So Kerewin and I recently watched the third of these BBC movies, Salting The Battlefield, to finish the trilogy started with Page Eight and then Turks and Caicos. These were BBC ‘tv movies’ – we watched them on PBS.org via Masterpiece, for those inclined to check them out.

So these are spy thrillers, in my view the first two are pretty good, the third not quite as. Bill Nighy is the star here but in each movie there are several around him definitely providing interest. Ralph Fiennes knocks another ‘you really want to hate him’ role out of the park, he’s such a good bad guy (not as over the top as Voldemort or Harry from In Bruges, but there are definitely elements of both in his portrayal of the British PM).

And these are a bit lower-key than say, a Bourne movie, and not as complex as Tinker Tailor was (not sure of any movie that fits that bill). Still, they are probably far more realistic as regards plot and setting by contrast.

It was also obvious that the writers are definitely making both a direct and indirect commentary on the increasing British spy state as having grown out of the Bush years and why it just keeps on growing to this day – most notably in the third movie. What ends up happening to Johnny and the others is not as predictable as you might expect – but then again, this isn’t Hollywood either.

Check them out!

candybowl

Finished reading Dan Brown‘s Digital Fortress last night. Good book! At first I was somewhat skeptical, and I’ve never read his later, more famous novels (Da Vinci Code, etc.) nor seen those movies. But this tale of spies, the NSA and cryptography moves right along up to the end, and has several good twists in it. I’m not going to delve into the plot, save that if you’ve read any Tom Clancy novels, this reads a lot like one, and that’s not a bad thing, if you like these types of books and don’t take them seriously.

Written in 1998, naturally it has a bit more ‘NSA are good guys’ tone to it – as opposed to THESE days. Not terribly unlike the Cliff Stoll book I read last December in that respect, really – but sadly quaint to think they used to act responsibly like that.

At any rate, Mr. Brown sets up multiple discussions about ‘who is watching the watchers’ at key points in the novel, but wisely doesn’t editorialize at length – this is a thriller, after all, not The Thin Blue Line. I’m actually surprised they haven’t tried to make this a movie like his later books, although given its central focus on the NSA, i’m sure they wouldn’t like that, especially now.

At any rate, it’s a fast, entertaining read and I recommend it!

candybowl

Over the past few years, many movies have been pretty hit and miss. For every 40 Year Old Virgin, there are multiple horrible movies like Superbad. For every Inception, there are middling sci-fi attempts like Tron:Legacy. And there are few action/thrillers that offer up much beyond the same old car chases and Matrix–action ripoffs of late. Except the Bourne series.

I just watched the third Bourne movie again this Sunday – The Bourne Ultimatum. And for a second sequel, it’s pretty dadburn good. Despite there being some unbelieveable stuff in these movies (how many times can Matt Damon blast through major cities in small(er) cars, crashing them into/being hit by nearly everyone else, and emerge alive? Apparently always, even if banged up :). And I sure hope our own ‘intelligence’ services aren’t near as cynical (or corrupt) as most of the main actors are in the portrayal of the CIA and similar here (but as these movies came out during the Bush years, I suspect they were making a LONG-overdue ‘statement’ on Bush/Cheney’s corrupt foreign policy, no?).

Anyway, I really like these movies. They are a well-balanced mix of action and plot, with things always moving along fairly well – no real dead spots. They don’t rely on obvious devices of sex and pointless violence to advance the plot (not to say they aren’t violent – they certainly are). And despite many bad things that Bourne ultimately does (or in some cases, is forced to do) you really end up rooting for him throughout. Plus I like that Joan Allen‘s character tries to be the sane one amid all the mayhem – she is given the role of questioning her own agency and its ‘black’ ops (within which Bourne was a key player). The movies don’t answer the many tangential questions they raise about all this, but (again) I sincerely hope much of it is simply Hollywood and not reality. They make effective use of (and if not real – implied commentary on) the ‘Big Brother’ society we are increasingly forced to live in – not fun.

Plus great bad guys! Each movie has at least one, by the end there are several. Especially Albert Finney in the third one. Having seen him now in Erin Brockovich, Ocean’s 12 and this third Bourne movie – like the chameleon Gary Oldman – AF is never the same thing twice!

And yes, Bourne ends up with a (sort of) happy ending by the end of movie 3. Which if you’ve watched all three movies, he damn well deserves, methinks.

candybowl