Espionage

Scarecrow & Mrs. King – There Goes the Neighborhood

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Scarecrow & Mrs. King – There Goes the Neighborhood
  • IMDb: link

Throwback Tuesday takes us to 80s Washington, D.C. and the unusual partnership between a housewife and a spy. After the agency ties the smuggling of weapons to a Washington suburb, Scarecrow (Bruce Boxleitner) and Amanda (Kate Jackson) are sent in undercover to play husband and wife. While the episode starts with the spy turning Amanda away from agency work, hoping to be rid of her, he quicky has to turn on a dime when he’s ordered into the suburbs with the only person who can show him the ropes. And once again, Amanda will prove her worth in helping uncover the truth of another fine mess Scarecrow has gotten them into.

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Scarecrow and Mrs. King – The First Time

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Scarecrow and Mrs. King – The First Time
  • IMDb: link

Throwback Tuesday takes us to 80s Washington, D.C. and the unusual partnership between a housewife and a spy. “The First Time” introduces us to unconventional spy Lee “Scarecrow” Stetson (Bruce Boxleitner) and suburban mother Amanda King (Kate Jackson) who meet at the train station when Scarecrow hands Amanda a package he’s unable to deliver while being pursued. The pair keep getting thrown together over the course of the episode to recover the package and uncover the identity of the leak within the Agency which is leading to several agents being killed. Part spy story, part odd couple pairing, and part farce, the show’s first episode sets the tone for the series.

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If Looks Could Kill

/ / Home Video
  • Title: If Looks Could Kill (1991)
  • IMDb: link

If Looks Could Kill

Released six years before Mike Myers would bring Austin Powers to life in a spy parody about a man literally out of time, Richard Grieco stars as a high school student thrust into the spy world in the most unlikely way possible. Flashback Friday looks back at 1991’s If Looks Could Kill.

The movie has a little bit of everything for Bond fans including Linda Hunt in the role of an evil henchwoman playing homage to Lotte Lenya‘s Rosa Klebb in From Russia with Love. We also get Roger Rees as the typical evil businessman seeking world domination, plenty of spy gadgets, beautiful women including Gabrielle Anwar and Geraldine James, fast cars, and a tongue-in-cheek plot where the villain is literally crushed to death by his own greed.

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The Bourne Ultimate Collection

/ / Home Video
  • Title: The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum, Jason Bourne, The Bourne Legacy
  • IMDb: link
  • IMDb: link
  • IMDb: link
  • IMDb: link
  • IMDb: link

The Bourne Ultimate Collection Blu-ray reviewThis six-disc set collects all four of the Jason Bourne movies (The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum, and Jason Bourne) along with the single spinoff starring Jason Renner (The Bourne Legacy) as another member of the same secret government program. While the first film, the closest to Robert Ludlum’s source material where an amnesiac Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) left for dead discovers he’s an assassin, remains my favorite, all of the films hold up well (even Renner’s single film).

The series features strong supporting characters throughout Bourne’s attempt to learn the truth about his past including Joan Allen, Franka Potente, Clive Owen, Edgar Ramírez, and Alicia Vikander. Collected in one set, available on both Blu-ray and DVD, the movies include several of the short featurettes and audio commentaries from the previous releases along with a sixth bonus disc.

[Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Blu-ray $69.98 / DVD $38.89]

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Jason Bourne

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Jason Bourne
  • IMDb: link

Jason BourneLargely ignoring the events of The Bourne Legacy, Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass return to the Bourne franchise. In the years since The Bourne Ultimatum Jason Bourne has become a wandering nomad and underground street fighter. With his memories restored he lacks the purpose which drove him in the first three films of the series.

The return of Nicky (Julia Stiles) and her quest to expose the government’s new black ops programs will shock Bourne out of his malaise when she provides him additional information about Treadstone and his recruitment into the program asking questions he desperately needs answers to.

Resurfacing after years, Bourne immediately becomes the focus of a manhunt by CIA Director Robert Dewey (Tommy Lee Jones) and his new hot-shot protege Heather Lee (Alicia Vikander) who begins to wonder if the CIA wouldn’t be better off attempting to bring Bourne in rather than assassinate him. Vikander’s addition, similar to a younger version of Joan Allen‘s character from the third and fourth films (with a questionable accent), allows for some conflict within the CIA as to Bourne while setting up potential ally for our protagonist within the agency.

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