Alfred Hitchcock Movie: ***^The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)

 This movie was remade in 1956 with Doris day and James Stewart.  The movies are similar but not the same.  The Lawrences (Edna Best, Leslie Banks and daughter Betty, Nova Pilbeam) travel to Switzerland for a skiing event.  There mother participates in a shooting contest, and loses as one of the finalists to Ramon Levine (Frank Vosper),  In addition to being a marksman he is part of an terrorist group headed by Abbott (Peter Lorre).  That evening at dinner their new friend, Louis Bernard (Pierre Fresnay) is shot.  Before he dies he tells them to get a note intended for the British consul.  They find the note which tells of an assassination plot.  However before they can tell anyone, their daughter is kidnapped.  However they understand that the bad guys are headed to London as the assassination is to take place at the Royal Albert Music Hall.  Clive (Hugh Wakefield) and father, Bob look for the girl .  The track one of the kidnappers to a temple of a sun worshipping cult.  Father is captured but Clive gets away and helps to expose the group.  Mrs. Lawrence goes to the concert indicated on the note.  Her scream effects the aim of Levine and he wounds rather than kills the intended victim.  But he gets away, sneaking out in the chaos, but they are able to track his vehicle to the sun temple, which sets up a final gun battle.  Many police die, as do all the criminals, including Betty's nurse and Abbott love (Cicely Oates).  Father found his daughter and helped her escape, but Levine was after her and catches her on the roof.  They are exposed to the police below.  It is a tricky shot and the police officer marksman hesitates.  Mrs Lawrence takes te gun and makes the shot.  Abbott is hiding in a closet and his watch gives him away, so he takes his own life.

This is a very good early Hitchcock movie.  It also takes on the spy theme which becomes a Hitchcock trade mark.

Tom Clancy/ Harrison Ford Movie Review: ****^ Clear and Present Danger (1994)

The president's (Donald Moffat) friend is killed in the Caribbean.  And the president wants to seek revenge.  He indirectly orders forces to Columbia.  In this movie the head of the CIA (James Earl Jones) is diagnosed with cancer.  Consequently Jack Ryan (Harrison Ford) is shoved more into the spotlight.  The president wrangles him to go to Columbia.  They have discovered accounts in the name of the president's deceased friend where he was laundering drug money.  The Columbian drug lord is Ernesto Escobedo (Miguel Sandoval) and his henchman is Felix Cortez (Joaquim de Almeida).  Clark (Willem Dafoe) is tasked with putting together a team to go to Columbia.  These men are good at their job and cause Escobedo some headaches.  James Cutter (Harris Yulin) as security advisor and Robert Ritter (Henry Czerny) as his underling put the program together.  The even direct a plane dropping a bomb on a meeting of cartel leaders.  

Eventually Ryan, as the deputy director of the CIA, figures out what is happening.  Part of this is that a secretary (Ann Magnuson) of the US. government has inadvertently been feeding information to Cortez.  Cortez kills her.  Ryan's wife (Anne Archer) notices that her death coincides with other happenings, and they realize it is tied with the Columbian issue.  Cortez is tracked and a conversation intercepted he has with Cutter.  The President, Cutter and Ritter kill the programs with no extraction.  Ryan decides to go down to Columbia and get the U.S. service men out if he can.  He and Clark are to the rescue.  

Movie Review: **** The Sum of all Fears (2002)

 This is a very good Tom Clancy movie.  In the time line it happens towards the early part of Jack Ryan's (Ben Affleck) career.  He does not prevent the nuclear explosion, but deals with the aftermath, an preventing a nuclear war between the U.S. and Russia.  The CIA director is Morgan Freeman, who is killed in the nuclear blast.  The president is played by James Cromwell.  General Lasseter (John Beasley) supports retaliatory attacks against Russia.  Jack Ryan wants to verify first.  That verification leads to the discovery the uranium was U.S. produced, not Russian.  He concludes a third part is playing them pushing a U.S.-Russian war.  Ryan is locked out of communications with the president, but comes up with an ingenious move to get the information through--by talking to Russian premier Nemerov (Ciarán Hinds).  He knows the president will be listening in.  In this way war is averted.

Likes of tense excitement and a fun movie.  

