Spearphishing

Spearphishing presents itself as a timely political thriller, but comes across as amateurish. Basically, it follows a rural RCMP officer who is contacted by intelligence about Russian businessmen in his neck of the woods, who might be up to no good. The Mountie quickly finds the Russians. He immediately becomes convinced they're engaging in cyber crimes to support the prime minister as he goes into an election year. Mysteriously, the prime minister is running against only one opponent in Canada's typically multi-party system, and mysteriously, he's also called "Mr. Prime Minister" though the correct address is simply "Prime Minister."

Performances are generally poor and unconvincing, though the actors are also challenged to get out dialogue that comes across as clunky and awkward, and particularly in the beginning expositional. Although the film picks up on the fact that Russians are currently engaging in political cyber crimes, it still falls into the trap of outdated Cold War tropes, with many references to the Politburo, Soviet Union and bears. There's also the question of whether the Russians in this film pose any threat anyway; even before "the Mounties get their man," the film repeatedly makes a point that their cyber efforts aren't making any headway anyway, with the actor playing the prime minister doing a poor job of acting irate about it.

Spearphishing boasts some nice backdrops but they're still poorly shot; for example in the fishing scene in "Hard Luck Falls," much of the frame is taken up by the lead actor's back and butt. A sequel is apparently already in the works, but the question is why?