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We love classy spy films. From James Bond through Harry Palmer through Jason Bourne, we just can't get enough of those sophisticated story lines, great action, twists and turns and espionage plots. Now we can look forward to what appears to be another great one: 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy,' the big-screen adaptation of John le Carré's Cold War novel about a mole at the very top of the British MI6 spy organization (The book was previously made into a miniseries, starring Alec Guinness, in 1979.)
The film is being directed by Tomas Alfredson ('Let the Right One In') and stars Gary Oldman as George Smiley, an MI6 agent pulled out of retirement to find the traitor. A great supporting cast includes Tom Hardy, Colin Firth, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ciaran Hinds, Mark Strong, Svetlana Khodchenko,...
http://cms.aol.com/378/content/posts/edit/20010067/
We love classy spy films. From James Bond through Harry Palmer through Jason Bourne, we just can't get enough of those sophisticated story lines, great action, twists and turns and espionage plots. Now we can look forward to what appears to be another great one: 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy,' the big-screen adaptation of John le Carré's Cold War novel about a mole at the very top of the British MI6 spy organization (The book was previously made into a miniseries, starring Alec Guinness, in 1979.)
The film is being directed by Tomas Alfredson ('Let the Right One In') and stars Gary Oldman as George Smiley, an MI6 agent pulled out of retirement to find the traitor. A great supporting cast includes Tom Hardy, Colin Firth, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ciaran Hinds, Mark Strong, Svetlana Khodchenko,...
- 8/5/2011
- by Harley W. Lond
- Moviefone
We continue our unabashed appreciation of some of the highlights of composer John Barry’s early movie career beyond the remit of the Bond franchise...
In the second part of our look at John Barry's extraordinary back catalogue of movie scores, we concentrate on a few more of the films from the mid- to late sixties. This was the beginning of a phase of phenomenal output, as well as experimentation, signposting his continuing diversity of technique and his burgeoning sense of style. Following on from the success of Zulu, his was a reputation that was quickly gaining momentum and garnering feverish accolades.
Stylish, contemporary and full of energy, Barry played as hard as he worked, and this musical period took place in a blur of fast living and nights at the Pickwick Club with the likes of Michael Caine and Terence Stamp, sampling the delights of the sixties at...
In the second part of our look at John Barry's extraordinary back catalogue of movie scores, we concentrate on a few more of the films from the mid- to late sixties. This was the beginning of a phase of phenomenal output, as well as experimentation, signposting his continuing diversity of technique and his burgeoning sense of style. Following on from the success of Zulu, his was a reputation that was quickly gaining momentum and garnering feverish accolades.
Stylish, contemporary and full of energy, Barry played as hard as he worked, and this musical period took place in a blur of fast living and nights at the Pickwick Club with the likes of Michael Caine and Terence Stamp, sampling the delights of the sixties at...
- 8/1/2011
- Den of Geek
Death, Cab and Cuties.
I once woke up with a headache in a strange location where nobody recognised me and days were missing from my life. Turns out I was recovering from a hangover at a party I’d crashed in a student squat. Luckily, I escaped before anybody raised too much objection. Things don’t go so smoothly for Dr Martin Harris (Taken's Liam Neeson), however, in the action thriller Unknown. Somebody has stolen his life, wife and probably his Blockbuster rental card too.
Jaume Collet-Serra, who is better known for directing the pair of horror films Orphan and the appalling House of Wax, does a better job adapting Didier Van-Cauwelaert’s 2003 novel - 'Hors de moi’, (Out of my head). [And he's recently been announced as the new director of Akira - News Ed.] It’s inevitable this film will receive the usual Hitchcock/De Palma references because it’s almost a paint by numbers conspiracy thriller. There’s even a...
I once woke up with a headache in a strange location where nobody recognised me and days were missing from my life. Turns out I was recovering from a hangover at a party I’d crashed in a student squat. Luckily, I escaped before anybody raised too much objection. Things don’t go so smoothly for Dr Martin Harris (Taken's Liam Neeson), however, in the action thriller Unknown. Somebody has stolen his life, wife and probably his Blockbuster rental card too.
