Lust, Caution (Widescreen Edition) (2007) Review

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(More customer reviews)Ang Lee breaks through again with a masterful adaptation of Eileen Chang's short story, Lust/Caution (like what he did with Annie Prolux's similarly brief story, Brokeback Mountain). While the hype seems to be mostly misplaced on the controversial acrobatics displayed by Tony Leung and Tang Wei in bed, Lee's storytelling leaves one breathless.
The love story unfolds against the backdrop of 1930's Japanese-invaded Shanghai where tyranny and suffering were synonymous. Nubile Wang Jia Zhi played by Tang Wei joins the resistance movement and gets herself drawn into the role of a spy to crumble the traitor, Mr Yee. In between the espionage and wild climatic trysts, both of them unknowingly embroil themselves in love and deceit, much deeper than they would have liked themselves to.
Tang Wei, as a newcomer to cinema, is impeccable. Her evolution from a wide-eyed country girl to a seductive temptress is enough to make the hardest of most men, in this case, the distrusting Mr. Yee fall for her. Wei acts pretty much on instincts and her body language does wonders at seducing the somewhat vulnerable Mr. Yee played by multiple-award winner Tony Leung. Wei breaks down in the memorable scene where she's talking to the resistance leader on her unyieldingly sacrificial role that is both a torment and insidious attack to her emotions.
As usual, Tony has the penchant for playing dark brooding men and in this instance, an evil Chinese traitor. He does not act. His presence already commands attention as the cynical no-nonsense minister. The pivotal sex scenes, split into three parts, are not just there for visual enhancement. They actually convey the shift in roles between the two throughout their complex relationship. The raw emotions displayed on their faces were enough to convince anyone hard-hearted to think twice about the essence of love. I must say these are some of the best bed scenes you'll ever witness on film.
Of course, the supporting cast of Joan Chen as Mrs Yee and Wong Lee-Hom as Tang Wei's resistance compatriot, Kuang Yu Min, is every bit just as spectacular. In the end, the story about love is bittersweet. You'll also see how fervent the resistance movement, which puts the enemy above self and others, was through Wang Jia Zhi's eyes. Lust Caution is 157 minutes' of rewarding watch that will linger on in your minds well after the credits roll. (A+)


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Provocative, thrilling and passionate, Lust, Caution is the daring new film from acclaimed Academy Award®-winning director Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon). Set against the backdrop of a transforming country,a young woman finds herself swept up in a radical plot to assassinate a ruthless and secretive intelligence agent. As she immerses herself in her role as a cosmopolitan seductress, she becomes entangled in a dangerous game that will ultimately determine her fate. Erotic, breathtaking and suspenseful, this award-winning film is being called "exquisitely beautiful" (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times) and "lushly sensual" (Leah Rozen, People).

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Spy Game (Widescreen Edition) (2001) Review

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(More customer reviews)'Spy game' is a simple spy story with terrific performances by its lead actors - Robert Redford and Brad Pitt. Pitt plays CIA agent Tom Bishop, who is found, hired and trained by Nathan, played by Robert Redford. Tom Bishop's personal mission in China goes haywire and he is taken captive by the Chinese. And then it is all upto Redford to rescue him. How Redford does it is the rest of the plot, which alternates between the present and the past, as narrated by Redford.
Redford plays Nathan effortlessly, with charm and ease. He leaves most of the action sequences to the younger actor and that is a wise thing, considering his age. Yet again, Pitt proves that he has the acting talent to go with his looks. The scenes where Pitt and Redford appear together are nicely written and acted.
The only negative points in the film are the background music, which is jarring at times, and the slightly dragging middle part, but it does build up the tempo for the finale. These defects are more than compensated by Redford and Pitt and this is one film that is worth watching.

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SPY GAME - DVD Movie

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The Company (2007) Review

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(More customer reviews)Robert Littell's The Company is a massive novel that follows the history of the CIA from post WWII to the end of the cold war. As long as three books, this novel is rich and full of characterization. So it's obvious that any such book would be hard to bring to the screen, large or small. The TNT TV version, at around 4 1/2 hours, tried hard, but didn't do justice to the book. It sometimes seems like an outline of the book, and so much is left out, that the action moves too quickly, changing locations and characters, making it hard to follow. This is more so in the early part of the series; the last 1/3 focuses on a more limited situation, the attempt to find a CIA mole.
Suffering from overbearing music that is way too loud in the early parts (which makes you wonder why the music was toned down so much in the last third), and characters who are supposed to age about thirty years, but look only a few years older, The Company is, nevertheless, good TV. It will keep your attention, and the intrigue is interesting, but be prepared to give it a chance; it's hard to follow at the beginning. The acting is good, the sets and locations interesting, and the plot - good vs evil - works well, especially since we already know who won the cold war.
But if you like this mini-series, do read the book - it is probably the best spy novel I've ever read, and is so much more interesting than this over-short TV version. No film could do it justice, but I can't help but think that a couple more hours could have saved this from its weaknesses.

