TheRetroCritic

Spy movies have been done and redone in millions of different ways. Johnny English Reborn is out soon but for those looking for something a little more substantial and a little less...2003 there's always this little number. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy may not boast Mr Bean hijinx but with a first class British cast it should peak the interest of most regardless. So far the critics have been unanimously dreamy but does Thomas Alfredson's film really adds more to John Le Carré's tale than the BBC mini series? Hard to say. Yes the running time is obviously condensed but that turns out to be both a bit of a blessing and a bit of a curse. At a bit more than two hours, the film feels about three hours long. And the ending, although it doesn't really feel rushed, lacks the punch it could have had if we'd been given a bit more time to care for these great characters. Great characters which are played to perfection by the way. This is a great cast and no one puts a

From Richard Pepin, director of the Cyber Tracker movies, comes this ambitious disaster...thriller in which LA is pretty much destroyed by some big-ass earthquake. Is it any good? Lets find out. The film actually starts off as some kind of spy thriller with Gary Daniels stealing some files and microchip off some big company in order to sell it to some bald Russian mobster. But this undercover FBI agent (played by consistently rubbish Traci Lords) manages to arrest him. So far so thriller but then Jeff Fahey shows up and there's an earthquake that NEVER ends! Could this film be getting awesome? No, not quite. The whole thing is pretty clumsy throughout: the acting ranges from awful (Lords) to good (Fahey), the effects range from lame (a sex scene in which obviously the actress refused to be naked so they only show her face and some unknown stunt-boob lady's body) to surprisingly decent (buildings falling apart etc.) making for a pretty uneven affair. The ending is also laug

Philip K. Dick film adaptations are hit and miss. For every Minority Report or Blade Runner you get Paycheck or Next . Based on one of the legendary sci-fi writer's short stories, Impostor is sadly not one of the good ones. It's not terrible but about as bland as a sci-fi film can get. Dick's stories never really rely too much on their final twists, usually the stories themselves are told on a twist after twist basis. Here however, the film has little else to offer so it really builds up to the final revelation...which fails phenomenally. The entire film is based around Gary Sinise's identity: is he actually an an alien spy or is he being set up? Unfortunately early on he freaks out and basically yells out "I am a Centauri!" before escaping. This is never mentioned again during the film so when it is finally revealed that he is, in fact, a Centauri...imagine my lack of surprise. Aside from the ending, Impostor doesn't go to great lengths to look gr