Jaume Collet-Serra, who is better known for directing the pair of horror films Orphan and the appalling House of Wax, does a better job adapting Didier Van-Cauwelaert’s 2003 novel - 'Hors de moi’, (Out of my head). [And he's recently been announced as the new director of Akira - News Ed.] It’s inevitable this film will receive the usual Hitchcock/De Palma references because it’s almost a paint by numbers conspiracy thriller. There’s even a...
- 7/17/2011
- Shadowlocked
When it came to saving the world, bedding the babes, breaking Q’s gadgets, James Bond was the man, even if his tongue-in cheek adventures are a long way from the very real spy world of John le Carre and Harry Palmer.
Although Eon productions owned the movie rights to the Ian Fleming novels, it hasn’t stopped film-makers from making a couple of unofficial Bond flicks as well as several interesting variations on the character. So here are some of the parodies, pastiches, parallels and strange oddities that make up this alternative world of 007!
Our Man Flint (1966): Hollywood was now getting in on the Bond act with the Matt Helm movie series (1966-69) and TV’s The Man from U. N. C. L. E. (1964-68). But this effort is the ultimate of sixties cool with James Coburn in fine charismatic form as brilliant super-agent Derek Flint. Armed with...
Although Eon productions owned the movie rights to the Ian Fleming novels, it hasn’t stopped film-makers from making a couple of unofficial Bond flicks as well as several interesting variations on the character. So here are some of the parodies, pastiches, parallels and strange oddities that make up this alternative world of 007!
Our Man Flint (1966): Hollywood was now getting in on the Bond act with the Matt Helm movie series (1966-69) and TV’s The Man from U. N. C. L. E. (1964-68). But this effort is the ultimate of sixties cool with James Coburn in fine charismatic form as brilliant super-agent Derek Flint. Armed with...
- 7/4/2011
- Shadowlocked
The Cars 2 soundtrack. Are policemen getting younger? Is TV getting worse? Are kids getting stupider? Are movie soundtracks getting longer? Well, not longer per se – certainly not in the sense of the consumer getting more music for their increasingly hard-earned money (heaven forbid) – but rather bittily divided into ever greater numbers of individual tracks. One of last year’s best, Tron: Legacy powered through the 20-track barrier, and now the Cars 2 tie-in album arrives divided into an improbable 26 musical segments. And with five of those segments clocking in at less than 60 seconds, and a further five falling short of the 120 mark, it could be tempting to caricature the record as the cutesy answer to a Minutemen album.
Tempting but not really accurate, for the Cars 2 soundtrack isn’t as piecemeal as it might appear on first glance. Despite the epic track-listing (which surely has more to do...
Tempting but not really accurate, for the Cars 2 soundtrack isn’t as piecemeal as it might appear on first glance. Despite the epic track-listing (which surely has more to do...
- 6/27/2011
- by Paul Martin
- Movie-moron.com
Russian spies used to study Michael Caine's movies and marvel at the cleverness of his characters.
The British actor was flattered when he learned Russian leader Vladimir Putin used to watch his Harry Palmer films in the late 1960s with his comrades in the Kgb.
Caine tells WENN, "A friend of mine met Putin and he was head of the Kgb then and he said, 'Tell Mr. Caine we used to watch those movies and laugh because he was such a clever spy and we were never that clever.'"
And the actor insists his Palmer was a much better spy than James Bond - because Caine's creation, based on novelist Len Deighton's bespectacled character, was such a normal guy.
He adds, "James Bond was so obvious he couldn't possibly be a spy because he drew so much attention to himself. My spy is the ordinary guy doing his own shopping in the supermarket. There is a reality to it."...
The British actor was flattered when he learned Russian leader Vladimir Putin used to watch his Harry Palmer films in the late 1960s with his comrades in the Kgb.
Caine tells WENN, "A friend of mine met Putin and he was head of the Kgb then and he said, 'Tell Mr. Caine we used to watch those movies and laugh because he was such a clever spy and we were never that clever.'"
And the actor insists his Palmer was a much better spy than James Bond - because Caine's creation, based on novelist Len Deighton's bespectacled character, was such a normal guy.
He adds, "James Bond was so obvious he couldn't possibly be a spy because he drew so much attention to himself. My spy is the ordinary guy doing his own shopping in the supermarket. There is a reality to it."...