Alfred Hitchcock Movie Review: ****^ Torn Curtain (1966)

 This is a very good spy movie from Alfred Hitchcock starring Julie Andrews and Paul Newman as an engaged couple, Dr. Sarah Sherman and Professor Michael Armstrong.  Not only are they engaged but Sherman has been working as Armstrong's assistant.  Sherman starts acting strangely.  He defects to East Germany, saying the United States has stopped funding for his missile project.  In truth he is fishing for information from an East German scientist, Professor Heinrich Gerhardt (Hansjörg Felmy) who appears to have resolved an issue that has stymied Armstrong.  He just needs to convince Gerhardt that he has already resolved the issue and get him to share what he knows.  He leaves for East Berlin having told his fiance he was off elsewhere.  However she discovers his plans and follows him to East Berlin, where he announces he is defecting to East Germany.

Everything that could go wrong goes wrong.  Hitchcock the master director makes a great scene where Armstrong and a spy kill an East German security man who was coming onto Professor Armstrong.  This interfers with upcoming meeting between Armstrong and Gerhardt as the communists want to limit contact until they have studied Armstrong more thoroughly.  However he does have access to the assistant.  At first she does not want to cooperate but does after Armstrong tells her what he is doing, he is not a traitor.  This gets Gerhardt excited, and he takes Armstrong aside and to his secret office, where he is able to trick Gerhardt into revealing his research.  Armstrong takes it to memory as Gerhardt writes it down.  About this time the police are onto Armstrong after they find the agent's body.  However he runs away as Gerhardt realizes he has given his secrets away without getting anything in return.

Then comes the trip out of East Germany with many tense scenes, starting then leaving town in a bus, not a regular bus but following the same line as a regular bus.  There are certain anti communists who help.  They get a bit behind schedule, and eventually the police are onto them, so everyone scatters and they leave the bus behind.  They eventually make it to meet with handlers in a theater, where they are smuggled inside costume baskets onto a boat.  

Very tense and exciting movie and highly recommended.

Movie Review: **** Killers (2010)

 When you go on vacation to France, make sure you fall in love with the right person is the theme of this movie.  Jen (Katherine Heigl) travels to Paris with her parents, Mr. and Mrs Kornfeldt (Tom Selleck and Catherine O'Hara after a relationship break up.  She meets Spencer (Ashton Kutcher) who is a spy and assassin.  As he meets her he is also carrying out a job as assassin and blows up a helicopter.  Being in love he gets out of the business and they marry.  However Jen's father is always a bit wary of him.  

Three years later Spencer's old boss, Holbrook (Martin Mull) contacts him insisting he return to work.  This contact leads to a hit being put upon his life, and many of his neighbors and coworkers turn out to be in the same busines and seek the $10 million that has been put upon his head.  This leads to his wife discovering about his former business.  On top of this that she believes she is pregnant and they need a test to determine for sure.  

They fight off each attack.  They get to the home of Holbrook, and discover he is dead.  They wonder who could have done that.  When they are back home the father and the husband pull guns on each other.  Turns out he too is an agent and was the person who put out the contract.  He was the target three years earlier, but he wasn't on the helicopter.  Holbrook had turned bad and was trying to manipulate things so the father-in-law who not reveal him.  However the father-in-law was vigilant and when he saw mail from Holbrook assumed Spencer was back in the game.  With news of the pregnancy, the crisis is adverted.

Fun story, although I do not like they idea of killing for a living.

James Bond Movie: ****^For Your Eyes Only (1981)

 This is a very good Bond movie.  Roger Moore again plays James Bond.  He is joined by Melina (Carole Bouquet) Whose parents have been murdered and she is seeking revenge.  A British spy ship has gone down off the coast of Greece.  It has an encryption device the British want to recover, and the Russians would love having.  Britain hires Melina's father to find it, while the Russians hire Kristatos (Julian Glover).  Kristatos' man Locque (Michael Gothard) hires someone to kill Melina's parents.  Kristatos teams with Bond and points him to Columbo (Topol) as the likely villain that Bond will likely have to kill.  However Columbo is able to talk to bond, and convince him the real culprit is Kristatos.  He runs an intricate smuggling operation of heroin and other products.  Kristatos actually gets away with the encryption device and awaits the Russians so he can deliver it.  Bond is in a race to locate him and recover the device.  

This is a fun movie.  Bond and Columbo and Melina confront Kristatos on the top of a mountain.  Lynn Holly Johnson portrays Bibi who is a young ice skater and infactuated with Bond.

