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, BISHOP'S 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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5712 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, 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

Solid performances by Redford and Pitt.
'Spy game' is a simple spy story with terrific performances by its lead actors - Robert Redford and Brad Pitt. Pitt plays CIA agent Tom Bishop, who is found, hired and trained by Nathan, played by Robert Redford. Tom Bishop's personal mission in China goes haywire and he is taken captive by the Chinese. And then it is all upto Redford to rescue him. How Redford does it is the rest of the plot, which alternates between the present and the past, as narrated by Redford.

Redford plays Nathan effortlessly, with charm and ease. He leaves most of the action sequences to the younger actor and that is a wise thing, considering his age. Yet again, Pitt proves that he has the acting talent to go with his looks. The scenes where Pitt and Redford appear together are nicely written and acted.

The only negative points in the film are the background music, which is jarring at times, and the slightly dragging middle part, but it does build up the tempo for the finale. These defects are more than compensated by Redford and Pitt and this is one film that is worth watching.

An extrordinary chess match
When I first saw this film in theatres, I thoroughly enjoyed it however was a bit dissapointed. I realized later that my discontent did not stem from the movie but the way it was marketed. In trailers, they portrayed the movie as a straight up action film in the tradition of "enemy of the state." This being said, the movie did not live up to THAT expectation.

When I realized this and watched the movie for the second time on DVD, I saw this film for what it really was...A superb chess match between Redfords character and the CIA bureacracy. Everything else is truly secondary. Though exciting and dramatic, the storys (portrayed as flashbacks in the film) that Redfords character shares with the CIA taskforce, is really a strategy he is using to "win the game...a game which you dont want to lose"

Again, these flashbacks are insightful and sometimes thrilling, but are not meant to be represented as elements for an action film. It is a thinking mans movie for someone who likes there intelligence films to be intelligent. Hence the title Spy Game. Remember, some games are not won by brute physical force but with brains and strategic thinking instead.

Play this Game!
Set in 1991, Spy Game revolves around a grizzled veteran CIA operative (played by Robert Redford), and his protege, Tom Bishop (played by Brad Pitt).

The story unfolds in flashbacks, as Bishop has been captured by the Chinese government during a botched prison breakout. Bishop's mentor, Muir, is tidying up his affairs as he prepares to retire, but is forced to intercede with the CIA brass as they try to avoid an international incident by painting Bishop as a rogue agent; they hope that by leaving Bishop to be executed in China, the China/USA free trade summit will go off without a hitch. Muir's tale of Bishop's recruitment and training takes us from Vietnam to Germany to Beirut, and we see the behind-the-scenes machinations that REALLY make the world go 'round....

In the hands of a less-skilled director, the constant switching between the CIA tribunal and the globe-trotting flashbacks might have been confusing, but Tony Scott handles them deftly, using little visual tricks to differentiate the various locales, such as the sepia-tinted Vietnam scenes, and the sun-scorched vistas of Beirut. Redford brings humor and depth to Muir; he's always a welcome presence in any movie. Pitt elicits a great sense of sympathy as Bishop, an idealist who might not be cut-throat enough to play this game.....

Fans of espionage thrillers won't be disappointed.