Tag Archives: Secret Agent

How I Spent My Summer Vacation Review

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It’s time for a movie that really nails the balance between being a full on parody and still keeping in a lot of tension. It’s not the kind of movie that you can really underestimate and I dare say it is also a rare atmosphere. You don’t see films with this style of humor too often and they always tend to be a success. I highly recommend watching this film and, in a sense, the less you know about it, the more effective it will be.

The movie starts out with a newspaper requesting a very specific kind of person for their agency. A mysterious guy appears who calls himself Jack and he is apparently who they were looking for. See, these people want to ask him some questions about how he spent his summer vacation. This leads into the rest of the movie as we find out that Jack liked a girl named Nikki but her father Ned was always defeating him at every event they played. Defeating is actually a bit too mild when you think about it. He would go out of his way to absolutely crush him.

Jack felt like he simply wasn’t good enough for Nikki by the time they were through and he spent ages training to get better….or that was the plan anyway. Ned continues to crush him at everything and so Jack is feeling worse and worse. His only hope is that he has reason to believe that someone is blackmailing Ned. If this is true, Jack would finally have the upper hand for the first time in his life! This is absolutely his chance but will he just end up messing it up again?

The first way in which the film uses the humor well is in how absurd everything is. Ned isn’t just a master at every game ever but he is mega rich and was able to have a ship built that has the games contained within the walls. His staff are all paid off as well and continue messing with Jack whenever he thinks he has some evidence. Even Nikki appears to be in on it as she almost clearly has disdain for him but will play nice to get him off the trail.

That said, how much of this is real and how much is in his head? We know that the big situation has to be real thanks to how the film starts which is why the film should never start in the future but for the rest you have to decide just how paranoid he is. Jack has every reason to have cracked down after all since his life is extra stressful. Still, in any film like this the most important thing to do is not let yourself be gaslit. You have to believe in yourself no matter what.

As a main character, Jack is so wimpy that he loops all the way around to being likable. Everyone pushes him around and e really doesn’t have much of a spine for most of the film. So it’s easy to root for him as the underdog although I have to admit past a certain point I was rooting for Ned and then the final boss instead. To Jack’s credit, he does continue to improve over the course of the film. By the end he is actually really experienced and even manages to get some really good gadgets in. Some plot armor is ultimately still needed but he did show up when it counted.

The main heroine Nikki wasn’t particularly likable but in many ways that was the point. She didn’t feel very authentic and to a point you could say Jack lost sight of her and just wanted to win against Ned. Perhaps there was a time when she really liked him but that time just ended up passing. It would be very reasonable given how bad he looked for a good chunk of the movie.

Then we have Ned who is naturally a whole lot of fun. The guy is so smug and always messes with Jack. Yeah, even he has people that outrank him, but Ned isn’t going to just roll over. He’s got a whole lot of fight to him and that’s how you make it in the big leagues. Somehow he still feels in control even when being held at gunpoint. That’s when you know that the character has true aura.

The best character has to be the final boss though and I can’t really go into much detail on who he is. Lets just say that he is so intelligent that he can predict and see through a whole array of traps that nobody would reasonably have even set up. This guy is always 20 steps ahead and the final speech he gives was completely epic. I have rarely seen villains in a live action film have this much foresight. The whole scene was brilliant, it’s worth the price of admission alone. As good as the film as a whole was, the climax just makes it even better. Sure, the very ending is cheesy but the rest of the film was a lot of fun.

It would be hard for you to not enjoy this film because of how masterfully it was handled from start to finish. I think the only way you could set yourself up for disappointment would be if you go in expecting a super serious spy thriller. Although I would argue that the film makes its intentions known within the first few minutes so it would really be on you by that point. Don’t mistake the genre for the film not being serious about what it is doing though. The writing, characters, and script are all first rate. I really enjoyed the low key humor here and the pacing is also a lot of fun. This is also a great example of how to write a main character who is essentially a loser but still manages to be fun to watch. That’s something that can be difficult to do but this movie made it look easy.

Overall, This was a pretty fun film. The climax was legendary and it’s really a blast. I highly recommend checking this film out whenever you have a chance. I guarantee that you won’t be forgetting it anytime soon. I’d be up for more titles like this, the main James Bond titles wish they were half as good as this one. If you’re going to make a spy film with a little humor thrown in, this should absolutely be the blueprint. You just can’t beat this!