Tom Selleck Movie: ***^Her Alibi (1989)

 Tom Selleck as Phil Blackwood and Paulina Porizkova as Nina star in a romantic comedy.  Blackwood is in court looking for some inspiration at court for a new book.  He is a writer of detective novels and currently has writers block for three years.  Into court walks Nina, a Romanian citizen accused of murder by knife to the chest of a young man.  Blackwood sees in her a chance to come up with story ideas, so provides her with an alibi, and also brings her home to make the alibi seem reasonable.  In the meantime people are chasing Nina, trying to capture her.  A romance begins to bloom, if only Blackwood lives to take advantage of it.  Many things Nina does makes Blackwood think she may be trying to kill him.  This movie has some mild slap stick humor but the love story does seem to work.  If only they can get the people to stop harassing her.  

Movie Review: ****39 Steps (1935)

****39 Steps (1935) 39 Steps is a master spy thriller from Alfred Hitchcock.  In this film Hannay (Robert Donat) runs into a woman who is running from spies.  Before he knows it she is murdered, and then the spies are after him.  He flees to where he supposes her contact was; only to find a den of spies.  In his fleeing he meets Pamela (Madeleine Carol) who at first doesn’t believe him.  This film has many close escapes, and even his own murder—but he is saved by a Bible in his pocket.  There is vital industrial information that is being smuggled out of the country.  It is figuring out how that is the key to our hero finally ridding himself of the spies. 

This DVD came from Netflix.  It also had two documentaries about this movie.  One hosted by Marianne Keane goes into scene by scene detail of how the angle of the camera and the profile Hitchcock used helped to tell his story.  Very fascinating.

This is a separate review with three stars

This movie is a 1935 British Alfred Hitchcock film.  Hitchcock had been making movies for over ten years when this came out.  This is a spy suspence story.
Hannay is drawn into the story, by our spy, Anabella Smith, who has uncovered a plot by foreign spies to get secret information out of the country.  The foreign spy ring is a group called 39 steps.
The movie begins with a demonstration by a man who can remember everything.  At this a shot rings out, and the spy end in the arms of Hannay, and he takes her home.  She tells him of what is going on, and mentions 39 steps.  She shows up at his house during the night, with a knife in her back, and she shortly dies.  He is then accused of the murder, and goes around trying to find her contact, in Scotland, to prove his innocence.
It is amazing how inept people are at catching him, or catching him and letting him get away.  How many times can he get away?  While on a train, he uses another woman, Pamela, in his escape attempt by kissing her as his pursuers go pass.  However she turns him in.  He does manage to get away, and jumps off the train.
Going to land is a bad idea, because instead of finding the contact, he finds the leader of 39 steps, who shoots him.
However he escapes harm as the bullet is stopped by a bible.  He reports to the police, who want to arrest him and he escapes again.  Somehow he and Pamela end up picked up by some members of 39 steps pretending to be police.  They realize they are bad when they don't take them to the police station.  They escape when they are herding animals off the road.  However they are handcuffed to each other.  They then head back to London to prove their innocence, but the man who remembers everything saves the day, when asked to tell what 39 steps is, he is shot and stopped, but the bad people are captured.
Too many implausible twists for me.  However this is suppose to be a good movie.

Movie Review: ****Mision Impossible: Fallout (2018)

Mission Impossible: Fallout (2018)  This movie has you on the edge of your seat from start to finish.  It grabs you and doesn't let go.  Sheri says some of the scenes seemed “impossible” to her, but that is what makes this film so unpredictable and exciting.  There is every kind of chase imaginable, car, motorcycle, on foot, helicopter etc.  There is also romantic situations effecting the decisions people make.  And there is counter espionage and misidentification.  This is a great movie with a cast that really shines.

Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt, Henry Cavill as August Walker, a CIA operative who wants to get Hunt, Ving Rhames as Luther Stickell, Simon Pegg as Benji Dunn, Rebecca Ferguson as Ilsa Faust, Michelle Monaghan as Julia Meade Hunt and Alec Baldwin as the director. Cool helicopter chase and fight as well as disarming two nuclear bombs.  Sean Harris again stars as Solomon Lane, the bad guy captured last episode but breaks out in this to continue his reign of terror.  

