Jack Strong (2014)

Again I didn't have much time for movies this week, and I decided to vary a bit. "Jack Strong" is mostly a Polish production, having a historic fact as subject. Ryszard Kuklinski, aka "The Seagull" aka Jack Strong, was a colonel in the Polish army during the cold war, who sick of the Soviet domination and apparently scared by the increasing chances for a WW3 decided to give the Americans everything he could get from Kremlin.

The movie is a spy story in the most classic sense, where classic doesn't mean James Bond by Ian Fleming, but more something like John LeCarre or Frederick Forsyth, only that there's no literature here but a real case. This might make it seem slow in the beginning, until Kuklinski decides to spy for the West, but it slowly gains some dynamic once the tension rises after the Russians find out they have a leak. I'd even say that while in the first part seemed a bit boring, in the end I got to think that the dynamic of the actions spoils the realism of it.

There are some elements that are clearly added extra to what happened, but overall the movie is surprising authentic and credible, starting with the people, cars, furniture, even the weather (= when the winter was really winter), all specific for that time. Even though it romances a bit the history of the main character, it has some documentary value too. Clearly it's a better option than the average Hollywood action movie, but also clearly it's not the most engaging production ever. Depends on your mood.

Rating: 3 out of 5

Red Sparrow (2018)

I don't know what's worse, not having a subject, or having an obsolete one. Generally, I avoid "high-profile" titles at one year after their release, exactly because there's enough written about them. But I thought on making an exception with "Red Sparrow" 1. I don't have anything else notable seen recently and 2. I need to do some justice, after skipping it last year following the reviews that were out back then.

Dominika Egorova is a successful ballerina at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, who after an accident, not a very accidental one though, must consider a career change. An uncle in a high position in the SVR structures (= the new intelligence branch of the former KGB) offers her a less orthodox employment, which, due to another not very accidental context + an ill mother, becomes an offer that she can't refuse. Like this, she gets into a unit destined for training spies in seduction techniques, psychological manipulation, etc. After that we get to the first mission, somewhere in Budapest, where she's tasked with corrupting an American agent. But, enough with the details. More in the movie.

This is an adaption of a novel by Jason Matthews - apparently a former CIA employee for more than 30 years, which was followed by two more written sequels. The critics I remember were complaining about the too entangled and boring story + too much sex and violence. First of all, these appreciations are a bit contradictory, but at least from the tangled & boring perspective, if we're comparing with "Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy", much more successful with the critics, what we have in "Red Sparow" is like a Ferrari besides a commuting train stopping in all stations. For the second perspective, well... it's rated R, but it didn't seem excessive to me considering other stuff in this category. And besides that we don't have a senseless action. It's probably the most "John le Carre movie" I've seen, which is not based on something written by John le Carre, despite the fact that the comparison with "Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy" doesn't hold. However, one that would hold is with "The Russia House" or with "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold". There's something here resembling an old school spy thriller = a story with a bit more depth than what you see in the average James Bond movie. And which adds also, surprisingly I would say, a romance part that's less artificial than what you would expect. If it wouldn't have included a scene with secret plans transmitted using... floppy disks, I would have said we have the perfect spy thriller here. At least we don't have a clear year setting for the action, so maybe we could force a late '90s as excuse, although... floppy disks... oh well..

Rating: 4 out of 5