Overall 7/10

Little Nikita Review

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Time to take a look at a film about spies and traitors from a while back. It’s a fairly low key espionage film so don’t expect a lot of fight scenes or anything like that. In a way it’s a film where it feels like not a lot happens until the very end. It’s more of a slow burner. The film works well enough even though it’s not particularly exciting. I wouldn’t recommend it over other films in the genre but you should be entertained during the movie.

The movie starts off with someone murdering an employee of the IRS. It turns out that this employee had actually been a double agent from Russia. Interestingly enough, he was murdered by a Russian agent who has gone rogue. The agent’s codename is Scuba. He is blackmailing the Russians into paying him a large sum of money or he will continue to murder all of their operatives. They decide to send in agent Konstantin to take him down. Konstantin is given strict orders not to allow the media to catch wind of this and he has to bring Scuba in alive.

On the other side you’ve got agent Roy of the FBI who wants to avenge his partner who was murdered by Scuba a while back. He finds out that Jeff’s parents are sleeper agents and figures this could be a good way to finally track this guy down. Thing is, he has no proof and furthermore, as sleeper agents that means they haven’t actually done anything yet so it’s not like he can just go in and start shooting. He tries to convince their son Jeff to step in and find out the truth but involving a boy in a case like this is fairly reckless. Will it actually pay off for him?

The idea of the Russians being blackmailed by one of their own makes for a pretty interesting plot. I dare say that it is a pretty original one as well. Usually you might see this on the other side but for the Russians to be on the defensive was an original twist. Naturally due to this the CIA, FBI, and the rest aren’t too keen to get involved. They figure they will just let the Russians take each other out. The reason Roy is getting involved is because it’s personal this time. To avenge his partner he feels like he has to get involved and take Scuba down. He is told off the bat that he will not have any backup though.

With a premise like this you’d probably expect a whole lot of action right? Well, the wrinkle in this plan is that the sleeper agents aren’t really fighters. The whole time the film is going on you’re expecting the pin to drop and for these two seemingly normal parents to suddenly just grab their guns and go into commander mode. Well, that doesn’t exactly happen here. They never get to fight and even at the very end they’re about to easily lose to Scuba. It’s to the point where even once he is shot they aren’t able to stop him from getting the briefcase. I admit that they really did not look very impressive in this film at all. At least in an action context. They seemed like perfectly reasonable people otherwise. Maybe a little naïve since they don’t pick up on anything unless it’s spelt out for them though. At the very least I thought their guard would be up when they met Roy and he suddenly moved next door but they really didn’t.

Jeff’s a decent main character I guess but as a kid he does tend to panic a whole lot. He just isn’t ready for these kind of twists. He just never helps contribute to the situation and while he means well, the scene of him trying to pass the air force exam was pretty rough. The cast is fairly small so each person has to do their part. The other characters were a lot more solid. First up is Roy. Of course he has the whole revenge angle but on the whole he does have some good plans most of the time. He comes in handy with his clutch shots and did figure out the mystery of the sleeper agents really fast. Most of the other characters would have still been in the dark otherwise. I do think his decision to quickly have a random affair was poorly timed though. He’s in the middle of the most important case of his life. Surely he can wait a little bit to stay professional before getting distracted right?

Konstantin was also fun. I always like seeing the experienced agents who have already been through a lot and just have all the answers. That said, he was overwhelmed and surprised by Scuba rather easily. The scene of Scuba breaking into the guy’s shower was just embarrassing for the hardened agent. Especially how he panicked afterwards. Not his best moment to be sure and you feel like he was enthusiastic about paying up afterwards because he was actually scared of Scuba. He just hides this with his nonstop banter. Scuba doesn’t get much if any personality in the film though. He’s really just a mysterious figure who has a clear goal. He wants to get money and will murder people to get it. He’s a bit of an old school antagonist in that sense as there is no origin story or anything like that to clue you in to why he is the way that he is. He just does things his way.

What I think this film probably needed is to have been a little longer. A large chunk of the film seems like it’s all about build up to a big series of interconnected plots. So when the payoff finally happens, it goes by really quick and not in a super satisfying way. Honestly, if you cut out Nick that would probably be the best thing to do. Then you can really have two sleeper agents who still have their skills going up against these forces. Alternately you could also have just made these two agents a little less rusty to force some solid tension in. It would have increased the sense of danger throughout.

