Duo mortel

This film is my all time favorite for Larry Fishburne, one of the most charismatic Black actor in Hollywood, unfortunately underrated for my taste. In this film, he has not a specific Black character's one, he could be a white one, see? He is fantastic here, and any lead character would be so in a such cynical, ruthless, disgusting character, so unusual in a movie. But the topic of the CIA and its numerous off shore "phantom" cells, operating in black actions of blackmail and assassinations is very helpful to provide such characters. It could have been a very good series. A little complex, I admit, but all Ross Thomas's novels were too. Ross Thomas is the screenwriter of this awesome underrated film. Ellen Barkin has here a role very close to the one she had in JOHNNY HANDSOME, though a total different story. But the ending is very close. And in this story, you have some good supporting characters study. And a so fantastic aesthetics in camera movements, such a this one after 78 minutes, where a supporting character arrives in a hotel to meet Fishburne's character, enjoy the scene just before the supporting character is shown, the lady swimming in the pool...And not only this sequence; the movie is full of this kind of scenes.

This movie is proof-positive that everything is not for everyone,and in this case,that is unfortunate.The criticisms leveled at this film usually mention its 'slow pace' or its 'simplistic writing',as if every film needs to be directed by John Woo or written by David Mamet.I enjoyed it tremendously because it spit in the face of the usual textbook narrative themes found in nearly every movie made before or since.It champions its amoral characters,treating them like golden gods and giving them plenty of room to play.When you've found a film where the most sympathetic character is someone's conniving mistress,it is cause for much celebration! These characters are not just amoral,they are deliciously amoral and quite nonchalant about it!

I love the degree of sophistication that each character possesses,treating each other as petty contrivances standing in the way of their decidedly selfish goals.They absolutely reek of elegance.Even their conflicts are handled in a gentlemanly manner,like being slapped with a silk glove instead of the customary right cross or knee to the groin.The bullets flying about even seem to adhere to some sort of proper etiquette!The characters even refuse to die wearing anything off the rack!

This film is more about gracious duels than cacophonous shoot-outs and car chases.It is,quite simply,a film for the sophisticate.The person who admires the cool detachment of Hannibal Lecter(minus his dietary proclivities),or the person who has an especially warm spot for humorous lines that only aspire to deliver a wicked grin instead of a hearty guffaw.This movie fully realizes that most of its characters are unapologetic elitists,and it applauds them.Nowhere is this more clear than in the character portrayed by Daniel Hugh Kelly.His elegantly evil performance is so deliciously smarmy that it was obviously created for the sole purpose of providing that wicked grin that I spoke of before.

If you consider yourself more trip-hop than hip-hop,more Oscar De La Renta than Old Navy,more Paris in the spring than Peoria in the summer,then this is the film for you!

Interesting, but oddly emotionless movie about corporate covert operatives. You can't quite get a handle on the characters, and the dialog is strangely void of real, personal interaction. At times, it's almost like listening to robots talk. The only real emoting is done by Ellen Barkin. It's hard to get a handle on her character; one minute she's coldly sneering at somebody, the next she's got neediness radiating from her eyes.

Frank Langella plays the only seemingly decent human being in the whole bunch, even though he runs a covert company, which works at corporate espionage; bringing to bear any disgusting technique which will benefit his client's bottom line.

Laurence Fishburne is very good in this as a coldly calculating operative. He oozes cool and menace as a ruthless agent, who will do whatever it takes to get the job done.

Very interesting movie to watch, but these are people I hope to never come across.

If you want your films to have sympathetic characters, you probably shouldn't go near this one. This is a very tough and cynical thriller, one that has no good guys, only a whole lotta bad guys and a couple of not quite as bad guys. But that's what I enjoyed about this film. It was great to see the plot unfold in unexpected ways, and to see these characters mess with one another, motivated only by greed, lust, and fear. Another aspect is the film's sleek and cold style. From the wardrobes to the apartments these characters occupy, the film is pretty stylin'. And the acting is very good. Laurence Fishburne is excellent as the amoral Crowe, Frank Langella is elegantly nasty as Grimes, and Michael Beach has a deceptively quiet role as one of Fishburne's "co-workers". A very dark film that resolves itself quite nicely in the end, and well worth seeing. But if you need a good guy to root for, this isn't the film to check out.

Thrown out of the CIA for be suspected of stealing gold that he denies stealing, Nelson Crowe finds himself a former spook looking for work in the private sector. This brings him to the attention of an organisation run by Vic Grimes, one that excels in blackmail and corruption for a fee. Recruited by Margaret Wells, Crowe soon finds himself in deep and almost immediately winning the trust of Wells. She repays this trust by offering him joint control of the Toolshed – in return for murdering Grimes. Meanwhile Crowe reports back to the CIA that the first stage of his infiltration has been successful but the CIA have other ideas of how his mission will end; meanwhile the word 'trust' loses any meaning it may have once had as the various sides jostle to come out on top.

The concept of a thriller involving CIA operatives and shady goings on combined with the question 'who can you trust?' will be nothing new to anybody and, for this reason, this film doesn't really do anything wrong but doesn't do anything special either. The plot is full of twists and turns but none of them are really surprisingly or even that interesting; meanwhile the 'thriller' aspect of the film never really gets up to speed and a big problem with it is the delivery. The story is a rather plodding drama at times and it could have done with being a lot slicker – dark but slick. Without many thrills the plot sags easily and the audience may feel almost bored at times; considering the stakes are murder, corruption and betrayal it is a surprising that it is so flat. The dialogue also suffers from being a bit flat; contrast it with the sparkling dialogue of David Mamet (in Spartan for example) and this just feels clunky and lacking in effort.

Of course having a great cast helps to counteract that but there is only so much that they can do at times but they still manage to have a good presence and add to the material. Barkin is sexy, manipulative, needy and cold all by turns – it is a role she can do very well and she rises above the material here. The rest of the leads rely on presence more than performance but they mostly succeed. Fishburne is always interesting and he excels at tough and cool, making a good lead. Langella is cool professionalism and suits his character well. Beach is good; Stiers is a well-known face and fits his minor role well while Spalding Gray is a rather sad reminder of his suicide but he is very good in his character. Of course it is Barkin and Fishburne that dominate the film and both are pretty strong, actually making up for wider delivery problems and making the material feel better than it is.

Overall this is nothing special but it does enough to be worth watching once. The cast provide strong performances with good screen presences all round but the delivery is roundly flat and never gets as tight or thrilling as other films in the genre effortlessly manage. The plot is old news and the dialogue feels flat and lacking in imagination and effort, rather taking the life out of the film and making it feel a lot more workmanlike than the names in the cast list would suggest it could be.