Product Description

When a top-secret unauthorized mission goes bad cia agent tom bishop is captured and sentenced to dies. With just 24 hours to get him out alive bishops boss nathan muir must battle enemies abroad and the system inside the cia to save his friend. Now the clock is ticking and the race is on. Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 05/23/2006 Starring: Brad Pitt Robert Redford Run time: 127 minutes Rating: R Director: Tony Scott

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9988 in DVD
• Brand: Universal
• Released on: 2002-04-09
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Collector's Edition, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 126 minutes

Amazon.com
A thinking person's thriller, Spy Game employs dense plotting without sacrificing the kinetic momentum that is director Tony Scott's trademark. The film has the byzantine scope of a novel, focusing on veteran CIA operative Nathan Muir (Robert Redford), whose protégé Tom Bishop (Brad Pitt) is scheduled for execution in a Chinese prison. It's Muir's last day before retiring (cliché alert!), and Bishop is being deliberately sacrificed by oily CIA officials to ensure healthy trade with China. Muir has 24 hours to rescue Bishop and his perfunctory love interest (Catherine McCormack), and Spy Game connects the mentor's end-run strategy to flashbacks of his student's exploits in Berlin, Beirut, and beyond. Ambitious but emotionally bland--and not as exciting as Scott's Enemy of the State--Spy Game offers pass-the-torch humor between leather-faced Redford and pretty boy Pitt, and although their dialogue is occasionally limp, the movie compensates with efficient style and substance. --Jeff Shannon

From The New Yorker
Or, blond on blond. Robert Redford plays an old-school C.I.A. agent, a cynical, manipulative sort who harbors a rebellious, anti-bureaucratic streak. Brad Pitt is his protégé, a hotshot who disapproves of his boss's amorality. The movie is set in 1991, on the last day of Redford's career in the agency. Pitt has been arrested by the Chinese, and Michael Frost Beckner and David Arata's complicated screenplay lays out Redford's attempt to save him and intercuts it with flashbacks of their tortuous relationship as it unfolded in locales like Vietnam, Berlin, and Beirut. Tony Scott's visual panache, as always, obscures most of the issues raised by the script. The movie comes out against the callousness of using people for political ends while treating most of the people around the two gleaming stars as callously as possible. -David Denby
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

playing for keeps
"It's Muir's last day before retiring (cliché alert!)" says Amazon review. Lol. That is true. Why they gotta do that? SPY GAME is a good movie though. It's got good acting, was directed well, tells a good story and I always appreciate seeing lots of Europe in a movie. It doesn't paint dark enough a picture of the CIA, an organization that has done enough harm in the world that socially responsible filmmakers should never miss the opportunity to really let those creeps have it, imo. But of course sending a message is not even close to being the whole point of telling a story or making a movie. I'd say, just don't make 'em look good. And SPY GAME does sort of come close, what with none other than Brad Pitt and Robert Redford together on screen. Two of Hollywood's best looking and most charismatic actors. They're cool together. Basically as a young soldier Pitt is recruited by Redford to the Company. They do some work over the years (the hot spots: eastern europe, the middle east)and eventually Pitt becomes disillusioned with spy games and all the shenanigans and murder. Pitt falls in love with a woman. Pitt and Redford go their seperate ways, but before they do Redford has made clear his belief that one should never stick their neck out. Pitt then gets caught by Chinese authorities trying to save his woman. I'll leave the rest for you to enjoy. I recommend SPY GAME

Neat Twist on Spy Movies
This was a pretty typical spy movie, fast-moving, double-agents, all that stuff. However, most of the real-time action in the movie takes place in an office. I found this part of the movie to be interesting and taut, and it was more than a little refreshing for the genre. Robert Redford plays a great smart-[expletive deleted], and I enjoyed the office scenes a lot. The flashbacks were good at times, but tended toward the saccharine. Can't say I'm thrilled with the ending, either, but it wasn't a complete cheat.

If too many car chases are giving you a headache, this low-key spy flick might be something you're into.

Great Movies
This is a great spy film with Robert Redford and Brad Pitt. You must watch every scene very closely because there is so much going on that you don't realize what's happening. Every time I watch the DVD I see something I didn't pick up on before. Excellent movie.