- 6/20/2011
- WENN
Play Dirty (1969) is a nakedly opportunistic cash-in on Robert Aldrich's The Dirty Dozen (1967), produced by James Bond bankroller Harry Saltzman, but somewhere something went wrong and some actual filmmaking quality and wit and energy got into the mix. When star Michael Caine signed up for the ride, he thought he was getting René Clement as director, and was disappointed to be saddled with Hungarian cyclops André de Toth. Hard to see why, except that de Toth was tough to work with, and I guess by 1969 his name carried far less cache than the fashionable Clement. De Toth had just produced The Billion Dollar Brain, Saltzman's third Harry Palmer film with Caine, directed in inimitable style by Ken Russell. Here, more or less forced back into the director's chair, he adopts a notably unsentimental style, aided by screenwriters Melvyn Bragg (The Music Lovers) and an uncredited John McGrath (Bragg's collaborator...
- 3/31/2011
- MUBI
Sir Michael Caine, one of the most endearing and enduring of British acting legends seems to be working more than ever these days, with The Dark Knight Rises about to go before cameras, Gnomeo & Juliet out in the cinemas and Cars 2 on the horizon, the almost 78 year old Caine is hard to ignore. No more so that Hollywood seem to be remaking his entire back catalogue, this week the redo of his 1966 crime-caper Gambit has had some casting announcements, and we’ve already had new shiny versions of Alfie, The Italian Job, Get Carter and Sleuth (the latter two even featuring Sir Michael himself).
So, we got’s to a thinking. If this trend continues, just what Michael Caine films might be next on Hollywood’s hit-list and how would these potential re-imaginings be cast and crewed? Here’s a look at 5 potentials:
The Ipcress File
The film that...
So, we got’s to a thinking. If this trend continues, just what Michael Caine films might be next on Hollywood’s hit-list and how would these potential re-imaginings be cast and crewed? Here’s a look at 5 potentials:
The Ipcress File
The film that...
- 2/3/2011
- by Owain Paciuszko
- Obsessed with Film
Update: The extra cast have now been confirmed as Michael Caine as seasoned spy Finn McMissile, Emily Mortimer as spy-in-training Holley Shiftwell, Jason Isaacs as spy jet Siddeley, Joe Mantegna as Grem, Peter Jacobson as Acer, and Thomas Kretschmann as Professor Z.No sooner was the new poster unveiled this morning than we heard rumours of a spanking-new trailer for Cars 2, and sure enough it screeched to a halt in our metaphorical forecourt soon afterwards.Directed by John Lasseter with Brad Lewis, it's the further, globe-trotting adventures of Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) and his mate Tow Mater (Larry the Cable Guy). But the big news is that that's Michael Caine voicing British super spy Finn McMissile, who will therefore have a touch of the Harry Palmer about him, and not simply be a James Bond clone as some had suggested.Cars 2 is out on July 22, 2011, in the UK,...
- 11/17/2010
- EmpireOnline
It's the second ever Guardian film liveblog, and our inaugural effort covering something on the TV. You voted for Michael Hann to sit down in front of Layer Cake; join him from 9pm (when it's on Fiver) and let us know your thoughts
10.33pm: @Wedgemondo's looking forward to The Social Network. It's fine, but it stops short of greatness. It's so specific to its era that I wonder whether anyone will even be able to watch it in 10 years' time.
10.31pm: Another well-handled beating, in which Colm Meaney repeatedly slams Craig into a chest freezer full of frozen goods. I think there's an interesting comparison between this film and Eastern Promises, another one set around London's underworld. This one, I think, has a rather better feel for London - Cronenberg's in Eastern Promises didn't seem too sure, and it certainly didn't feel like London to me. Though it's true I've...
10.33pm: @Wedgemondo's looking forward to The Social Network. It's fine, but it stops short of greatness. It's so specific to its era that I wonder whether anyone will even be able to watch it in 10 years' time.
10.31pm: Another well-handled beating, in which Colm Meaney repeatedly slams Craig into a chest freezer full of frozen goods. I think there's an interesting comparison between this film and Eastern Promises, another one set around London's underworld. This one, I think, has a rather better feel for London - Cronenberg's in Eastern Promises didn't seem too sure, and it certainly didn't feel like London to me. Though it's true I've...
