Espionage

The Old Man – VIII

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: The Old Man – VIII
  • IMDb: link

The Old Man - VIII

The Old Man returns for its Second Season with Dan Chase (Jeff Bridges) and Harold Harper (John Lithgow) attempting to work together. Having successfully infiltrated Afghanistan, things quickly go wrong leaving them with few allies to find and save Emily (Alia Shawkat). The episode stays with the old couple pairing of the two, and sharing thoughts on Emily and the steps Dan went to to hide the truth from her, with the action coming from dangers they run into including a friendly face who turns out to be anything but and nearly ends the pair’s adventure before it gets started. Good stuff here, although Emily’s own thread isn’t picked up on just yet and I do miss Amy Brenneman.

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The Union

/ / Home Video
  • Title: The Union
  • IMDb: link

The Union

Thu Union is dumb even by the sliding scale of throwaway action movie standards. A blue collar intelligence organization (which no one has ever heard of) has allowed a list of all the spies in the world (which shouldn’t even exist) loose into the world which will be sold at a blind auction to the the highest bidder. To get the list back, and prevent its sale by a privateer (Jessica De Gouw), one of the agents (Halle Berry) of “The Union” chooses to recruit her high school prom date (Mark Wahlberg) who never made it out of New Jersey and lacks both useful experience or a desire to get involved.

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Argylle

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Argylle
  • IMDb: link

Argylle

Argylle is bonkers. The latest from director Matthew Vaughn, in his collaboration with screenwriter Jason Fuchs, contains more than a little Kingsman DNA in an over-the-top tale of a best-selling author who discovers the characters and stories she has been writing about are real. As a one-time experience, Argylle may be worth a viewing. As a film, the over-the-top tone is inconsistent for both the serious and comedic sequences it is constantly applied to. When the film leans into its inherent goofiness ratcheting up to levels that make Kingsman: The Secret Service look like a spy documentary, Argylle can be fun, but when it attempts to be serious about a story we simply can not take seriously the entire movie grinds to a screeching halt.

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Citadel – Time Renders Us Enemies / Time Renders Us Enemies

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Citadel – Time Renders Us Enemies / Time Renders Us Enemies
  • IMDb: link | link

Citadel - Time Renders Us Enemies / Time Renders Us Enemies

After giving us the hard sell on Nadia (Priyanka Chopra Jonas) as the mole who brought down Citadel, the final two episodes clear her leaving only one real suspect. “Time Renders Us Enemies” focuses on flashbacks showing the romance between Nadia and Mason Kane (Richard Madden), the secret that broke their trust, and what she was really up to after disappearing from Citadel. All the little clues which seemed to point to her betrayal are explained away as her hiding a pregnancy from Mason. 

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Citadel – Tell Her Everything

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Citadel – Tell Her Everything
  • IMDb: link

Citadel - Tell Her Everything

Still largely concerned with coquettishly teasing Nadia (Priyanka Chopra Jonas) as the leading suspect to be Citadel’s mole, “Tell Her Everything” opens with the man who used to be Mason Kane (Richard Madden) and Nadia rescuing Carter (Osy Ikhile) from a Manticore black site. After his accusations against Nadia, most of the episode takes place in an extended flashback filling in a bit of Nadia’s spy romance with Mason and their time together at Citadel along with revealing that Kyle’s current wife (Ashleigh Cummings) is also a mind-wiped Citadel agent.

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