Espías sin fronteras

I thought I had seen all of the Gene Hackman movies, but somehow I missed this one and I rather enjoyed it quite nicely.

The good: Gene Hackman Gene Hackman Gene Hackman. The guy just gets it right (almost) every single movie. He is Mister Cool. A gentleman. A wisecracker.

This is certainly not Gene Hackman's best role, but it's good enough.

More good: the music by Michael Kamen, which sounds eerily similar to the orignal Die Hard soundtrack, which Michael Kamen composed as well. I REALLY appreciate a dedicated soundtrack and this movie has got a special score for every different scene. Terrific suspenseful score, that is one of the best features of this entire movie, just as it was in Die Hard.

Any bad? Well, it's a predictable, classic espionage story, which has been told (better) many times before in other movies, but for the fans of this genre, who dont mind the typical espionage cliches, this is still well worth a watch. It did please me from start till finish.

I am glad I stumbled into this movie. Gene Hackman rocks. And this movie is simply a well made nineties espionage movie.

Apparently this film bombed at the box office and the director was very disappointed with how the whole thing turned out.

However, the film has a certain post cold war charm and the two leads Gene Hackman and Mihail Baryshnikov play nicely opposite each other.

True it's not a well finished film and scripting is, at times, nonsensical.

Almost retired CIA spy Boyd (Gene Hackman) is called back to service to bring prisoner Grushenko (Mikhail Baryshnikov) to Russia as part of a prisoner exchange. from the beginning, Grushenko is suspicious, so maybe that's foreshadowing. and of course, a designated meeting goes bad, and "someone" is shooting at them. when Boyd calls DC for instructions, his boss turns out to be Kurt Smith, "Red" from the Seventies Show. Acc to wikipedia and other sources, there were soooo many issues making this film... an unfinished script, the fact the USSR was already kaput, and cast and production disagreements. it's also odd that both IMDB and wikipedier label this an action comedy.... i'll go along with the action, but never did hear the comedy. it's pretty well done as a serious action/drama, which is how the actors play it. the ending is pretty weak. there are a couple twists and turns, but it kind of ends with a whimper. no big showdown. which is ok. very european. written and directed by Nicholas Meyer. it's good. but it's not a comedy.

the great acting was about the best part of this for me. I also liked the storyline; it was deep enough but not so that you get too confused about why the things that are happening are happening. It was good to see lots of different and interesting locations: Berlin and Paris (I always wondered how the elevators went up the curved legs) in particular. The script was no slacker either. On top of the normal discussion you had witty one liners to lighten the mood. I thought it was charming how they started out (Hackman and Baryshnikov that is) as 'business men' doing their respective jobs, playing their roles but then became attached to one another and thus fought together. I also liked the mysteriousness of the ending. The 'where are the going to go now?' factor is usually a good touch. If anything was wrong with it I would've liked a little more action. The only real action scene I recall was the shootout in the subway. Other than that they were just running from baddies and jumping out of windows, which was entertaining but more confrontation would have been appreciated.

Rewatching this in 2020 (last viewing was probably mid-90s!) I must say I enjoyed this mild mannered "spy games" light comic thriller. Showing its age now with references to Princess Diana and protagonists smoking on an aeroplane. Has shades of better movies like MIDNIGHT RUN and 48 HOURS but with its own unique charm. I like the twisty turny espionage plot (like an early dry run of Jason Bourne films) and the Michael Kamen score sounds very DIE HARD esque, which adds to some of the more tense scenes (especially the spy trade gone wrong scene about halfway through the film). Lots of good strong supporting actors chewing scenery, and I'll watch Hackman in anything! Some of the dialogue makes me laugh too ("He's so rich he could ski uphill"), and I thought the cinematography was good on my modern 60 inch television. It also serves as a great travelogue of Berlin and Paris. Loses a few points for a totally abrupt ending, almost like they ran out of budget! I would have loved another 10-15 minutes to see how the characters ended up, and if they made it to the Seychelles.