Showing posts with label movie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label movie. Show all posts

Sunday, February 11, 2024

A Bad Week for Spys

• Beijing accused of using spying, threats and blackmail against Tibetan exiles more

• Turkey says 4 suspects confess to spying on behalf of Mossad more

• Everything wrong with South Africa’s new spying law more

• The body of a former advisor to El Salvador's president showed signs of torture after he died this week while in custody on spying charges. more

• Ireland Refuses New Visa for Russian Diplomats Over Espionage Concerns more

• Accused Russian spy worked for U.K. intelligence, met with prime ministers and princes more

• US Worried About Chinese Smart Cars Spying On Americans more

• Russia jails Ukrainian woman for 10 years for spying more

• A woman who had a six-year relationship with the man of her dreams eventually discovered he was actually an undercover cop spying on her. more

• Lebanese resistance destroys spying equipment in Israeli garrison more

...and in spy movie news..
Argylle: A spy martini that's shaken, stirred and somehow still flat. more

• “Argylle” is still out snooping the competition. The spy action comedy remained in first place, raking in $1.96 million on Friday, its second in theaters... So far, the flick, which cost $200 million to make, hasn’t been performing as expected. more
Well, the trailer was fun.

Thursday, February 8, 2024

“The Conversation” to be Remade as a TV Series


Francis Ford Coppola‘s 1974 masterpiece “The Conversation” will be remade as a TV series
, with “Margin Call” and “All Is Lost” filmmaker J.C. Chandor attached to both write and direct the series, IndieWire has confirmed.

Chandor will direct via his CounterNarrative Films banner alongside Temple Hill, producer Adam Fishbach, and executive produced by Coppola’s American Zoetrope. Erin Levy, known for her work on “Mad Men” and “Mindhunter,” will be the showrunner on “The Conversation” remake. 

MRC is the studio behind the series, and the company optioned the TV remake rights directly from the Coppola estate. more

...and for old times' sake...

Saturday, November 18, 2023

BlackBerry - The Best Movie Of 2023?

The True Story Thriller That’s Being Called The Best Movie Of The Year... 
Matt Johnson’s BlackBerry, managed to make a small but noticeable splash at the box office, resulting in a stunning 98 percent certified fresh critic score from Rotten Tomatoes...

Though the film’s premise may not immediately strike you as rife with thrilling storytelling potential, BlackBerry manages to take the high-intensity world of tech development, corporate espionage, and the true tale of one corporation’s rise and incredible fall to its absolute limits.

Those who lived through the era of BlackBerry phones being the must-have product on the market will look back at the moment in history with a newfound sense of awe after seeing the film, while those too young to recall the ubiquity of the full-keyboard phone will be shocked and appalled by the underhanded business practices which brought mobile internet to the next level. more

Wednesday, July 12, 2023

14 Hilarious Moments from Spy Spoofs and Comedies

There are few film genres as reliable in modern times as spy films, shows and even video games

James Bond led the way to Remington Steele to Ethan Hunt to Solid Snake to Austin Powers. But the somber seriousness of the espionage game makes it a prime target for comedians and comedy writers to mine some humor out of all the profession’s sternness, violence and ludicrous clandestine nature.

Your mission (should you choose to accept it) is to enjoy these funniest moments from or about the spy genre in pop culture. more

Wednesday, May 31, 2023

White House Plumbers...

...A Delightfully Funny Retelling of the Watergate Scandal

The Watergate scandal is not exactly new territory for screenwriters. From the 1976 classic All the President’s Men to, just last year, the excellent Gaslit, the story of the bungled covert operations that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon in 1974 has been raked over time and time again.

So White House Plumbers, created by Alex Gregory and Peter Huyck – two writers who have previously worked on Veep and David Letterman’s 90s Late Show – needed to be pretty good to justify its existence. Thankfully, it was.

The five-episode comedy drama focuses on E Howard Hunt (Woody Harrelson) and G Gordon Liddy (Justin Theroux), ex CIA and FBI agents respectively, who were hired by Nixon’s White House to run a dirty tricks unit. more

Tuesday, May 2, 2023

The White House Plumbers, or The Buttcrack Buggers

This five-part limited series imagines the behind-the-scenes story of how Nixon’s political saboteurs, E. Howard Hunt (Woody Harrelson) and G. Gordon Liddy (Justin Theroux), accidentally toppled the presidency they were zealously trying to protect… and their families along with it. 


Chronicling actions on the ground, this satirical drama begins in 1971 when the White House hires Hunt and Liddy, former CIA and FBI, respectively, to investigate the Pentagon Papers leak. After failing upward, the unlikely pair lands on the Committee to Re-Elect the President, plotting several unbelievable covert ops – including bugging the Democratic National Committee offices at the Watergate complex. Proving that fact is sometimes stranger than fiction, White House Plumbers sheds light on the lesser-known series of events that led to one of the greatest political scandals in American history.

