Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is just under a month away, and that means we are a mere three weeks from hearing Keanu Reeves voice Shadow the Hedgehog. Today, Paramount has released the second trailer for the film, and we get to see a little bit more of Shadow and the returning cast, as well as get a better sense of how the…
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is just under a month away, and that means we are a mere three weeks from hearing Keanu Reeves voice Shadow the Hedgehog. Today, Paramount has released the second trailer for the film, and we get to see a little bit more of Shadow and the returning cast, as well as get a better sense of how the…
Plot: Follows Martian, a covert CIA agent, ordered to abandon his undercover life and return to London Station. When the love he left behind reappears, romance reignites. His career, his real identity and his mission are pitted against his heart; hurling them both into a deadly game of international intrigue and espionage.
Review: While you may love a good action spy movie, give me a mature, calculated drama about espionage any day. While there is a time and a place for James Bond, Ethan Hunt, or Jason Bourne, the psychological intensity of a well-crafted thriller does not come along every day. The Agency, based on the French series Le Bureau des Legendes, is a solid showcase of deliberate and complex tension done right. With a masterful cast led by Michael Fassbender and Jodie Turner-Smith, The Agency certainly showcases some intense action. Still, it thrives on solid performances from the rock-solid ensemble of acting talent. Few series can match The Agency‘s accomplished writing and directing, which will surely blow a lot of viewers away while the deliberate pace frustrates others.
The ten-episode first season of The Agency opens with Michael Fassbender’s embedded agent, codenamed Martian, as he breaks off a romance with Sami Zahir (Jodie Turner-Smith), with whom he has developed real feelings. Returning back to London, Martian must contend with the psychological toll of re-assuming his real identity while reconnecting with his daughter and coworkers at the CIA. Martian is almost immediately pulled into a storm involving an asset that may have become a double agent and risks exposing countless spies working undercover across the globe. Under the leadership of his boss, Henry (Jeffrey Wright), and their station chief, Bosko (Richard Gere), Martian must help figure out their next steps before an international incident occurs. He must also do this while reuniting with Sami, who is also now in London. The complications of balancing a romance conducted while undercover while eluding your employers and trying to do your job extract a psychological toll on Martian, one of many displayed throughout the series.
The first three episodes were made available for this review, which may be more than enough for some viewers. When I said this series is unlike James Bond, I meant it in many ways. There are a lot of quiet moments in The Agency, including a long, dialogue-free sequence in which Martian meticulously sweeps his London apartment to look for tracking devices and bugs. The deliberate pacing of scenes like this may be boring to some, even though I found them fascinating. The first episode features a car chase through Ukraine, an asset trying to escape. At the same time, London-based operatives pool their skills to try and extract him before he lands in a foreign nation, and some intense arguments in person and across virtual screens. Between those scenes, there are a lot of moments of spies watching other spies, making sure they are not spies for the other spy agency but actually good spies working for our spies. If that sentence was hard to follow, some of The Agency may pose a challenge for you.
The stellar cast helps this series rise above a lack of momentum. Michael Fassbender is as quiet and virtually emotionless as Martian. Using an American accent, Fassbender plays this role similarly to his turn in David Fincher’s The Killer. Both are calculating and of few words but physically embody a sense of experience and a slightly off-balance mental state. Luckily, Fassbender’s stoic approach is offset by a sultry turn by Jodie Turner-Smith. Jeffrey Wright gets the next largest role as Martian’s supervisor and seems to have the most balanced screen time at work and at home. Richard Gere is good in a supporting turn as the hard-nosed station chief, Bosko. Katherine Waterston and John Magaro appear in smaller roles as analysts supporting field agents, with the great Harriet Sansom Harris bringing great presence to her turn as psychologist Dr. Blake, who serves as both a resource and a source of accountability for the agents.
