Espionage

Scarecrow and Mrs. King – Always Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Scarecrow and Mrs. King – Always Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth
  • IMDb: link

Wayback Wednesday takes us to 80s Washington, D.C. and the unusual partnership between a housewife and a spy. When the American wife (Jane Kaczmarek) of a Middle Eastern Prince (Andres Aybar) returns to the United States on a tour with her husband, and needs someone local to show her around, the Agency taps Amanda (Kate Jackson) while Lee (Bruce Boxleitner), in head of security for the couple, works on uncovering who is behind the recent assassination attempts. The truth that oil baron, and longtime friend of the prince’s father, Bo Johnson (Morgan Woodward), who dislikes the modern thinking Penelope is filling her husband’s mind with, is the target of the attacks comes out at his ranch that weekend.

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Black Bag

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Black Bag
  • IMDb: link

An evening with the Woodhouses would certainly be a memorable experience. More John le Carré than James Bond, Black Bag is a slow burn spy thriller that starts by introducing us to George Woodhouse (Michael Fassbender) who learns one of five intelligence officers is responsible for the leak of top-secret software called Severus. The suspects include Freddie (Tom Burke) and his girlfriend Clarissa (Marisa Abela), psychologist Zoe Vaughan (Naomie Harris) and her current fling James Stokes (Regé-Jean Page), and George’s wife Kathryn (Cate Blanchett).

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Back in Action

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Back in Action
  • IMDb: link

Cameron Diaz and Jamie Foxx star in this lame action thriller as former spies forced out of retirement after being spotted getting into a public altercation involving their rebellious teenage daughter (McKenna Roberts) in a night club. Back in Action is a charmless paint-by-number genre flick with the cast going through the motions as the family finds itself on the run eventually pulling in Emily’s (Diaz) British mother (Glenn Close) and her ridiculous boyfriend (Jamie Demetriou).

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Black Doves – The Cost of It All / In the Bleak Midwinter

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Black Doves – The Cost of It All / In the Bleak Midwinter
  • IMDb: link | link

Most, although not quite all, of the threads are wrapped up in the final two episodes of Black Doves. “The Cost of It All” gives us shit hitting the fan, Helen (Keira Knightley) finding herself behind the eight-ball with few cards left to play, a violent confrontation with her would-be replacement (Agnes O’Casey), and trouble for Sam (Ben Whishaw), Eleanor (Gabrielle Creevy), and Kai-Ming (Isabella Wei) all of whom are scooped up by the Clarks. However, Helen also finds the missing footage, providing answers to the ambassador’s death and leverage to save her friend and get the answers she’s been seeking concerning Jason’s (Andrew Koji) death.

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Canary Black

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Canary Black
  • IMDb: link

Even for a throwaway action flick, Canary Black stretches any attempt at credibility. Our plot involves Kate Beckinsale as super-spy Avery Graves whose husband (Rupert Friend) is kidnapped. Avery is then blackmailed into stealing a file so secret not even the President of the United States knows what it is. Knowledge isn’t a problem for our baddie (Goran Kostić), however, who apparently knows everything about everyone including having access to all kinds of CIA classified records such as Avery’s psych profile.

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