From the producers of Succession and Veep...White House Plumbers comes to HBO Max on May 1, 2023. more

Monday, February 20, 2023

'Rabbit Hole' Clip Shows Kiefer Sutherland as a Mastermind of Corporate Espionage

A lengthy new clip has been released for Paramount+'s upcoming spy thriller series, Rabbit Hole...

Rabbit Hole stars Kiefer Sutherland as John Weir, a master manipulator who helps corrupt corporate businesses...

This scene shows how the series will be a diabolical foray into corporate espionage. more

Thursday, October 6, 2022

New Spy Show Is An Experimental TV First

The Russo brothers have developed an international spy show called Citadel, and the series is expected to be a first-of-its-kind, world-building endeavor. 

Backed by Amazon Studios, the seven-episode saga features Priyanka Chopra Jonas and former Game of Thrones star Richard Madden alongside veteran actor Stanley Tucci. 

Citadel has been in the works for several years, but the series' release date has yet to be announced... The plot is also being kept under close guard. more

Sunday, September 25, 2022

Here's the Thing - Wednesday - Nov. 23rd

Wednesday Addams catches Thing spying on her...

Wednesday Addams (Jenna Ortega) is not a fan of being spied on ... particularly when her parents are the ones doing the spying. 

During Netflix's TUDUM fan event on Saturday, the streamer released a new clip from the upcoming Addams family series, Wednesday, which follows a teenage Wednesday as she attends Nevermore Academy — the school where her parents once met — and discovers a supernatural mystery might be afoot. more

Tuesday, August 16, 2022

Surveillance Documentary: Theo Anthony on All Light, Everywhere

Anthony follows the bliss of two hawkers of cutting-edge surveillance technology. 

In Scottsdale, Arizona, taking corporate assertions of transparency at their word, he is given a PR-guided tour of the headquarters of Axon Enterprise, Inc, formerly known as Taser, manufacturer of electroshock weapons and now runaway leader in the deployment of police body cameras. He tests the tech (and its limits) in a mall, captures the police’s internal rationale for body cameras in a training session, and – with the Axon PR now in overdrive – stages a multi-cam Axon-branded arrest scenario in the desert.

Back home in Baltimore, Anthony also attends to the efforts of Ross McNutt, president of Persistent Surveillance Systems, to sell citizens on his “God’s-eye view” plane-mounted live-feed spy cams – somewhat belatedly, since the tech had previously been deployed in 2016 without disclosure even to the mayor. Now he presents a genial face in community liaison meetings, offering blandishments about providing an “unbiased witness” in “troubled cities”. As Anthony’s voiceover says over an Axon promotional video, “It feels like watching a corporation dream out loud”: the claim is objectivity, the dream is omniscience, the end game is power. One thinks of Jeremy Bentham’s all-seeing panopticon, but also of Naomi Klein’s insights in No Logo into corporate aspirations of weightless, unburdened power. more

Tuesday, May 31, 2022

50 Spy Movies That’ll Keep You On The Edge Of Your Seat

As kids, all of us loved play-pretend games, and though there's a myriad of variations, one theme that was by far the most thrilling of them all - playing spies on a secret mission. 

Such secrecy and importance sure seemed thrilling, and emulating the super cool tricks we saw on the cinema screens felt like the best thing in the world. Naturally, most of us grew out of these play-pretend frolics, but the infatuation with everything spies hasn't gone anywhere. And what's a better way to relive these thrilling fantasies than by watching some of the best spy movies ever made? 

So, here we are with our list that'll cater to even the pickiest spy movie connoisseur and give you some pretty decent choices for your next adventurous viewing... more

Friday, December 18, 2020

The Ultimate Spy, or Better Learn How to Say "Yes, Master"

 via Sundance...

This fascinating and visually stimulating documentary examines simulation theory—the idea that this world we live in might not be entirely real. The theory is as old as Plato's Republic and as current as Elon Musk's Twitter feed and A Glitch in the Matrix traces its genesis over the years, from philosophical engagements by the ancient Greeks to modern explorations by Philip K. Dick, the Wachowskis, and game theorists.

A new trailer for the upcoming documentary A Glitch in the Matrix gives a haunting look at the theory that we are all living in a giant simulation. The title alludes to the Wachowskis’ popular Matrix franchise, which is perhaps the most significant cultural exploration of the trippy thought experiment.

A Glitch in the Matrix will premiere at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival in the Midnight Section line-up. After Sundance, A Glitch in the Matrix will be in theaters and on demand on February 5, 2021.