Overall, Little Nikita is a good film. It’s definitely fairly low key but I do think it manages to accomplish what it set out to do. A little more focus on the actual agent vs agent action would have been good though because there’s just a lot of fun ways this could play out. While the writing was good, I also think that area could have been bumped up a bit. Put some more solid banter in and make the characters a little more likable. Part of the problem is that Nick wasn’t great and then Roy/Konstantin weren’t as good as they could have been. Tat said, if you’re up for a quick spy thriller this is a good one to check out.

Overall 6/10

Dr. No Review

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Can it be? Yes, James Bond is back in the running! It’s been many, many years since I saw the original James Bond film. Well before my reviewing days at the very least. Well, now was the chance to re-watch it. It does a good job of establishing Bond’s character and setting the franchise up but at the same time makes a whole lot of errors that remind me why I was never a big fan of the Bond movies. It was only very recently where I would say they were very good. This one for example I would have to give a thumbs down although I do maintain that Sean is still the definitive James Bond.

The James Bond films always start off with an opening montage of fanservice with a random song to let you know that you’ve arrived at the right film. It’s a great way to kick things off on a low note. Fortunately after that we get to the actual movie. It opens up with 3 crooks pretending to be blind so they head on over and murder someone. Meanwhile Bond was winning at the casino when he is called in by M-16 Intelligence. They tell him about the murder and he is being sent over to investigate this. Bond heads off and as soon as he arrives the villains make their first move by having a fake car at the ready. Bond dispatches the agent real quick which establishes him as a skilled agent who won’t be going down easily. There is a lot of mystery surrounding the murder though. Bond’s only hint is that it may involve someone by the name of Dr. No. Time to go and explore his secret island.

So Bond is shown to be a capable agent. The film tries to suggest that he is a brilliant one but I am not convinced. For starters there is one scene in this film where the villain gives him a cup of coffee…and he drinks it. He’s then surprised to find out that it was drugged. On another occasion he follows a suspect to a secluded area knowing it’s a trap and falls for it anyway. He’s lucky that the group he thought were villains turned out to be okay. There’s also the scene where his partner and him go to fight the dragon tank and Bond basically just gives up. You’d think since he took one eye out that he might as well continue at that point. He was close to winning too, but just missed way too many shots. I’d consider that to be another loss though. I think what’s going on here is that Bond has absolute confidence in himself to the point where you could say it is also a weakness. He will jump into any trap without hesitation because he believes he can best it. The problem is that this just isn’t the case. Bond is tough but will still lose against a gun or with sheer numbers just like anyone else. The fact that he can’t control his confidence is his biggest issue.

He has a lot of solid moments as well of course like when he devised a method to find out if anyone had been in his room. He handled the opening car scene rather well too. I also like how his theme music appears almost every time Bond is on screen. It’s a nice little addition there and if anything it’s something I miss from nowadays. I always like the classic approach of having a hero’s theme play when he is around. It helps give the scenes a whole lot of impact. No matter how many times the theme plays though, I doubt it would have helped me like Bond. At the end of the day he’s a big flirt who has affairs with everyone and constantly gets distracted from the mission. No matter how skilled he is, it means that he could have done a lot better without all of that going on. That’s the tragic part of all this.

On the whole I wasn’t a big fan of the soundtrack though. The main theme sounded like something out of Beetlejuice which kept playing on the island. It’s just not really my cup of tea so mainly the only theme that I liked was the classic Bond theme. I suppose in this case it would have to do. The writing was solid though with a lot of good one liners here and snappy dialogue. Bond in particular definitely knows how to go back and forth with the villain rather well. His dinner discussions with Dr. no was certainly interesting to watch. Of course, Bond quit being friendly once Dr. No had Honey taken away. So at that point he just tried to antagonize the guy.

We get 3 different ladies who appear at different points in the film to have an affair with Bond. It’s why no matter who the final heroine is you always know that it’s not going to last. Bond doesn’t even care if the lady is a villain so long as he gets to have his fun first and then admits that he knew all along. I wouldn’t say that any of the 3 are all that good. At least the first one has no shady dealings or anything so she’s about as legit as possible. The second one’s a foreign spy and Honey who serves as the main heroine was illegally trespassing on a private island. I suppose she needed the money and a villain owns the island so it sort of equals out in the end. She certainly gets a needlessly tragic backstory that could have been avoided if you ask me.

