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November Man

November 30, 2015
Film Reviews
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Pierce Brosnan, Luke Bracey, Olga Kurylenko, Eliza Taylor, Caterina Scorsone, Bill Smitrovich, Will Patton, Amila Terzimehić, Lazar Ristovski, Mediha Musliović, Akie Kotabe, Patrick Kennedy

The November Man: a lethal ex-CIA agent is brought back in for a simple extraction that tangles him up with a Russian politician, the CIA, and his former protegé. It’s one of those films set in the Soviet Bloc in which ‘everebadee talkz Eengleesh‘. It also boasts two former James Bond stars reprising the best bits of their roles – and for what it’s worth, it’s great to see Broz’s charisma again as he pouts and shouts his way from scene to scene in a antiheroic fashion. For a political/thriller there’s more than enough solid action scenes: car chases, foot chases, gunfights (complete with some John Woo style jumping / slow mo). There’s a shape-shifting plot that’s fun to follow, especially because the entire film is back to back plot-action-plot-action, that only briefly dips in the middle. It’s not all roses however; some of the sub-plots (like the mentor / master angle) feel very clunky, there’s a couple of weird directorial choices (like mad Dutch angles everywhere), and the woeful title isn’t explained until last 10 minutes – and it barely makes sense. Most importantly, there’s very little to distinguish this from a thousand other similar sub-Bourne movies based on shady CIA operations. The November Man is a solid – but unremarkable – Spy Thriller that sits just above the middle ground with entertaining performances and action.

Score: 6.5/10

Pierce Brosnan, Luke Bracey, Olga Kurylenko, Eliza Taylor, Caterina Scorsone, Bill Smitrovich, Will Patton, Amila Terzimehić, Lazar Ristovski, Mediha Musliović, Akie Kotabe, Patrick Kennedy

Up In The Air

January 21, 2010
Film Reviews
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Up In The Air: focuses on ‘lonely’ a guy who spends +320 days a year flying all over the ‘States with his company – that specialise in firing people. It seemed to have two contemporary themes: firstly it’s a critique of the direction that society’s heading in; social capital decreasing and technology making interaction easier but more impersonal. It didn’t seem to be overly for or against it the lifestyle, just a balanced account – which was quite refreshing. The second theme was that it also depicts both sides of recession-hit America: illustrating that companies can cash in on the misfortune, negated with the the ‘your fired’ scenes, which hit home pretty hard as it’s everyone’s worst nightmare. It’s pitched as a quirky comedy, but there aren’t many laughs – in saying that, you won’t be disappointed because it’s a tour-de-force in the drama department – very believable, humane and the last section is superb. It takes a while to really get going as the time’s used for adding remarkable depth to Clooney’s character – in general the entire cast notch out top-drawer performances. Some of the camerawork was suspect as it jumped from ultra-slick to shaky amateur cam. Slick film, great story and I think this should be mandatory viewing for all ‘career’ people!

Score: 7.5/10