Something to quench the spy movie drought
Bakang Israel | Friday October 10, 2014 16:23
The year 2014 has been largely dominated by two genres; Sci-Fi and Comedy. We have had a good taste of science fiction in Captain America - Winter Soldier, Dawn Of The Planet Apes, Transformers-Age Of Extinction, Lucy and The Maze Runner; whilst on a lighter note we enjoyed good laughs in Ride Along, Sex Tape, Think Like A Man Too, Let’s Be Cops and Bad Neighbours.
All these movies made the year quite enjoyable as they went on to become box office hits, however it seems the Action-Crime genre has a lot more to offer before the year comes to a close. With only one notable release of a spy film this year being Jack Ryan Shadow Recruit, The Equalizer and The November Man are here to balance the books and sooth the cravings of espionage movie enthusiasts.
The November Man is exciting and has appeal simply because it has familiar faces to its cast with Pierce Brosnan (61) who is yesteryear’s golden boy after portraying James Bond 007 in four films: Golden Eye, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough, and Die Another Day from 1995 to 2002. Now he is back playing the role of a retired spy CIA agent Peter Devereaux. Brosnan as Devereaux is called into action once more to obtain sensitive information from an active agent.
Co-starring alongside Brosnan is Ukrainian actress part-model Olga Kurylenko who is also no stranger to these types of roles as she has done superbly well before in big movies like The Hitman and James Bond - Quantum of Solace. These actors were brought together by award winning Australian director Roger Donaldson, who surprisingly does not have a huge vein of blockbuster movies. However, he did a pretty decent job with The November Man. His notable work that compares to this latest film is The Recruit (2003) that also starred Hollywood top stars Al Pacino and Collin Farrel.
The screenplay of The November Man is good because it is a book adaptation from the American spy thriller novel, There Are No Spies by Bill Granger. Director Donaldson did marvellous work by implementing the play because the movie is loaded with a chain reaction of action events of betrayals and twists that add mystery as it is always the case with espionage films.
The plot is also good, it starts off with an operation in Montenegro that goes horribly wrong and even forces co-worker secret service agents, Devereux and protégée Mason (Luke Bracey) to go separate ways. After several years they come across each other in a set-up mission in Russia hunting for the same prize Mira/ Alice Fournier (Kurylenko) but as to who will get to her first makes things interesting and it appears a third party is also involved, Russian assassin Alexa. Alexa is seeking to silence Mira, which makes for an interesting storyline.
They say ‘A spy is never out of the game’. It is interesting to see how after a long time out of the limelight Brosnan is still able to play a leading role convincingly. He lethal on the trigger, fierce on the punches as well as quick to outsmart the others, particularly Mason by thinking his way out of difficult traps his nemesis (Mason) set up.
The breathtaking action stunts by Devereaux included knocking off a motorbike rider flat cold with a barrel. Also not forgetting to mention the warehouse standoff fight with Mason. He beat up his protégé cum nemesis street fight-style using steel rods and a gardening horse pipe.
Even the deceptions and betrayals that you do not see coming. The November Man is really good because it keeps you guessing throughout the entire one hour 48 minutes duration of the movie. In a good way this movie is similar to the concept of The Equalizer.
According to research, figures from around the world for The November Man reflect the movie amassed $24 million already from theatres including in Botswana. The November Man is on its first week here. The movie deserves a 9/10 and hopefully the creators will come up with a sequel.