- 10/4/2010
- by Michael Hann
- The Guardian - Film News
Callan is a dry, downbeat show about an ex-serviceman used by British intelligence to deal with difficult situations, sometimes requiring him to kill. It's an unglamorous, un-romanticised account of the job, that lays bare the hypocrisy and unpleasantness of the Cold War struggle between the West and the former Soviet Union. The two series of gripping stories, 22 in all, hinge on the compelling central performance of Edward Woodward as complex reluctant anti-hero David Callan.
In the same way that wild optimistic flights of science fiction fantasy like Barbarella and 2001:a Space Odyssey gave way to cynicism and negative future visions like Planet Of The Apes and Soylent Green, spy films were also transformed from the slick, wise-cracking James Bond and Men From Uncle, to the downbeat and unsettling Harry Palmer and Callan.
Discrediting, blackmailing, and ultimately killing people whose actions threaten the West is the stock in trade on the...
In the same way that wild optimistic flights of science fiction fantasy like Barbarella and 2001:a Space Odyssey gave way to cynicism and negative future visions like Planet Of The Apes and Soylent Green, spy films were also transformed from the slick, wise-cracking James Bond and Men From Uncle, to the downbeat and unsettling Harry Palmer and Callan.
Discrediting, blackmailing, and ultimately killing people whose actions threaten the West is the stock in trade on the...
- 5/10/2010
- by admin@shadowlocked.com (Parsley The Lion)
- Shadowlocked
Michael Caine is Harry Brown. In a long and resplendent career he’s been Jack Carter, Alfie, Harry Palmer, Alfred the Butler and Austin Power’s dad, to name a few. The man is a legend and in his august years, starring in a film set in his home city, in which he kicks arse as a senior citizen dispensing some rough justice to criminal feral youths. Violent lives will meet a violent end. So goes the film’s message.
By coincidence, Daniel Barber’s debut holds a few similarities with Clint Eastwood’s Gran Torino. As in Eastwood’s final acting gig, there is something very elegiac about Michael Caine’s performance: all shuffling movements and sad eyes until he finds inner strength through violent means.
Harry Brown is a widowed pensioner living on a council estate descended into social chaos. It is a place where gangs loiter, rob and kill for kicks.
By coincidence, Daniel Barber’s debut holds a few similarities with Clint Eastwood’s Gran Torino. As in Eastwood’s final acting gig, there is something very elegiac about Michael Caine’s performance: all shuffling movements and sad eyes until he finds inner strength through violent means.
Harry Brown is a widowed pensioner living on a council estate descended into social chaos. It is a place where gangs loiter, rob and kill for kicks.
- 11/11/2009
- by Martyn Conterio
- FilmShaft.com
Movie veteran Michael Caine is looking to bring back his most famous character for one last hurrah.
The actor played spy Harry Palmer in three movies in the mid 1960s - The Ipcress File, Funeral In Berlin and Billion Dollar Brain - and he's keen to bring the bespectacled Cold War superagent back to life one more time.
He tells WENN, "I have a script called Cold War Requiem, which is Harry retired and he's living out his fantasy in some middle class area in London and the guys who he screwed have now got rich and they've decided to come and kill him.
"I would like to get that done but we haven't got that financed yet."...
The actor played spy Harry Palmer in three movies in the mid 1960s - The Ipcress File, Funeral In Berlin and Billion Dollar Brain - and he's keen to bring the bespectacled Cold War superagent back to life one more time.
He tells WENN, "I have a script called Cold War Requiem, which is Harry retired and he's living out his fantasy in some middle class area in London and the guys who he screwed have now got rich and they've decided to come and kill him.
"I would like to get that done but we haven't got that financed yet."...
- 9/14/2009
- WENN
By Lee Pfeiffer
Harry Alan Towers, the legendary British producer of low-budget, high-profit B movies, has died at age 88. Towers had a long career and had remained active in the film business. He was working on his autobiography when he died. Towers was a master at selling low-budget movies with one major star in order to broaden international appeal. He worked many times with Sir Christopher Lee, and their collaborative efforts included the highly popular Fu Manchu films of the 1960s. Towers also dabbled in B spy movies and horror films with kinky sexual angles. In the 1990s, he also brought Michael Caine back to the role of Harry Palmer in a series of made-for-cable TV movies. He is survived by his wife, actress Maria Rohm.