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Product Description: The TV miniseries event of the year, The Company is an exciting new star-studded thriller from Tony and Ridley Scott. The Company depicts the history of the CIA, from the dawn of the Cold War to the demise of the Soviet Union.

Plot Synopsis: The Company tells the story of Jack McCauliffe (O’Donnell), an idealistic Yale graduate recruited into the CIA by his coach. He’s sent to the legendary Berlin Base in Germany to work with a man who becomes his mentor: the eccentric and colorful Harvey Torriti (Molina), codename "The Sorcerer". Jack and The Sorcerer are imprisoned in double lives, fighting an elusive but formidable enemy in an unrelenting and deadly battle within the CIA itself. Together with the counterintelligence chief, James Angleton (Keaton), the three men are hell-bent on finding the moles within their own ranks before every operation they undertake is completely undermined. However, Jack is forever changed as he must witness the cost in human lives.

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Spies & Lies - 50 Episodes (2008) Review

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(More customer reviews)In the United States, the new medium of television began mass broadcasting just a few short years after the conclusion of World War II and more or less coincided with the rise of Soviet domination in Eastern Europe in the modern historical period that came to be known as the Cold War era. So it came as no surprise that television, looking for topical subjects for entertainment purposes, would use this real world backdrop as inspiration for a number of early shows during the medium's first decade. Before the full blown television spy craze of the mid-1960s that was inspired by the James Bond films (notably "The Man from U.N.C.L.E. - The Complete Series," "I Spy - Season 1 and Mission Impossible - The Complete First TV Season," among others), television viewers were offered a number of shows, mostly non-network syndicated series, that dealt with the Cold War threat.
Mill Creek Entertainment's "Spies & Lies" 4-DVD set rounds up 50 episodes from a number of these 1950s era series, including Brian Donlevy's "Dangerous Assignment," Cesar Romero's "Passport to Danger" and Robert Alda's "Secret File U.S.A.," among others. A couple of the series represented, "Mr. & Mrs. North" and "African Patrol" aren't really in the espionage genre, but one can make the obvious comparisons with "Mr. & Mrs. North" and "Biff Baker U.S.A.," with both series featuring a husband and wife team battling domestic criminals ("North") or evil foreign agents ("Baker"). "Counterspy" is an unsold pilot that's well produced with an exciting story, and it's somewhat of a surprise that it wasn't picked up as a regular series.
The best series in this collection, in this reviewer's opinion, is Sheldon Reynolds' "Foreign Intrigue" a/k/a "Dateline Europe" which, like "Secret File U.S.A." (Amsterdam) was produced in post World War II Europe (Paris and Stockholm). Reynolds is arguably better known as the producer of the 1954 "Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Series" (also produced in Paris) with Ronald Howard and H. Marion Crawford, but "Foreign Intrigue" is one of the great unsung syndicated series of the early 1950s. Scripts are taut and the series has a genuine noir feel to it throughout. The series' leads were played by Americans in its various incarnations (Jerome Thor and Sydna Scott in the first version, James Daly in the second, and Gerald Mohr in the final version) and at least one episode from these various versions is included in this set. But the vast majority of supporting actors are English speaking Europeans including, among others, renowned Swedish actors Eva Dahlbeck and Ingrid Thulin. In addition to saving money on production costs by filming the series on location in Europe with European crews, the casting of so many European actors in this series adds greatly to the show's authentic feel. "Foreign Intrigue" ran from 1951 to 1955, and served as the basis for a feature film of the same name produced and directed by Reynolds in 1956, perhaps the first time that a theatrical film was inspired by a television series.
A number of these series have had selected episodes previously released on DVD by Alpha Video (with corresponding duplication of some episodes in this collection), and "Dangerous Assignment - Complete Collection" has been released by the Infinity Entertainment Group, but this set represents the first time that so many shows from the spy/espionage genre have been brought together in a single collection. To the best of my knowledge, this release also marks the commercial DVD debut for "African Patrol" and "Wire Service." The cover artwork for this DVD release shows Barry Nelson as "Jimmy Bond" from the 1954 "Climax!" television series' live presentation of Ian Fleming's "Casino Royale" (the screen debut of "James Bond"), but that episode is not included in this collection.
This set is comprised of episodes that are in the public domain and, as is the case with most public domain material, the source material is typically derived from worn, but watchable 16 millimeter prints. Those who have purchased other TV collections from Mill Creek Entertainment like "Best of TV Detectives 150 Episodes" or "Classic TV Westerns 300 Episodes" will have a pretty good idea of what to expect with respect to the audio/visual quality of this set. The series represented in this set include the following (a few are represented by just a single episode):
1. African Patrol
2. Biff Baker U.S.A.
3. Counterspy
4. Dangerous Assignment
5. Foreign Intrigue
6. Mr. and Mrs. North
7. Passport to Danger
8. Secret File U.S.A.
9. TV Reader's Digest
10. Vise, The
11. Wire Service
Despite the less than stellar source material, this is an enjoyable collection of (mostly) espionage series from television's early years and is highly recommended to fans of the spy genre and/or vintage TV fans, in general. My rating is closer to **** & ½.


