Page Eight

It's a shame that a film with good production and decent actors has been ruined by the terrible script. The plot and characters are completely unrealistic. Everything is so clichéd.

This film is only one step removed from the realm of action adventure spy's who jump out of windows and dive through fire to make a getaway that no one else can follow.... except here our suave protagonist can elude special branch by walking down an alley or politically out manoeuvre a top politician with a few few glib comments and a wry smile, whilst simultaneously failing to create a back story for himself, so the first time anyone says "what is it that you do" he has to come clean and admit "ah, you got me, yeah, I'm a spy".

I could see it was crap from the start and I'm now really annoyed that I didn't turn it off immediately.

If you haven't seen it already, watch Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy instead of this fake spy news. I mean most spy thrillers are far removed from reality and require the suspension of disbelief, but there's not 1 grain of realism here. Totally vapid.

Strange that some viewers see Page Eight as an anti-American or anti-Israeli movie. I see it as a story about the unscrupulous underworld of secret service operatives and a well crafted thriller. This seems a judgement that is agreeable even to those who hold it to be anti-"all-that-is-good-and-right-with-the-world." I find this type of shallow, tedious observation to be more fittingly done by the PR workers for the North Korean leadership than by quality seeking viewers of Public Television. My only objection to the program is that it has been very difficult for me to find the next airing on PBS. By the way I think it should be kept in mind by all rabid seekers of "all-that-is-good-and-right-with-the-world" that neither the United States nor Israel has been a constant adherent to that quest.

The person who reviewed this film and gave it two stars because it is anti-American and anti=Israeli misses the point. This is a good film ,well made, with high class production values and great acting. I like good films. The Americans, Israelis, British, French, Chinese, Saudis, the list is very long, do very bad things. I would not trust any of them as far as I could throw their gold-plated bullet-proof Cadillac, but it's still a good film. Dr Strange love is pretty anti American, but it doesn't stop it being a great film (10 stars). I also rather object to having to write so much to get the review published, so I'll just waffle a bit 'till the ten lines are up - do they think people are incapable of writing a useful review in less than ten lines!- that should do it.