(Cinema Retro writer John Exshaw covers the making of the Fu Manchu films in Cinema Retro issue #15, coming this fall. The story includes exclusive...
Harry Alan Towers, the legendary British producer of low-budget, high-profit B movies, has died at age 88. Towers had a long career and had remained active in the film business. He was working on his autobiography when he died. Towers was a master at selling low-budget movies with one major star in order to broaden international appeal. He worked many times with Sir Christopher Lee, and their collaborative efforts included the highly popular Fu Manchu films of the 1960s. Towers also dabbled in B spy movies and horror films with kinky sexual angles. In the 1990s, he also brought Michael Caine back to the role of Harry Palmer in a series of made-for-cable TV movies. He is survived by his wife, actress Maria Rohm.
(Cinema Retro writer John Exshaw covers the making of the Fu Manchu films in Cinema Retro issue #15, coming this fall. The story includes exclusive...
- 8/6/2009
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
1. John Steed The Avengers debuted in 1961, before the James Bond movies captured the world's attention. But back then, the ultra-suave, bowler-hatted super-spy John Steed wasn't the main character, and it was more a flashy police procedural than an espionage adventure. It wasn't until a few years later, after 007 became an iconic figure, that the popularity of The Avengers exploded and John Steed made his transformation from rough-and-tumble cop to dashing international man of mystery. Even then, it took the addition of science-fiction elements—and a rotating cast of ass-kicking lovelies—to fully flesh out what would become one of the longest-running spy shows of all time. As the series went on, John Steed, played with deadly élan by Patrick Macnee, became more Bond-like, and while co-stars Honor Blackman and Diana Rigg both went on to spend time with 007, Rigg's catsuit-favoring Emma Peel became Steed's most iconic sidekick....
- 11/10/2008
- by Scott Tobias, Noel Murray, Nathan Rabin, Leonard Pierce, Keith Phipps
- avclub.com
After Thunderball came out, the whole world went James Bond crazy. Suddenly, everyone was making spy thriller. There was the Matt Helm film series with Dean Martin, the Derek Flint movies with James Coburn, Michael Caine as Harry Palmer in a trio of films made by Bond producer Harry Saltzman, The Quiller Memorandum, That Man In Rio, Kiss The Girls & Make Them Die, Deadlier Than Male, etc... On TV, there was I, Spy, The Man From U.N.C.L.E, Get Smart, It Takes A Thief, and many others. In...
- 10/31/2008
- by Chris Bumbray
- JoBlo.com
By Neil Pedley
This week sees the return of the Wachowski brothers, Tarsem Singh ("The Cell") and Henry Bean ("The Believer") to the big screen, not to mention new films from documentarians Nick Broomfield ("Tupac and Biggie") and Doug Pray ("Scratch"). On the other hand, after running around Tribeca, we still need to catch up on last week's releases.
"The Babysitters"
The idea of the spunky teenage boy succumbing to the allure of an experienced older woman is the kind of Hollywood golden goose that launches major careers (think Dustin Hoffman). But when the roles are reversed, the result is the directorial debut of David Ross that sees an entrepreneurial high schooler (Katherine Waterston, daughter of Sam) and her friends turn their babysitting ring into a call girl service, realizing there are alternative ways to pay for college besides waiting tables. It stars when one local dad (John Leguizamo) goes...
This week sees the return of the Wachowski brothers, Tarsem Singh ("The Cell") and Henry Bean ("The Believer") to the big screen, not to mention new films from documentarians Nick Broomfield ("Tupac and Biggie") and Doug Pray ("Scratch"). On the other hand, after running around Tribeca, we still need to catch up on last week's releases.
"The Babysitters"
The idea of the spunky teenage boy succumbing to the allure of an experienced older woman is the kind of Hollywood golden goose that launches major careers (think Dustin Hoffman). But when the roles are reversed, the result is the directorial debut of David Ross that sees an entrepreneurial high schooler (Katherine Waterston, daughter of Sam) and her friends turn their babysitting ring into a call girl service, realizing there are alternative ways to pay for college besides waiting tables. It stars when one local dad (John Leguizamo) goes...
- 5/5/2008
- by Neil Pedley
- ifc.com
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