Dr. No makes for an imposing villain though. I forgot that the SPECTRE organization was referenced so early in the Bond films so that was nice to see. No definitely commands respect as well as shown by the fear he put in his subordinates just by talking. None of them are going to cross him anytime soon that’s for sure. His robotic hands also make him a bit of a difficult opponent as otherwise he wouldn’t be able to fight much.

There’s a good amount of tension here for sure and whenever Bond catches one of the villains that’s always fun. He certainly gets to show off his skills in hand to hand, espionage, shooting, and even at wit. If not for his overconfidence issues and distractions you can see how Bond would be a really good agent. In a way he’s a lot like this film. This movie would have been really solid without all the affairs, fanservice, and scenes that just don’t further the plot in any way. This would then be a really solid spy thriller but instead it holds itself back which has always been something that the series struggles with.

Overall, Dr. No is definitely one of those films where you can tell that it had a good budget and a lot of effort put behind it. The effects look really good considering how old the film is and the plot definitely works well. The movie has a nice balance between action and light hearted humor so it’s also the kind of flick that should reach a large audience. James Bond just isn’t a particularly likable main character. He’s charismatic and you’ll have a lot of fun with him at times but he could stand to be a little more focused when carrying out his job. You feel bad for his boss who always has to put up with this. Bond definitely gives that guy a hard time. I’ll be reviewing the second film pretty soon so we’ll see if Bond does better in the second film or if it’s all over for him.

Overall 4/10

James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing Review

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It’s time to look at the final James Bond game that I own. It’s been a good run, but even this agent has to run out of games eventually right? The games have all been fairly solid thus far though. I may not be the biggest fan of FPS titles, but I’ve warmed up to them over the years. Then we have this game which is a third person shooter so you really can’t go wrong there at all. It’s a fun game even if some parts feel a little cheesy when it comes to the gameplay mechanics.

The plot involves a rogue scientist deciding to team up with Jaws so they can destroy the world. He has a spy working for him who gets behind Bond’s defenses and helps to advance the villain’s plans. Bond must put aside his love for being a terrible agent so that he can finally become the fighter that he always dreamed of being. Can Bond actually pull this off or is it time for him to finally call it quits and take a step back?

Yeah, there’s really not much to the plot to be honest. Although while it is a little on the generic side, I do appreciate the fact that it is an ongoing story that continues throughout the game. That helps it feel more like a proper movie adventure than just having snippets of plot here and there. We have full cutscenes and voice acting so honestly it was actually quite high budget. The graphics are on point, but you’d expect nothing less since this is on the Nintendo Gamecube. Then we’ve also got the soundtrack which may not be the most inspired out there, but it’s not terrible. On a technical level this game succeeded.

Then we’ve got the gameplay which is also solid. For most levels you’ll be running with your guns at the ready. At first you can get away with just running into a room and initiating the fight, but as you get closer to the end of the game you’ll have to switch to a far more tactical approach like hiding behind objects. You can temporarily slow time while looking across the room to spot a path through the villains as well. Then you’ve also got a bunch of tech at your disposal like an invisibility suit, grenades, spider bots, and more. I rarely used them since the villains would be on you in a heart beat, but the thermo suit turned out to be very useful in the final level. Seriously, winning without that would have been almost impossible.

Then you have other gameplay styles like when you have to drive a motorcycle, car, or a tank. The driving levels (Aside from the tank) were a blast and a nice break from the shooting. Of course, adding in alternate forms of gameplay like this can be risky since it can take away from the experience, but the gameplay was just as polished and it was just fun so I can’t say that I had any problem with it. When it comes to the gameplay the only thing I really did have an issue with was the final level. That one was just not executed well.

I’m fine with it being super difficult and riddled with enemies of course. As the final level in the game I’d expect nothing less. What wasn’t good though was the fact that the level was incredibly long without any checkpoints until the actual boss fight. I spent nearly 2 hours on this level. I’d make it so far only for something cheesy to happen or an enemy would get a lucky hit. If every level had been like that things could have gotten dicey for the game. Fortunately that was the only level to not have well placed checkpoints.

As far as the game’s content goes, it’s at a good length. The main story has around 27 levels in it and after that you can feel free to have fun in multiplayer mode for a while. It’s 4 player so that will give you a lot to have fun with. The replay value never really has to end and even without it the main campaign is sufficiently long. I’m not sure what the going price for it is nowadays, but I can’t imagine that it would be all that pricey. It’s so old…unless it’s out of print of course, but I’ll hope that this is not the case.

