By: Anthony King

GOING IN:

Pierce Brosnan is back and he seems pissed off.  I don’t know where he went, but I know I haven’t seen him in a while. So, initially I was excited to see him in a new trailer.

I’m not a huge Bond guy, nor do I particularly like Pierce in the role for a few reasons.  Firstly, his Bond movies get increasingly more stupid and unrealistic as they go on. And secondly, I never thought he could kick the crap out of anyone let alone be a renowned international spy.  But he does look tough in The November Man;  perhaps with the added miles on that face of his he can be more intimidating.

Although the film looks like it might be a lot of fun and have exciting action, the story itself leaves a lot to be desired.  It’s not even close to the realm of original.  The old spy/cop/badass has to go toe-to-toe with his pupil who is arrogant and thinks he’s better than his teacher.  Ultimately he can’t, but along the way, they realize they are on the same side and they learn to appreciate and respect each other and then they kiss.  Ok, usually it doesn’t go that far, but I hope they do something fresh with the formula.

The film also features another favourite of mine: former Bond Girl Olga Kurylenko.  I find her immensely watchable and not just because she’s gorgeous, but that helps for sure.

It’s directed by Roger Donaldson, who you’ve probably never heard of. But, I bet you’ve seen his movies.  Who doesn’t love Dante’s Peak?  If I ever meet him, I’ll ask him why the stupid Grandma in that movie jumps into the acid water when they are five feet from the shore.  It makes no sense, but it’s great.  Also, he directed Species;  which shaped my young perverted life, but we won’t go into that.

Even though the plot looks unappealing, I can safely say I’m excited for this.  Could this be Pierce Brosnan’s big action comeback?  Could this be his Taken?  It worked for Liam Neeson and I have hopes it can work here.

Also, it’s Rated R.  Thankfully.

Suspected Rating: 6/10

COMING OUT:

Well, well.  What a pleasant surprise!

Believe it or not, the movie was actually kind of great.  There was much more to it than just a teacher versus student kind of thing.  In fact, that was just one small piece of a much bigger plot which I was glad to find out.  It’s still your typical run of the mill espionage story where everyone double crosses everyone and the lines between good and evil are blurry.  It worked well though, and served as a good frame for what turned out to be an awesome espionage thriller.

I consider myself a fan of these types of movies, so it’s always thrilling when one of them is actually good.  In fact, I don’t think I’ve enjoyed a movie of this genre this much since the Bourne series, or maybe Daniel Craig’s Bond movies if we’re counting those.  Either way this movie was a lot of fun.

The action was tense and often disturbing;  it earns its R rating for sure.  You’ll also be glad to hear I quite enjoyed Pierce Brosnan.  I believed he could kick some serious ass this time around.  In fact, I enjoyed this more than all his Bond films – maybe except for Goldeneye.

I will warn you some people might find some of the action over the top but I found that it worked well and, most importantly, it was entertaining.  I won’t spoil anything, but there was this scene where a spy gets into a car accident, and then moments later, he’s running again like nothing happen.  I felt it worked because they showed the guy putting on a seatbelt and then during the accident they show a close up of the air bag deploying and protecting him.

One lady behind me wasn’t having any of it though, “Well the movie just lost me, no way he’s fine after that.”  Well mysterious lady I think he could run after that, they clearly gave you all the information needed to believe it, so I’m not sure what else you needed.  People who watch movies with this mind set just annoy me.  I mean it’s a movie.  It’s a work of fiction created to entertain us.  Do these same people go to a Spiderman movie and think “Some kid gets bit by a spider and gets powers?  Pfft, ya right.”

I don’t have anything bad to say about this movie.  All I’ll say is it isn’t completely imaginative.  It doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel within the genre but it does a great job with what it sets out to do;  which is to making an exciting action spy thriller.  If that sounds at all appealing than believe me you won’t be disappointed.

Final Rating: 7/10

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Read more of Anthony King’s ‘Going In and Coming Out’ reviews at ‘Reel Mess’