'Spy Game? displays typical 'state-of-the-art eye candy?

"Spy Game"

Directed by: Tony Scott

Starring: Robert Redford, Brad Pitt

Rated: R

Director Tony Scott's films quite often are glitzy pieces of macho frenetic fluff. From "Top Gun" to "Days of Thunder" to "The Last Boy Scout," Scott has used flash-paced editing, big, big sound and lowest common denominator machismo to sell hundreds of millions of dollars worth of movie tickets around the world.

Nobody does it better, and while critics aren't always kind to him, Scott has the box-office record to back up his vision of the action genre. "Spy Game" can rightfully take its place in Scott's body of work, but there are a few interesting observations to be made here in the wake of recent world events.

Suicide bombers

While other Hollywood releases are being delayed so the producers can remove shots of the World Trade Center, "Spy Game" comes along with scenes of suicide bombers (but these guys are on "our" side) taking out a city block in Beirut. The film also features a plot line suggesting the U.S. government, and es-pecially the CIA, may be somewhat duplicitous in its dealings around the globe.

Fairly bold for a mainstream Holly-wood hit, in the face of the unbridled patriotism so evident the past few months.

My guess is, since the film was written and produced many months ago, these perceived messages are unintentional. It's still a wonder that movie executives would let such scenes be released at this particular time but I suppose the promise of a year-end box-office boost is too tempting to be ignored.

Besides the high action quotient, "Spy Game" also aims for the ladies' market, as well. You'd be hard-pressed to find two more engaging Hollywood heartthrobs than the (both very accomplished) actors in the film's lead roles.

CIA operative

Robert Redford and Brad Pitt star as a CIA operative and his hotshot protg.

As is wont to happen in this sort of film, old guard veteran Nathan Muir (Redford) is due for retirement but has just ONE MORE caper to complete. "Spy Game" has upped the ante, as Muir is actually set to retire the very day the action is taking place.

As the film opens, Tom Bishop (Pitt) and a group of medical aid workers are on location at a prison in China, trying to stem an outbreak of cholera. They're up to something else as well. ...

Bishop is caught in the act and incarcerated in the same prison. Swift and sure is Chinese justice and Bishop will be executed in 24 hours. Executed after being beaten and tortured for 23 hours, 59 minutes.

Back at Langley, home of the CIA, Nathan Muir is asked for any files he might have on his protg, but is not being let in on the reason they are being requested. One doesn't get this far in a top-notch espionage outfit without being at least somewhat clever although some of Muir's less Redfordesque colleagues seem to disprove that theory.

Playing dumb

Muir knows part of what's going on but plays dumb to find out the other particulars with the hope of saving Bishop from his inevitable fate.

During the intense CIA operation meeting we learn, through a series of flashbacks, the back story of Muir and Bishop. They met in Vietnam; Muir orchestrated Bishop's military service afterwards and made him an easy mark for recruitment into the Agency.

We also see a number of missions they worked together from Berlin to Beirut, learn a lot about Muir's somewhat cold philosophy and come to know why Bishop was on this particular mission in the Chinese prison.

These flashbacks provide the bulk of "Spy Game," and only during the final half hour do the events of the present head toward resolve.

Similarity

While I liked the film as pure escapism, and I admire both Pitt and Redford, the character of Nathan Muir was (and this isn't the actor's fault) too much like Robert Redford's "Spy for a Day."

He's done this thing a lot better before in Sydney Pollack's "Three Days of the Condor."

This sort of post Cold War "what's a spy to do?" plot has been explored to better effect recently, as well, in John Boorman's "The Tailor of Panama."

Those criticisms aside, "Spy Game" shows off Tony Scott's flair for state-of-the-art eye candy and should satisfy the tastes of the action/thriller fan while to its credit it's not as bombastic as something like "The Rock," or "Mis-sion: Impossible."

(Jim Wunderle works at Associated Video Producers and is a Springfield free-lance writer and musician.)