William Boyd is one of the many authors to write a James Bond novel (Solo) and he did so very much in the classic mode. So it might be no surprise that he has set his new venture into the world of espionage, Gabriel’s Moon, in the 1960s. Much of the enjoyment here comes from…
The high-octane ride that is Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is again directed by Christopher McQuarrie. He wrote the screenplay with Erik Jendresen. It is the seventh movie in the franchise and is the longest yet at 2 hours 43 minutes. Spectacular stunts, car chases, a runaway train heading for destruction, humour and…
Political rivalry between church and state might seem like a dry subject for a movie, but writer-director Tarik Saleh turns into a compelling drama in Cairo Conspiracy. As well as directing episodes of Westworld and Ray Donovan, Saleh directed Chris Pine in the 2022 actioner The Contractor. So he knows his way around intrigue. Cairo…
Filmmaker Guy Ritchie gathers together most of his usual band of players for Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre. And this action-packed but cliched globe-trotting spy movie ticks all the right boxes for the genre. When a mysterious device (the film’s MacGuffin) is stolen from a secret laboratory MI6 needs to act quickly to recover it…
– Kompromat – Advance screenings 25, 26 and 27 November 2022 (in cinemas 1 Dec) We have 5 double passes to previews over the weekend of 25, 26 and 27 November 2022 thanks to Palace Films. *(Tickets valid in Australia only)* Watch the trailer HERE Freely inspired by incredible true events, Jérôme Salle’s gripping, smash-hit…
No Time to Die is, in many ways, the perfect send-off for Daniel Craig in his last appearance as James Bond. That’s not to say it’s a perfect film, but it pays deep reverence to the work Craig has done in re-defining the character for the 21st Century. The producers tapped Cary Joji Fukunaga –…
Jack Beaumont is not the real name of the author of The Frenchman, a book that itself is full of pseudonyms, nicknames and operational code names. Beaumont was, apparently, a member of the French secret service after a career as a pilot and has, since retiring, moved to Australia. Following in the footsteps of authors…
The Cuban Missile Crisis looms in the tense spy thriller The Courier. Based on fact, it tells the story of America’s most valuable source of information about Russia during this tumultuous period. With nuclear war a real possibility, a high stakes cat-and-mouse game plays out. Oleg Penkovsky (Merab Ninidze) is a high-ranking Russian official. But…
As I’ve said in these pages before, I’m a sucker for a good spy story. And, let’s face it, no one does spy stories quite as well as the master, Jon Le Carre. The Little Drummer Girl uses Le Carre’s novel of the same name as its basis, and this limited series delivers simply excellent…
Sleeper agents hold a weird fascination. When one is uncovered, the media seem intrigued. But of course the reality of someone playing a “long game” of espionage is often far more prosaic than sensational headlines would suggest. That reality fuels Trevor Nunn’s stagy drama, Red Joan. Lindsay Shapero wrote the original screenplay, basing it loosely…