Movie Review: ***^Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014)

This is a movie based on the Tom Clancy characters, but seems out of order in terms of the time line and the story.  Other than that, this is a very good story.  Jack Ryan versus a plot to start on economic catastrophe in America with a terrorist attack and then a dumping of U.S. dollars.  Keira Knightly is Jack's fiancé if she says yes.  She wants to see what he is up to and follows Jack on his trip, and becomes and impromptu agent.  Crazy stuff.  This of course doesn't go well when she is taken hostage.  Lots of action to the end here.  Very entertaining.
Does anyone have an explanation for the out-of-sequence nature of this movie.  Is this Jack Jr., or just taking liberty.

Movie Review: ****^Bridge of Spies (2015)

Tom Hanks is at his best in this movie as he portrays a lawyer, James Donovan, who is called upon to represent a Russian spy, Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance) and as such gets tangled in the spying game as he takes the assignment to go to East Germany and arrange a transfer of the Russian spy for a U.S. U2 spy plane pilot, Francis Gary Powers (Austin Stowell), who was shot down over Russia.   This is an intriguing movie, and very entertainment.  It is also very historical as the Berlin Wall goes up at the time during the timing of these events, which puts an American student also in the mix of those for whom Donovan is also negotiating release.  The student was on the wrong side of the wall when the door was closed.  Alan Alda has a cameo part.  Steven Spielberg directs.  This is a good movie based on some history which is mostly forgotten.

Movie Review: The Man Who Never Was

This is an intriguing spy movie based on real facts, to confuse the Nazi's about the intended invasion of the Allies of Southern Europe and the opening of a second front in WWII.  The Allies use a dead man, but papers on him of a confidential nature which would indicate that the Allie attack will take place where it will not, with the goal of the Nazis spreading their forces thin.
This movie also includes counter espionage as the Nazis send an agent to verify the existence of the deceased soldier.  In the fear of revealing too much leave it that this Nazi spy is very good at his job.  The lives of many men are in the balance.

Movie Review: ***^The Charade (1963)

  This is a Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn movie.  It is well done for the most part but there are a couple times Cary Grant goes over the top with showering in his clothes and making funny faces.  I like the twists of the plot and the mystery.  Hepburn's husband is murdered.  But there is some money hid someplace, and his former partners in crime want it back.  It seems the CIA also wants it back.  She doesn't know who to trust.  That is what makes this movie intriguing.  I mildly recommend this movie.  It feels like a Hitchcock but is not.  Hepburn is very pleasing to the eyes.

Movie Review: ***Taken II

This is the sequel to Taken, and is just as tense and exciting.  In this movie, we have the father of one of those killed, and criminal boss of the Albanian mafia coming after Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) and his family.  They are on vacation in Turkey when they make their move, and they are successful in kidnapping Mills and his wife (Famke Janssen).  However the miss his daughter (Maggie Grace) who is left with the responsibility of rescuing her father, who rescued her in the first movie.  Mills had studied where they were taken, and is able to direct his daughter to bring him a gun.  And from there the hunted becomes the hunter.  He offers a truce to the father, in hopes that their can be peace between their families.
This movie has plenty of violence and death, but it is an exciting ride. 

Movie Review: ***^The Lady Vanishes (1938)

***The Lady Vanishes 1938 is an old Alfred Hitchcock.  It's a  spy story, but you don't realize this until almost the end of the show.  What you do know is that a woman has vanished, and her new acquaintance is looking for her.  However everyone else on the train tells her there is no such person.  The young lady is accused of being psycho as everyone tells her the other person does not exist.  However, the young woman looking for her gains an ally, and together they not only avoid people after them, but also eventually figure out what is gong on.  

Movie Review: U.S. Marshalls

US Marshalls  I must admit, I do not enjoy this movie as much as The Fugitive.  This movie would be considered a sequel to “The Fugitive” with Tommy Lee Jones in the same role, Deputy Marshall Samuel Gerard.  This movie adds a different angle to the Marshall chasing escapee scenario and that is the spy angle.  We have an individual (Wesley Snipes) who has been set up as the fall guy for an exchange of information with the Chinese that went bad.  This resulted in the murder of several agents.  Again in this movie the individual is convicted, and sent to prison by plane; however in an attempt to kill him, a fellow prisoner blows a hole in the side of the plane, causing it to crash.  However our protagonist gets away, while all of the other prisoners are accounted for.  He heads out to prove his innocence, by figuring out who set him up.  In this scenario we have a professional spy, while in “The Fugitive” you had a medical doctor, with no skills in getting away.  I think that is why I prefer the first in this series. A new member of the team with Deputy Marshall Gerard is Special Agent John Royce (Robert Downey Jr.).