Our featured clip this
week, though quirkily named, will offer all that international intrigue fans of
spy thrillers crave with the adaptation of Tinker,
Tailor, Soldier, Spy led by Gary Oldman. Back in the saddle, so to speak,
Steven Spielberg returns to directing with War
Horse which should be good for absolutely everything. Rounding out the top
four freshest clips this week is the action-packed warring assassin flick Killer Elite with Jason Statham and
Clive Owen, and finally from director Renny Harlin comes 5 Days of War, an explosive but true-to-facts account about the
brief clash between Russia
New clips this week:
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
War Horse
Killer Elite
5 Days of War
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Unfurling in flashbacks, Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy tells the noirish tale of a retired member of one of the highest levels of the Secret Intelligence Service called back to hunt down a mole. This adaptation of the acclaimed 1974 novel of the same name stars Gary Oldman in the role of the expert with a foot out the door and is joined by a great ensemble cast with the likes of Colin Firth, Tom Hardy and Mark Strong. Swede Tomas Alfredson, the director of Let the Right on In, helms this period thriller (and his first English language film) and should provide ample visual flair to the proceedings while keeping with the international flavor of the production.
The trailer is as straight-forward as it is befuddling; we are informed there is a spy that is one of five men, operating right under the others' noses. This is sure to be a complex offering and the clip keeps that level of intrigue and mystery high. Not surprisingly, based on the caliber of the cast and the strength of the source material, “Tinker, Tailor” is already receiving far-too-preliminary awards talk. Obviously this is the prestige-style production The Academy devours come nomination time, but like another big-screen version of a popular novel with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, there also seems to be plenty for the casual movie-goer looking for a good mind-bending whodunit.
War Horse
Steven Spielberg, though a busy man in the role of producing, has not directed a feature since 2007’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. In 2011 he will boast not one but two outings including his “Tin Tin” adaptation and then War Horse, a WWI period epic about a young soldier and the bond he holds with his horse. From the teaser trailer, the film looks simply stunning but then when has Spielberg every made an ugly-looking movie? Like “Tinker, Tailor” War Horse already has plenty of preliminary (though again speculative) buzz and it’s easy to see why considering his lasting popularity and mostly consistent critical admiration. The last time he dabbled in the realm of war was Saving Private Ryan and we all know how that turned out. War Horse gallops to the multiplex on December 28.
Killer Elite
Assemble the action stars. Jason Statham, Clive Owen and Robert De Niro clash in Killer Elite, an ultra-violent assassin versus assassin clash with plenty of one-liners and white-hot lead all pumped up by “Rock Me Like a Hurricane." We can all use a mindless romp from time to time and this looks to deliver even if the premise turns out to be as silly as the clip hints. Like another Statham offering The Mechanic from earlier this year, Killer Elite is a loose remake, this time of the 1975 Sam Peckinpah film with James Caan and Robert Duvall. Clearly such heights are not being attempted here but, hey, fun is fun and these actors know their way around an Uzi.
5 Days of War
Centered around young journalists tossed into an unexpected fray in 2008 between Russia and bordering Georgia, this Renny Harlin (Die Hard 2, Deep Blue Sea) directed feature seems to promise plenty of explosions while also apparently making the error of shoehorning a message into the fracas. There are of course numerous times when heart can be injected into an action period-flick such as Blood Diamond, but looking at Harlin’s past works, I am skeptical of this blend. Always a sucker for a war movie however, 5 Days of War has me interested and had at least somewhat enlightened me to a conflict that frankly I was unaware occurred.