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Spy Games (1999) from Johnny Web (Uncle Scoopy; Greg Wroblewski) and Tuna |
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Scoop's notes Spy Games is an international espionage story filmed mostly in Helsinki. What a setting! Yes, the bitter cold, the mountainous urban snowdrifts, the reindeer with icicles dripping from their jowls, the depressed and unsmiling faces facing each day of grayness ... all part of something the Finns quaintly refer to, as they have since ancient times, as "summer". Based upon my observations of Finland in this movie, I am now able to give a detailed breakdown of how the Finnish workforce is divided:
Actually, this movie got kind of a rough time from the members at IMDb, but it's just a piece of fluff comedy, with Bill Pullman and Bruno Kirby providing some (minimal) laughs, and Irene Jacob providing something or another. She was cast as a Russian spy in a comedy, although she is neither Russian nor funny, so you have to wonder why anyone thought that was a good idea. Well, I guess if you're going to hire a French woman to play a Russian in an English-language comedy, Jacob is funnier than Juliette Binoche. Of course, Ingmar Bergman is funnier than Binoche. Hell, the prophet Jeremiah was funnier than Binoche. Oh, wait. The part called for the female spy to get naked in the sauna, and Irene Jacob looks exceptionally good naked. I guess that solves the mystery of why they hired her. But I digress. The movie is dumber than a box full of rocks, but it has some minor chuckles and is honestly not an unpleasant way to pass the time when you are looking to shut off the brain cells. I think the reviewers roughed it up because it kind of switches away from comedy now and then and takes itself a bit seriously. Oh, I'm not telling you this is funnier than Blazing Saddles, but it isn't completely bad either. |
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Tuna's notes Spy Games is an espionage comedy set in Finland. Think I Spy, but with sex. It is an English/Finnish/American/French/German co-production, which may explain why they cast Irene Jacob in the female lead role as a Russian Spy. International co-production deals frequently have casting restrictions as part of the deal. Jacob works for the SVR (former KGB), and her assignment is to keep an eye on CIA agent Bill Pullman, which is not difficult since they are constant bed partners. They are both ambitious but feel somewhat obsolete with the end of the cold war. Then, someone encodes satellite access codes into a porn tape, and tries to smuggle it into Finland to pass on to the SVR. CIA desk agent Glenn Plummer is sent into the field to recover the codes, and doesn't get along well with Pullman, who's an experienced field operative. Getting his hands on the tape was easy enough, but finding out what the contents are proves much more challenging. The real challenge, however, is to make a substitute porno film filled with disinformation. This begins to set up the most hilarious moment in this film. As Plummer was constantly replaying the porno to try and decode it, a maid and a porter had their ears glued to the door. When the decision was made to shoot another porno, they were drafted as the performers. Shooting was done, the couple was relaxing on the bed, and something irritated Plummer, so he shouted "fuck." And they did. The IMDb rating of 4.3 is a little harsh. It could be a reaction to the fact that this could have been much better than it was. t was moderately funny in places, Jacob and Pullman had chemistry, and there were clever aspects to the plot, but it just didn't work the way it could have. I suspect the problem lies with the fact that it takes native fluency of a language to create a successful comedy in that language. There is nothing at all wrong with the plot outline, but much of the dialogue could have been improved, and the timing was mostly off. |
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