A Spy Who Loved Me
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Or something to that effect.
Ever since I was little I loved spy movies. It all seemed so exciting and glamorous. Traveling the world and fighting evil. And the gadgets were cool. Oh yes there were dooh daahs even back in the day before iPods and iPhones were created.
But gadgets aside there is something incredibly alluring about spies (I think we have James Bond to blame for that).
Be as it may here is a selection of my favorite movie spies:
North By Northwest – this is one of my favorite movies by Hitchcock with Cary Grant as Roger O. Thornill (well that and Vertigo. Oh and Rear Window. How can you not love Hitchcock?) And how can you not love Cary Grant? They do not make them like that anymore.
Any James Bond movie with either Sean Connery or Daniel Craig – I would have a difficult time picking any Sean Connery/James Bond movie, I really liked them all – Dr. No, Goldfinger, From Russia With Love. As for Daniel Craig, well I know he was dubbed as the common man’s James Bond, but if liking Daniel Craig means I’m common so be it. Although that bit in Casino Royale when he shocked himself to restart his heart – honestly only in a Bond movie.Three Days of a Condor – directed by the late Sydney Pollack it features young and wrinkle free Robert Redford. I had a bit of a problem with this one because it took me years to see it from beginning to end, every time it was on the telly at some ungodly hour and I would fall asleep just as the opening credits rolled. When I finally did see it (I taped it to avoid the sleep pocket) I loved it.
La Femme Nikita – I saw the original version by Luc Besson in cinema. Now that particular Nikita is one kick ass b*tch. Did not care much for the versions that followed although I was always partial to Gabriel Bryne.
The Manchurian Candidate – the 1962 Frank Sinatra version. Not that the later version was bad, it just was not the same as the classic.
The Day of the Jackal – 1973 version, which I thought was brilliant. The later version not so much. I mean lets face if there is one thing worse the Brad Pitt’s Irish accent in Devil’s Own then it is Richard Gere and his Irish accent.
Sneakers – while it might not be serious as other work by Robert Redford, it does have a great cast – Sidney Poitier, Dan Aykroyd, Ben Kingsley and River Phoenix. Not to mention Mary McDonnell way before she was president Roslin.
Pink Panther movies – I was at a young and impressionable age and Clouseau was more a cop then a spy but for the pure comic value (and his wonderful disguises) I had to add it to the list.
And last but not least Spooks which is not really a movie but a British telly show. However it is about MI-5 and it does feature that delicious English crumpet Rupert Penry-Jones.
So what are your favorite spy movies?
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Some good picks, here! I agree that Connery and Craig are the best Bonds. Moore was a wee bit _too_ campy, though he was the Bond of my youth.. I agree about the original La Femme Nikita. The Bridget Fonda remake was OK, but I would have enjoyed it more had I not known how awesome the original was.
Agreed on Manchurian, too. If I’d never seen the original, the remake would have been better. But it’s hard not to compare the two, and the fear of communisim during the Cold War is just unsurpassed, even by the fear of terrorists..
As for the Pink Panther movies? We were just yesterday in the office discussing the commissioner, locked up in a straight jacket, writing “kill Clouseau” with a crayon pinched between his toes. Good times.
And Sneakers was indeed pretty decent. I sadly admit I haven’t seen the others, though I’ve always meant to…
Oh and I forgot about the Spy Game… do you know I was in Budapest when they were filming it.
We actually went around Kempinski where Brad Pitt was staying… we had a good time pretending we were swooning and whatnot…. but he already left…. tsss
And then the taxi driver told us he can always take us to Merriot where Robert Redford was staying
but Brad Pitt is Brad Pitt.
Now I like Robert Redford as the next person (my mum namely