Confused, Overly Complex, Badly Staged
February 15, 2010
Julia Roberts, Clive Own
As a former spy who has spent the last 21 years in commercial intelligence, i expected much more from this film with its great actors but I was very disappointed. Had it not been in front of me on background as I edit my new book I would have turned it off completely on more than one occasion.
The ending is sort of clever and I will not spoil it, but there are no clues at the beginning so the movie more or less ends with “fooled you, didn't I, but your going to have to take my word for it.” And about that pink elephant that I am keeping away from your front lawn….
Over-all, this is a cluttered mess.
There are still no really great commercial intelligence films, nor should they be, because those who spend heavily on commercial espionage lack both ethics and brains. 95% of what you need to be a successful ethical commercial intelligence practioner is openly available and your customers should be providing you with the rest, i.e. what they want that no one else has thought to give them.
Other spy-type DVDs that I have enjoyed include
Breach (Widescreen Edition)
Firewall (Widescreen Edition)
The Departed (Widescreen Edition)
Live Free or Die Hard [Blu-ray]
U-571 (Collector's Edition)
True Lies
Out of Sight (Collector's Edition)
And of course the Bourne series and the new James Bond series and before that, everything featuring George Smiley.
