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- Cert:
- Cat.no: EDV 9167
- Running time: 126 minutes
- Year: 2001
- Pressing: 2002
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 16 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: English
- Widescreen: 2.35:1
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £19.99
- Extras: Trailer, Featurettes, Deleted and Alternate Scenes with optionalcommentary, feature-length Director’s Commentary
Director:
- Tony Scott
(Beverly Hills Cop 2, Crimson Tide, Days of Thunder, Enemy of the State, The Fan, The Hunger, The Last Boy Scout, Revenge, Spy Game, Top Gun, True Romance, TV: The Hunger)
Producers:
- Marc Abraham and Douglas Wick
Screenplay:
- Michael Frost Beckner and David Arata
Music :
- Harry Gregson-Williams
Cast :
- Nathan Muir: Robert Redford
Tom Bishop: Brad Pitt
Elizabeth Hadley: Catherine McCormack
Charles Harker: Stephen Dillane
Troy Folger: Larry Bryggman
Gladys: Marianne Jean-Baptiste
Usually, you know what to expect from a film directed byTony Scott – something full of action, something flashy and 100% excitingescapist entertainment. Spy Game breaks that trend.
It’s 1991 and it’s CIA agent Nathan Muir’s (Robert Redford) last day and it’s on thatday that he learns the ‘boy scout’ he trained after meeting in Danang, Vietnam,in 1975, Tom Bishop (Brad Pitt) has been playing up on an operation inChina and at the point in which Muir knows what’s going on, there’s only 24 hoursleft before Bishop is set to be executed, the following morning at 8am.
Redford and Pitt play ‘hide and seek’ with the Chinese.
The whole film plays out as one-man-against-the-system, the “system” beingportrayed as a bunch of idiotic suits who take forever to piece his setuptogether, while we’re treated to flashbacks which show the two leads’ workingrelationship together starting with the aforementioned 1975 location andcontinuing through to 1985 Beirut where Bishop meets aid worker ElizabethHadley (Catherine McCormack). All these just seem to serve as filler.
Of course, as the film progresses the backstory will play a part later on inthe film, but the question remains as to whether you’ll really care by then,because none of the small stories are particularly interesting.Also, the predictable kicks in early on when the CIA suits play down the China situationby announcing to the world’s press that Bishop is dead, making the whole twohours seem even more like a rip-off ofCapricorn One.
Redford is his usual suarve self, Pitt his usual cocky self and the only othername, Catherine McCormack, doesn’t stretch herself at all, all adding to anentirely forgettable film. The rest of the cast includes two underused actors:Larry Bryggman (Bruce Willis’ boss in Die Hard with a Vengeance)as CIA bigwig Troy Folger and British actress Marianne Jean-Baptisteas Redford’s secretary Gladys, sporting a dodgy American accent. There’s also acouple of cameos forDale Dyeand Omid Djalili.
Redford and Pitt discuss what
to do about the hackneyed script.
However, there’s nothing wrong with the audio-visual side of things on thisDVD. The picture’s framed at the original 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen ratiowith zero artifacts, while the Dolby Digital 5.1 sound is spot-on too, being loud and obtrusivewhen it needs to be, usually by sending helicopters in, as well as quiet,usually in the many, endless boardroom scenes. If I had any complaint withthis, it’s that there’s a lack of a DTS soundtrack which accompanies theRegion 1 DVD.
The extras begin with a 2-minute Trailer in anamorphic 16:9 and scoresof mini-featurettes about casting the main actors, chat with technicaladvisors, a brief part about the suicide bombing scene in Nebaa and a littlebit of info about each location used in the film. However, the featurettesonly total around 23 minutes, plus there’s nearly 13 minutes of DeletedScenes plus a 7-minute Alternative Ending. The extra footage isshown in the original 2.35:1 ratio and is anamorphic, but the quality is farfrom hot. However, each of the additional scenes come with optional director’scommentary.
There are 20 chapters to the film, subtitles in English only and the menus arenicely animated and scored.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.