Browse Tag: italy

The Spy Who Loved Me

The Spy Who Loved Me (1977): Lewis Gilbert

The James Bond experiment reached its 15th anniversary with its 10th movie and first partial remake. While the first two Roger Moore movies were interesting departures from the Sean Connery era and dips into different film styles, The Spy Who Loved Me revealed a creative team lacking in ideas.

ONE SENTENCE PLOT SUMMARY: James Bond teams with a Soviet spy to stop a madman from stealing submarines and starting a nuclear war.

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RECAP: Quantum of Solace

Quantum of Solace (2008): Marc Forster

Picking up moments after the end of Casino Royale, Daniel Craig’s James Bond follow-up is the first true sequel in the Bond canon. That fact alone makes this movie stand out.

ONE SENTENCE PLOT SUMMARY: James Bond, fresh off the death of a lovely lady he fancied, tracks the organization responsible for her death.  Continue Reading

RECAP: Kingsman: The Golden Circle

Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017): Matthew Vaughn

The surprise action hit of 2014, Kingsman: The Secret Service spawned a sequel from the same director and writers. What if the US had a private secret service? Well, you’re about to find out.

ONE SENTENCE PLOT SUMMARY: An American drug queen pin annihilates the Kingsman, forcing the Brits to join their American counterparts the Statesman.  Continue Reading

RECAP: The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015): Guy Ritchie

Guy Ritchie’s interpretation of the 1960s TV spy classic was the first of two 2015 films to depict Berlin’s famous Checkpoint Charlie, suspect Number One to be flashpoint of World War III.

You can learn all you need to know about the style of these two movies (Steven Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies was the other) from how they film this checkpoint.

In The Man from U.N.C.L.E. a dapper man confidently walks to the checkpoint in the summer in bright daylight. In Bridge of Spies a car slowly creeps to the checkpoint at night in a snowstorm. Ritchie tells us to get ready for some fun, and style, and that’s what we get.

ONE SENTENCE PLOT SUMMARY: Mr. Solo, a suave womanizer (no, a different Mr. Solo), teams up with a KGB agent and a car mechanic to track a black market atom bomb.  Continue Reading