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Item Name: Spies & Lies - 50 Episodes; Studio:Mill Creek Entertainment

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MI-5, Volume 3 (2003) Review

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(More customer reviews)I had known about MI-5 for almost a year before I decided to fork over the $39.95 or whatever it was for the first season (or as the British say, first "series") box set. Honestly not knowing what to expect, I put on the first episode...and was immediately hooked. If you like your drama complex, with complicated, all-so-human characters (i.e. fallible)who confront conflicts that are never black-and-white but always gray, where the "good guys" are as prone to ethical and moral compromises as great as the "bad guys", then this is the show for you. This is indeed akin to 24 and Alias, genre-wise, but it really bears a greater resemblance to the best shows on HBO like The Sopranos and The Wire, as well as those edgy FX dramas like Rescue Me and The Shield. The series is broadcast on A&E but edited for length, language, and violence. The best way to watch this is on DVD. I bought the season one box set as Christmas presents for two great friends and it took them all of one episode to be as devoted to it as I am. So buy or rent the first two seasons, watch it as quickly as you can (and you will watch it quickly because you'll want to know what happens next to Tom and Zoe and Danny), get this third season, and devote an hour every night until you finish it. Your only regret will be you have to wait for season 4 whenever A&E broadcasts it. It's one of the best shows on television.

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Worlds collide and nothing is what it seems in the thrilling new installment of MI-5. Tom has been branded a traitor and has disappeared, while Harry is in the hospital, seriously wounded. There's dissension in the ranks as Danny and Zoe are determined to clear Tom's name and an enemy they never thought possible has put the entire service at risk. An enigmatic agent, Adam Carter (Rupert Penry-Jones) has been recruited from MI-6 to help pick up the broken pieces but with his track record nobody will be safe.

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Love Can Be Murder (2006) Review

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(More customer reviews)Excellent comedy/love story. Jaclyn Smith is a hoot as the attorney starting over with the help of Corbin Bernsen, who is also a hoot!

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MI-5, Volume 1 (2003) Review

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(More customer reviews)There've been some uncommonly intelligent spy films produced by British television: TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY and SMILEY'S PEOPLE (both starring Sir Alec Guinness as the owlish George Smiley), and THE SANDBAGGERS miniseries. In all three, the agency involved is Her Majesty's Secret Intelligence Service (MI-6). The operatives are a tweedy lot, and the headquarters, either at the old "Circus" or the more modern Century House, are, like the remains of Empire, comfortably shabby. Thus, it was with some misgivings that I began MI-5, the ongoing glitzy miniseries featuring the SIS's less glamorous sister also known as the Security Service, which like America's FBI, deals with domestic intelligence, anti-subversion and counter-terrorism. The glitz is of Hollywood proportions - almost, for me, an instant turn-off. I'm glad I stuck with it.
The lead "spook" is Tom Quinn, played by Matthew MacFadyen. He runs an undercover operations team, the most prominent members of which are Zoe Reynolds (Keeley Hawes) and Danny Hunter (David Oyelowo). The interior of MI-5's London HQ, Thames House, is ultramodern and high tech; the CIA probably never had it so good. Tom's boss is the hardboiled and sphinx-like Harry Pearce, played by Peter Firth.
Admittedly, I didn't become engaged until episodes three and four, when I realized that the intricate scripts, fast-paced and tautly presented, transcended the glitz. I'm now hooked, and eagerly await the DVD release of the Season 2 episodes in late 2004. My only remaining complaint is the too clever lead-in to each episode which requires excessive button-pushing on the remote to navigate. I mean, just get on with it. Prince Charles will become King in a shorter time.
The storylines are contemporary: embassy take-overs by militant nationalists, insidious plots by Arab terrorists, illegal arms deals by enterprising Russians involving Whitehall cabinet officers, and the occasional appearance of IRA bombers. Gone are the good old days of KGB machinations on behalf of the Evil Empire. The episodes are slickly written with surprising plot twists. And MI-6 across the river maintains a scheming and patronizing presence.
Part of the show's attraction is that it doesn't paint its MI-5 heroes as perfect. They have relationship problems; they embezzle money from the Service; and perhaps have dark secrets in the past that invite blackmail during intra-office power struggles. Why, it sounds like any company I've ever worked for!
The end of the last episode in Series 1 is one of the best I've ever seen. It'll make you think twice before installing that elaborate security system on your house, or at least make you aware of the dangers posed by a small child when catalyzed by chocolate icing.

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Defending their country, deceiving their friends, MI-5 takes us into the secret world of the clandestine UK security service and the people who make up the elite team. This exciting, fast paced drama, full of split screens and technical wizardry, explores the passion, jeopardy and intrigue of people who have to lie for a living and deceive their loved ones about what they do. DVD Features:Audio Commentary:Commentaries on all episodes!BiographiesDeleted ScenesFeaturette:Numerous Behind-the-Scenes featurettes on the making of the programInterviews:Exclusive interviews with the cast and crew!

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