Posts tagged Michael Gaston
Bridge of Spies Opens Friday Oct. 16, 2015
Oct 15th
Posted by Channel 1 Networks in Movie Trailers
A dramatic thriller set against the backdrop of a series of historic events, DreamWorks Pictures/Fox 2000 Pictures’ “Bridge of Spies” tells the story of James Donovan, a Brooklyn lawyer who finds himself thrust into the center of the Cold War when the CIA sends him on the near-impossible task to negotiate the release of a captured American U-2 pilot. Screenwriters Matt Charman and Ethan Coen & Joel Coen have woven this remarkable experience in Donovan’s life into a story inspired by true events that captures the essence of a man who risked everything and vividly brings his personal journey to life.
Directed by three-time Academy Award®-winning director Steven Spielberg, “Bridge of Spies” stars: two-time Academy Award winner Tom Hanks as James Donovan; three-time Tony Award® winner Mark Rylance as Rudolf Abel, a KGB agent defended by Donovan; Scott Shepherd as CIA operative Hoffman; Academy Award nominee Amy Ryan as James’ wife, Mary; Sebastian Koch as East German lawyer Vogel; and Academy Award nominee Alan Alda as Thomas Watters, a partner at Donovan’s law firm. The film is produced by Spielberg, Marc Platt and Kristie Macosko Krieger with Adam Somner, Daniel Lupi, Jeff Skoll and Jonathan King serving as executive producers. The screenplay is by Matt Charman and three-time Academy Award winners Ethan Coen & Joel Coen. “Bridge of Spies” will be released in theaters on October 16, 2015.
Find out more about this movie at http://bridgeofspies.com/
“Body of Lies” Interesting, but Not Engaging
Oct 16th
Posted by Channel 1 Networks in Hotshots Movie Reviews
Interesting, but Not Engaging
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
BODY OF LIES is a modern-day spy thriller set in the Middle East that holds your attention while you are watching it, but after it is over, you might feel unsatisfied.
The fourth collaboration between Russell Crowe and director Ridley Scott, the film also stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a CIA agent on the ground who is in almost constant cell-phone communication with Crowe, his handler back in the United States.
In fact, Crowe’s Ed Hoffman can even be directing DiCaprio’s Roger Ferris while Hoffman is at home guiding his young son to the bathroom or at one of his children’s soccer games.
And even when Hoffman is at CIA headquarters, the satellite technology is so sophisticated that he can watch Ferris while Ferris is driving out in the desert or even running through crowded streets.
Their main objective is to catch Al-Saleem, an Islamic terrorist mastermind behind two massive suicide bombings in Europe. To this end, Ferris concocts a complicated scheme to make an innocent man look as if he is another terrorist mastermind competing with Al-Saleem, in order to draw Al-Saleem out into the open.
As part of the plan, Ferris needs the cooperation of a man named Hani, who is the head of Jordan’s covert operations and who tells Ferris his one
rule: that Ferris must never lie to him.
Hoffman, however, tells Ferris, “You cannot trust Hani. Am I clear?”
Now, the film seems to be a training manual for terrorists in showing just how certain operations can be accomplished, such as how to get one man into one automobile out in the desert without revealing to an overhead satellite which automobile he is in.
The film also shows warfare at its best. Or should that be at its worst?
After a while, however, we might find ourselves asking do we really care what happens any more?
The theme could be described as “Nobody is innocent,” but there seems to be too many similarities to too many other recent films, some better and some not as good, but is that the fault of this film or the fault of the novel on which it is based?
Even a semblance of a love story seems to be generic and just plopped down into the plot.
BODY OF LIES is interesting to watch, but not very engaging.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”