Overall, Everything or Nothing is a solid James Bond game. It focuses less on the Bond aspects of the franchise and more on the fun action scenes. It’s certainly not perfect, but as far as shooters go it can hold its own against any other realistic TPS. If you haven’t played a Bond game before then this is definitely one that I would recommend checking out. It’s a good way to start off and it’ll allow you to get used to the shooting aspect. Since you don’t have any cool super powers to back you up, you’ll have to train yourself on the fundamentals. Once you’ve gotten those down, this skill will help you for future games.

Overall 7/10

GoldenEye: Rogue Agent Review

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It’s time for a very interesting game review. The reason why I say that is because this review isn’t 100% complete. This game came in two discs and the only problem is that I don’t have the two discs. I only bought the first and I’m not about to go and try to buy the other one so I’m reviewing the game based on the first half. That’s reasonable though since the first disc has over half of the levels since the second one focuses on the multiplayer aspect of the title. It’s a fun game and feels rather polished. It may not be my favorite Bond game as that honor belongs to one that I’ll be reviewing shortly, but it is definitely a solid game in its own right.

The game manages to bring together most of the biggest villains from the classic Bond films. They have all united to try and take the agent down for good which is certainly bad news for this operative. Fortunately he has the help of Agent Terry, a fighter so powerful that even 007 has to acknowledge his abilities. Together these two agents will do their best to fight against the forces of evil. Can they succeed or will they fail? It all comes down to the skills of you, the player.

The gameplay is pretty straight forward. You try to shoot the enemies ahead of you and ultimately you have to survive at any cost. Your mission will typically be to activate something after you’ve cleared out the guards. You have your hand weapon when starting a level but you can also pick up weapons that are scattered across the room from the various minions. You can also engage in fisticuffs when you are out of ammo, but I can’t really say that I would advise this. Just try to have some ammo on hands so don’t waste your shots. The gameplay is quite technical all things considered and you’ll want to try and remember as much of it as possible.

Also, it should be noted that this game is quite difficult. I’m not great at the FPS genre so that should be taken into account, but the levels are very unforgiving. Shots from the enemy take up a lot of damage so even with your health being able to regenerate it is hard to proceed through a level. The enemies also bring the fight to you so you can only hide for so long. It’s definitely not a game for newcomers to the genre or kids in general as they won’t stand a chance. It helps the game last longer for sure though so that’ll help it be worth the price you paid. The main game length should take you around 10 hours which is solid. There’s not really anything else in the way of replay value single player wise. There is a nice multiplayer option though so that’ll give you enough fun for a very long while. Be sure that you have the 2nd disc or you won’t be able to play it though.

I’d say that the graphics look pretty good. They’re not super amazing or anything like that, but they get the job done. The levels look good and the game does give us a solid amount of cinematics which is refreshing. You can tell that some real effort was put behind this game and that’s definitely a good thing. It’s also impressive that Bond got at least 3 different games for the Gamecube. Not just any character can pull that off. It’s a little hard to compare FPS titles to each other since they’re so similar so I couldn’t tell you if this game is as good as Agent Under Fire or not. I’m inclined to say that it isn’t but it’s probably pretty close.

The plot was reasonably engaging. It didn’t have as many one liners as the last Bond game, but that’s because Bond isn’t the lead so it makes sense that Terry is a lot more withdrawn. After all, he’s here to help save the day, not to trade barbs. It’s hard to say how likable the main character is either of course since he’s rather silent and doesn’t do anything but fire at the enemies. Not a bad thing, but I like when the games aren’t afraid to give the original character a little more personality than that.

Overall, GoldenEye is a fun Bond game. It’s a shame that I won’t be able to see the ending, but rebuying the disc just doesn’t seem worth it and I’m not interested enough to look it up on Youtube either. It’s just going to have to live with the knowledge of only being worth half a playthrough. Honestly that’s not such a sad fate though right? Half a game is still better than none and at the end of the day at least you could say that the game was interesting enough to get through that. If you like FPS titles then this is a good game for you but otherwise skip it. Your enjoyment depends entirely on how you like the genre because it doesn’t try for much more than that. That’s just the kind of genre an FPS is.

Overall 7/10