Produced by George Clooney, the whole first season of The Agency was written by Jez and John-Henry Butterworth (Edge of Tomorrow, Ford v. Ferrari). The series’ first two episodes were directed by Joe Wright (Atonement, Cyrano), who also serves as an executive producer. The remaining eight episodes were helmed by Zetna Fuentes (The Nevers), Grant Heslov (Catch-22), and Philip Martin (The Crown). The Agency boasts a muted color palette and intense moments of quiet interspersed with bursts of violence and whipsmart dialogue exchanges. There are so many moments in this series that need little to no dialogue to convey the overwhelming weight of what is going on in the lives of these characters. There are plot threads involving characters in countries around the globe happening simultaneously, pulled together into a balanced story that you need to pay attention to to follow appropriately.
I would not be shocked if The Agency divides critics as much as general audiences. This is a series that does not pick up consistent momentum until well into the third season and, even at that point, leaves so many questions as to what exactly is going on that it will leave many scratching their heads. Michael Fassbender is a great lead but is more of an ensemble player in this series that picks and chooses who you are supposed to focus on without giving you much to orient yourself. The Agency is a drama about the emotional and psychological strain of being an undercover agent. It delivers one of the most blunt and realistic looks at how an intelligence series operates. Do not expect this series to feature a supervillain with a master plan, but you will find yourself wondering how sexy the life of a spy may actually be after you see what it can do to a person. The Agency is an interesting premise with a solid cast that may be a bit too languid for its own good but still manages to be a pretty intriguing series.
The Agency premieres on November 29th on Paramount+ with Showtime.
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Do you look like Twisters and Top Gun: Maverick star Glen Powell? Are your parents aspiring actors? Well, you could kill two birds with one stone by winning Austin’s Glen Powell lookalike contest, where the actor says whoever takes home the prize could see their parents or a family member cameo in one of his movies. I’m just learning this, but Powell’s parents “frequently show up” in his films, and he wants someone else to have the same experience. I’m not kidding.
Glen Powell couldn’t attend a Glen Powell lookalike contest in Austin, Texas, because he was busy filming Edgar Wright’s version of Stephen King’s The Running Man. Still, his mother and aunt helped judge the competition. How adorable is that? According to Fox 7 Austin, a physician’s assistant, Maxwell Braunstein, won the top prize. Want to know what he won? I hope you’re sitting down. Braunstein won five whole dollars, a cowboy hat, free queso from Torchy’s Tacos (score), and a special FaceTime message from Powell.
“Welcome to the Justin Hartley lookalike contest,” Powell joked. “In all seriousness, I have assembled you here today for an important mission. I want to pull off a heist, and we don’t need masks because we all have the same face. It’s the perfect crime! They can’t get all of us because we are one: a criminal Glenterprise.”
With the pieces of his master plan falling into place, Powell continued, “You may know that my parents make a cameo in every movie I make, but today the winner of the Glen Powell lookalike contest wins their parents, or any family member of their choice, a cameo in my next movie,” he said. “I am completely serious. This is a cash-value prize of $6 billion.”
Before you visit your local plastic surgeon to increase your chances of taking home $6 billion at a Glen Powell lookalike contest, I’m sure that last part is just Powell being cheeky. That said, imagine telling your parents they have a chance to cameo in one of Powell’s movies because you won a lookalike contest. That’s bound to get your picture on the fridge.
What celebrity could you enter a lookalike contest for? Michelle Monaghan told me I look like “a young Russell Crowe.” Kevin James agreed, but that’s a stretch. Others tell me Zach Galifianakis could play me in a film about my life. That’s more realistic. Let us know which celebrity you look like in the comments section below.
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As huge as Cher is behind the mic, she also had one hell of a movie career, even earning two Oscar nominations and a win. Cher was surprisingly talented on the screen but she also had several big-time directors supporting her like Robert Altman, Mike Nichols and George Miller. Of course, as with any actress, Cher ran into some real jerks on the set…and she’s not afraid to name names.
As far as who made Cher want to turn back time and reconsider which contracts she signed, she cited two in particular: “There are only two directors I didn’t like: Peter Bogdanovich and the guy from The Muppets,” referring to Frank Oz. “I actually got the guy from The Muppets fired. I said, ‘Either you’re going or I’m going,’ which is a shame because he’s a really good director, but he had a thing about me. He would go, ‘At least my wife loves me!’” As such, Oz would end up being fired from 1990’s Mermaids, being replaced by Richard Benjamin.
