It is a cool, dry, witty thriller that not only is a top entry into the espionage thriller genre, but reinvents it in its own subtle way. This film doesn't post moral road signs for you and never insults your intelligence. If you boil down all the bad reviews, you'll see that they are angry that a film deals so nonchaltantly with corruption, greed, extortion and violence and is missing the typical huge explosion and over-the-top action overkill of most modern thrillers. The performances from all involved are top notch and match the low-key style that is taken to the material (thus many people slap the film with having bad performances, because they aren't flashy and over-the-top and nobody is dying or has a mental illness). Green creates a visual atmosphere to match Mr. Damien Harris's low-key approach keeps a level of violence and tension just below the surface (which is much more interesting than having it all glaringly obvious and on the surface), while Jack N. Thomas creates dialogue that is on the level with such classics as "The Big Sleep" (a film that is incomprehensible plot-wise - something that "Bad Company" isn't - but loved for many of the same reasons that "Bad Company" was panned). It's all about the bottom line and how I will benefit. Spies will backstab and double cross if the sex is good. Spies work for money, taking missions from Americans against their own government. Ideology is gone, and now - with the spread of 'freedom and democracy' - the result is that money and sex (temptation, pretty much) are the only things that matter. ![]() No longer do the Americans stand for democracy, the Russians for communism, etc. No longer is the battle about ideology (as it is in most espionage films). ![]() In doing this, it reinvents the espionage thriller for our modern times. It gives you a character taking an IQ test, then shows you the assignment, then shows each step of completing the assignment and the twists that develop. The plot bears some resemblance to "The Day of the Jackal" in that they are both 'clockwork' thrillers: they show the steps and the pieces of their plots, and then construct the plot from these pieces before your eyes. They want the same old thing, done with faster cuts, with more melodrama and less intelligence. This effect - the "let's join in andconform!" effect - proves that most of these people really don't want thrillers which break the mold and offer something different than the average escapism. "This film has become the whipping boy and scapegoat of manyso-called critics.
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