The Catcher Was A Spy is the story of a man in the midst of a double life; working both as a major league baseball player and a spy.
Directed by Ben Lewin, the key cast includes Paul Rudd, Connie Nielsen, Mark Strong and Sienna Miller.
I haven’t yet encountered a serious, non-comedic Paul Rudd movie that has me excited enough to see it; so deep is my appreciation of his comedic work.
Unlike Steve Carell and a few other actors known first for comedy, I’m just finding it hard to make the shift from a funny Rudd to a serious Rudd. I think it’ll take a film I simply can’t ignore for me to transition. Will The Catcher Was A Spy be that movie? I’m not sure yet, but I hope so.
Guy Pearce, Connie Nielsen, Jeff Daniels, Hiroyuki Sanada and Shea Whigham also star
Kingsman – The Golden Circle (2017), Taron Egerton, Mark Strong
This isprobably unsurprising since Kingsman – The Golden Circleis a sequel but I did not enjoy this movie as much as the original. In director Matthew Vaughn’s sequel, the Kingsman head offices are blown up and the kingsmen must team up with an allied spy organisation in the US.
Not that Kingsman – The Secret Service (2014)was super realistic, but something about this follow-up felt quite ridiculous. Starting with the opening scene; somehow it just didn’t feel as thrilling as I’d ordinarily expect.
Part of the problem is that I found myself immediately disappointed with the story’s choice of villain, the one we meet in the first few minutes. There’s also the fact that everything happened so suddenly, and so quickly, whereas I somehow wanted or perhaps expected to be eased into the action, as odd as that may sound.
This movie has one or two fight sequences that hearkened back to the first film. These scenes played a little too ‘the same’, for my liking. In this way they reminded me of part of the reason why Quantum Of Solace (2008) was such a terrible follow-up to the brilliant Casino Royale (2006). It tried too hard to almost repeat so much of what worked so very well in the first movie.
As for the matter of the main villain of vaughn’s movie, let’s just say that I have officially found a Julianne Moore performance I do not like. In the role of the villain, I did not fully buy into her evil, which begs the question, is her face simply far too angelic for the kind of moral turpitude required? Maybe. What I know for sure is that I didn’t see it in her eyes or feel it through her words and I needed to.
Luckily, there is some good news here; namely the beautifully executed ‘singing scene’ towards the end. I was moved. Overall though, my favourite scene in this film has to be the ‘infiltration’ of Poppy’s compound. That’s the moment I saw a fight scene that truly felt as though it belonged to Kingsman – The Golden Circle. Rather than something borrowed from Kingsman – The Secret Service and as a result, proved tedious.
Kingsman – The Golden Circle (2017), Taron Egerton
In Kingsman – The Golden Circle, the Kingsman headquarters are destroyed and the world is held hostage.
Upon discovering an allied spy organisation in the US. The two elite secret organisations must work together to defeat a common enemy.
Before the first Kingsman movie, Kingsman – The Secret Service, I mostly knew the film’s director, Matthew Vaughn, as an excellent producer to one of my favourite British directors, Guy Ritchie. But look at him now! I can’t wait to see what appears to be yet another very welcome and thrilling festival of style, action and adventure.
I don’t actually recall how things were left with Sofia Boutella’s very cool ‘Gazelle’ character in the first movie, but my hope is that this new instalment will be so good that I barely miss her, if at all.
Jamie Bell, Abbie Cornish, Mark Strong and Tim Pigott-Smith are the stars of 6 Days, an action movie about the day armed gunmen stormed the Iranian Embassy in London in 1980 and took all inside hostage.
I’m completely new to this rather important story, and I’m interested to see a 1980s version of London.
Until The Siege Of Jadotville, I’d only seen Jamie Dornan in one movie; the hugely successful but not particularly well-regarded Fifty Shades Of Grey (2015). Since the latter film, I’ve been looking forward to finding out what else Dornan could do in front of the camera.
Directed by Richie Smyth and set in early 1960s Congo, The Siege Of Jadotville is based on the true story of Irish UN Commander Pat Quinlan and his leadership of 150 Irish soldiers against 3000 French and Belgian Mercenaries.
My enjoyment of this movie isn’t because I was blinded by the beautiful Irish accents, for, the entire cast delivered good performances and there’s a beautifully tense scene at a bar quite early on. There’s also the cinematography and how well Smyth and his team rose to the challenge of capturing military combat.
By the end of the movie, I was left inspired to fight my corner when necessary, happy to have found my favourite Jamie Dornan movie to date, and reminded to be careful of underestimating my opponents, even when the odds appear to be in my favour.
Watch The Siege Of Jadotville, which also stars Jason O’Mara, Mark Strong, Danny Sapani and Sam Keeley – to name just a few, because there is certainly more to enjoy than just the lovely Irish accents.
The Movie My Life 