As for the late Peter Bogdanovich, who directed Cher in 1985’s Mask, the actress stated bluntly, “He was an asshole. He was not nice to the girls in the film and he was so f*cking arrogant. I really, really disliked him.” She cited one particular run-in that she feels Bogdanovich purposely devised to make her look bad. “He comes in and says, ‘Cher, where do you think we should film this scene?’ And I say, well, the kitchen is working pretty well, why don’t we do that again? The next morning he arrives on set, eating an egg sandwich,and starts screaming that he’s not going to let me direct this film; I’m a nobody; he can cut me out at any moment. Oh yeah, he was a pig.” And so, too, was Frank Oz, having voiced Miss Piggy for more than 25 years…
Cher has never really been one to hold back, but now that she’s nearing 80, she really has nothing to lose: alive or dead, if you wronged her, you’re going to get slapped and told to “snap out of it!” That goes for the music scene as well, having recently called out the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for snubbing her induction for so long. She has subsequently been inducted, but maybe try not to get on her bad side?
What is your favorite Cher performance? Share your pick with us below!
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Bloomberg is reporting this morning that Sony is working on a portable version of the PlayStation 5. This comes hot on the heels of news from Microsoft that a portable Xbox is being worked on, and of course ahead of the imminent announcement of the Switch 2. Everyone’s going handheld!
Bloomberg is reporting this morning that Sony is working on a portable version of the PlayStation 5. This comes hot on the heels of news from Microsoft that a portable Xbox is being worked on, and of course ahead of the imminent announcement of the Switch 2. Everyone’s going handheld!
Another day, another Dune: Prophecy episode going where no Dune movie went before. After killing off its youngest character on-screen in the pilot, the latest episode shows the most formidable power in both Dune movies being thwarted more than 10,000 years earlier.
Another day, another Dune: Prophecy episode going where no Dune movie went before. After killing off its youngest character on-screen in the pilot, the latest episode shows the most formidable power in both Dune movies being thwarted more than 10,000 years earlier.
King Kong ain’t got nothin’ on Denzel! But maybe The Bone Collector does…Denzel Washington has had one hell of a movie career, breaking out in the ‘80s and soon becoming one of the few Black actors to win an Academy Award at the time. But before he would become the first Black actor to win two Oscars, Denzel Washington had to go through some true crap. But that’s not us talking, that’s Denzel himself.
Speaking with The Times, Denzel Washington admitted that he spent a lot of the ‘90s making movies for the paycheck. “After Malcolm X I made some real clunkers. Look them up — I won’t say their names…They are all in the 1990s. But I was earning. I had responsibilities.” Denzel may not want to list any particular titles, but we can imagine the list includes The Pelican Brief, Virtuosity, Fallen, The Bone Collector, and a few others.
We all know Denzel Washington takes his craft seriously, but we also can’t blame him for doing those paycheck movies. After all, that’s kind of part of the business. “In life, you learn, earn and then you return — as in give back. So if your life is 90 years long, up until 30 you learn and from 30 to 60 you earn. So in that era I was earning. With a great agent, my career built into making money and so the earning kicked in and then life also kicked in, with bills, four kids and a house …”
It can’t be denied that Denzel Washington led plenty of bad movies in the ‘90s, but he might be acting a bit too hard on himself, as there was still plenty of strong work in the ‘90s: Philadelphia, Crimson Tide, Courage Under Fire, He Got Game, etc.
Whatever Denzel Washington thinks of certain eras of his career, one he is putting serious attention on is the current one, as he has pointed to his retirement after just a handful more movies, all of which sound like must-sees, including Spike Lee’s remake of High and Low, a collaboration with Steve McQueen and a third Black Panther, for which Denzel says Ryan Coogler specifically wrote a part for him.
What is your favorite Denzel Washington movie? What was his strongest decade?
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