11 replies to this topic

[tim partridge]

Any fans of this here? I rather like it, and I think it's influence rather rubbed off on Die Another Day, especially with all of the POW stuff.

I thought Robert Redford and Charlotte Rampling were fantastic in Spy Game and I also loved the scenes in Berlin, which felt like something from DePalma's Mission Impossible. The CIA sequences with Redford are good, witty dialogue driven exposition, in the mold of classic 70s political thrillers like the works of Alan Pakula or Sidney Lumet/Pollack. Not at all like say Top Gun, and visually there's a very pleasing restrain to the proceedings.

I think Eon had an eye on Spy Game when they made DAD, and I remember at the time hearing Tony Scott was on the shortlist for DAD director. They seemed to obviously hire Christian Wagner as editor in order to do the Spy Game speedramps and edit gimmicks, even though Spy Game is actually very tastefully cut and quite classical (compared to the overzealous media-student style editing we saw in DAD).

I bet the 007 people were really pushing for Aldershot as North Korea to be as convincing as Oxford Prison as China in Spy Game.

[Kilroy6644]

I love Spy Game. It's one of my favorite non-007 spy movies.

[tim partridge]

Anyone else?

C'mon, this spy film was so much better than any Brosnan Bond movie, in my opinion.

[Bucky]

Anyone else?

C'mon, this spy film was so much better than any Brosnan Bond movie, in my opinion.

i completely agree. something about it that i cant put my finger on. its one of those films that i can watch anytime.

[jwheels]

I have the movie, but haven't watched it in forever. I should give it another view here soon, because I remember it being pretty good.

[MrDraco]

Spy Game goes hard...I wished for a second or third entry...but its great as is..You almost dont want them to make another for fear it would ruin the first...Top notch.

[Safari Suit]

Hmm, I dunno. I might need to watch it again because it wasn't really what I was expecting which might have stopped me from enjoying it, but it struck me as one of those films stuck in a kind of grey area; too slow and talky to be a "fun" action thriller, not really substansive enough to be great drama. Something which is not unique among Tony Scott's oveur, nor his brother's for that matter. It looks good, it's well acted, there are some good scenes and there's nothing particularly egregious about it but I didn't win me over. The score is nice and it makes good use of Dire Straits' Brothers in Arms, a song I have no real affection for on its own but nonetheless seems to have been well used in television and film several times.

It does seem to have been a considerable influence on DAD, which is interesting as it was only a moderate hit, but I guess a film doesn't have to be particularly successful for EON to feel, ahem, inspired by it.

This is a film Pitt slagged off before it was even released. "A thriller fit for 7-year-olds" he called it

As for whether or not it's better than any Brosnan Bond movie I don't think it really matters.

[LoneWolf]

Spy Game is an awesome movie.

[Aris007]

I haven't seen tehe movie in full, but the parts I've seen look great! The setting helps a lot as well!

[plankattack]

Spy Game is a very entertaining film, in large part to Redford's performance, David Hemmings, and Stephen Dillane's. Watching Redford continues to be one life's great pleasures, even in what is, let's be honest, throwaway entertainment such as this or Sneakers.

Other than a couple of camera techniques and the name Christian Wagner on the credits, I don't think there's much case to be made that this film influenced DAD (If it had, DAD may well have been a lot better!!!!) - in my mind it's XXX that leaves it's fingerprints all over DAD.

But much as I like Spy Game, it's still not enough for me to get on a Tony Scott-for-Bond bandwagon. Ridley perhaps, but not Tony, whose reputation is really a lot greater than his body of work, which seems to consist of the same film over and over, with only some terrific leading-men acting (Washington, Redford, Hackman) to distinguish them.

[tim partridge]

Other than a couple of camera techniques and the name Christian Wagner on the credits, I don't think there's much case to be made that this film influenced DAD (If it had, DAD may well have been a lot better!!!!) - in my mind it's XXX that leaves it's fingerprints all over DAD.

I severely disagree. The whole opening of Spy Game, with the hero infiltrating a bleached out Eastern Asian military site, only to be captured, dragged and have his head stuffed down a toilet as a POW is more or less a mirror of DAD's opening. Notice how both films shift immediately from that point to an intelligence agency in Hong Kong, as well...

Wagner's speedramps, which were quite tastefully used in Spy Game (the Berlin rooftop sequence for example) are ressurected for sheer formal effect in DAD.

I am not suggesting that DAD is a shot for shot remake of Spy Game, but I think there is a well supported argument there that Eon and even Tamahori had a loose eye on Spy Game when making DAD. It's too bad the Spy Game didn't appear to inspire DAD more extensively.

[Safari Suit]

xXx opened only three months before DAD, which was after filming had wraped. I doubt it could have had much of an influence on it, outside perhaps the editing.