (2009) all of them got big successes . Spy Game(2001) rating : 7/10 . Well worth watching . Above average . The picture will appeal to Robert Redford and Brad Pitt fans .

There are many reasons why we like a movie or not. For me, this is the case in witch small things were enough to like it: the two main actors, the places in which the action occurs, and the fact that it has more to do with a love affair, in a tragic atmosphere than about spies. Well, of course this is about spies - two of them - and mostly about the relation between them; if they are similar enough to understand each other, they are also different enough to generate some tension in the relation.

Maybe this is more about how the characters move around each others than about action or intrigue. In fact this is so obvious that the way in which the story is told is mostly in flashback, with Muir (Robert Redford) introducing all of them and narrating part. So, the story is the story and the spy game is what Muir does within the CIA, in 24 hours or so. The distinction is important because if you think of this as a traditional spy movie (maybe like the Bourne Identity or Supremacy) it has two obvious flaws for the genre: the plot is very simple (maybe predictable) and there's no bad guy, no one to kill or to revenge; there's also almost no genuine action, and, as far as I can remember, Bishop (Brad Pitt) only fires one weapon in the whole movie. Maybe what mislead most of the people was the title of the movie, and maybe that's why most of them didn't like it. However, in my opinion, this is a very good movie, with strong leading roles and a compelling story.

No gadgets, no arms, no villains, no action...oh, no,this is a whole different game, and it's a serious and a dangerous game: the game of people and their relations.