Thursday, November 26, 2020

100 Best Spy Movies of all Time

Stacker compiled data on all spy movies to come up with a Stacker score—a weighted index split evenly between IMDb and Metacritic scores. Here are the best spy movies of all time... more

#5 - Duck Soup


 

Friday, November 6, 2020

Your Weekend Movie – “A Call to Spy” Now Streaming

A Call to Spy” is now available to watch via streaming services and in select theaters across the United States and United Kingdom...

Premiering on June 21st, 2019 -- the 75th anniversary of D-Day -- at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, the film has gone on to win numerous awards...

In the beginning of WWII, with Britain becoming desperate, Churchill orders his new spy agency—the Special Operations Executive (SOE)—to recruit and train women as spies. 

Their daunting mission: conduct sabotage and build a resistance. SOE's "spymistress," Vera Atkins (Stana Katic), recruits two unusual candidates: Virginia Hall (Sarah Megan Thomas), an ambitious American with a wooden leg, and Noor Inayat Khan (Radhika Apte), an Indian Muslim pacifist. Together, these women help to undermine the Nazi regime in France, leaving an unmistakable legacy in their wake. Inspired by true stories. more

Thursday, July 16, 2020

Is James Bond an Idol with Feet of Clay? — You decide.

James Bond has long been the most famous "secret agent" out there. Everyone knows James Bond, and it is rare to meet someone who hasn't seen at least one of the films.

Like with most films of that kind, there are a lot of issues with the character and story lines in general. Take for instance the fact that they call him a "secret agent" when he is in fact an Intelligence Officer. Add to that he doesn't have a line manager, he somehow reports directly to the head of MI-6.

Then there is the reality that a "license to kill" doesn't really exist. Despite these tiny issues with details, the films are actually quite good.

However, there are many reasons that James Bond truly is the worst spy ever, even if he is a fictional character. Here are the top 007 reasons:
  1. He carries a gun on airplanes
  2. He constantly destroys or loses his equipment
  3. He is always being captured and/or beaten up
  4. He never follows orders
  5. He travels under his own name
  6. He always draws attention to himself
  7. Everyone knows who he is 
To top it off they all know his 00 code number … His secret code number. The number of times an adversary uses 007 is absolutely astounding. This alone is enough to make James Bond the worst spy ever. more

Tuesday, July 7, 2020

New Spy Movie: My Grandfather The Spy

EXCLUSIVE: Dave Evans’ feature doc My Grandfather The Spy, which chronicles the director’s exploration of his own family’s long-buried secrets, has been boarded by SMP Distribution for international sales... It follows how director Evans uncovers that his grandfather Eric, seemingly a quiet unassuming shopkeeper, actually had a connection to Cold War espionage... Shooting took place in Bulgaria, England and Wales. SMP is now looking into festival screenings. more

Monday, June 15, 2020

‘My Spy’: Film Review

The long line of Hollywood tough guys appearing alongside cute kids continues with “My Spy,” a passable PG-13 action-comedy in which big ’n’ brawny Dave Bautista plays a CIA man whose nose-diving career and damaged emotions are rehabilitated by a clever nine-year-old girl with an aptitude for espionage and a matchmaking plan for her widowed mom. more

My Spy will premiere on the Amazon Prime Video streaming service on June 26, 2020.
Trailer.

In other spy film news... The closely watched arrival of Christopher Nolan's big-budget sci-fi espionage film “Tenet” will finally happen on July 31, Warner Bros. announced Friday.

Wednesday, May 27, 2020

Yet Another Spy Movie List

The 58 Best Spy Movies of All Time

Were this a year like any other, we’d already have seen the year’s two most-anticipated spy movies: the 25th James Bond film No Time to Die and Marvel’s Black Widow solo film.

Both were scheduled for spring releases and will now open in theaters in November…if theaters are, in fact, open.

Fortunately, there’s no shortage of great spy movies to keep us occupied while we wait... The List

Monday, May 4, 2020

Spy vs. Spy - The Movie

The Spy vs. Spy comic strip has been a regular fixture in Mad magazine for almost sixty years. In that time, the two identical birdlike espionage agents — Black Spy and White Spy — have also featured in video games and cartoons, but a live-action big-screen adaptation has continually eluded the warring duo. However, that could all finally change, if new developments go according to plan.

According to Collider, Rawson Marshall Thurber is in talks to direct the movie for Warner Bros. and Imagine Entertainment. Ron Howard and Brian Grazer are on board as producers, which makes sense as they’ve been attached to the project since its inception. It remains to be seen if Dwayne Johnson will star, but that wouldn’t be surprising as he’s Thurber’s go-to guy...

The movie, as silly as it will undoubtedly be, might also be very smart and biting. The original comics are rife with political satire, often taking aim at America’s involvement in wars. Given that there’s still plenty of real-life drama to comment on, don’t be surprised if the movie pokes fun at current affairs...

If the film lives up to its potential, Spy vs. Spy will be one entertaining, wacky ride. more