Please continue to respect all commenters and create constructive debates. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. Due to the sheer scale of this comment community, we are not able to give each post the same level of attention, but we have preserved this area in the interests of open debate. AdChoices Are you sure you want to delete this comment? Co-producers: Jane Hooks, Robert Norris ... Spooks writing veterans Jonathan Brackley and Sam Vincent penned the screenplay and stick to what … Spooks: The Greater Good review: 'faintly ridiculous' Star Rating Star Rating. Click here to login or ... Can't find a movie or TV show? He is both part of the Great British spy family and an outsider, forced out of the services in murky circumstances. THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER is a registered trademark of The Hollywood Reporter, LLC. Spooks is very realistic and follows story lines that are real close to real world events. In most cases at least. You can't help but admire the diligence with which the director, Bharat Nalluri, shows off his London locations. The contrasting specters of Jason Bourne and George Smiley hang heavy over Spooks: The Greater Good, which semi-successfully translates the BBC's hit spy series to the big screen three years after its tenth and final season. Nalluri, who handled the first two episodes of the first two Spooks seasons and came back for the very final pair, is ploddingly content to follow the Hollywood-approved template for action/espionage fare, without ever imparting much of his own flavor. Among support-players here only Jennifer Ehle (as an imperturbable MI-5 bigwig) makes much impact, crisply channeling Meryl Streep via Margaret Sullavan with the snowy tremolo of her icily precise diction. Sitemap | It's great to see Firth granted a rare leading role at age 61 here — four decades after he earned Tony and Oscar nominations for Broadway and film versions of Equus — as Pearce goes AWOL and underground in the wake of Qasim's escape, leading his stuffed-shirt superiors to question his loyalties. There is a sense that this is a film aimed primarily at British audiences who have a passing acquaintance with the TV show. The most insightful comments on all subjects will be published daily in dedicated articles. Haunted Spooks is a bit of a special one for me. No opportunity is lost for high-angle shots of the city and for panoramas of its historic buildings and skyscrapers. Film critic Nick Duncalf reviews the big screen spin-off of the hit BBC TV series, starring Kit Harington and Peter Firth. It was the first Harold Lloyd movie I ever saw and the movie that really made me appreciate how much clever title cards can contribute to a silent film. There is a stirring turn from Peter Firth, who appeared in every episode of the series, as spy chief Sir Harry Pearce, who suspects there may be something rotten at the heart of British intelligence. The title is a popular colloquialism for spies, and the series follows the work of a group of MI5 officers based at the service's Thames House headquarters, in a highly secure suite of offices known as The Grid. You can also choose to be emailed when someone replies to your comment. Starring: Kit Harington, Peter Firth, Jennifer Ehle. You need to be logged in to continue. Production companies: Kudos, Shine Spooks: The Greater Good review – nonsense but fun 3 out of 5 stars. Privacy Policy | Our Verdict. No, not this gag! Kit Harington plays Will Holloway, a character roughly similar to his "bastard" Jon Snow in Game of Thrones. Costume designer: Colleen Kelsall “MI-5” looks exactly like what it is: a movie derived from a TV show. Login to write a review. Cinematographer: Hubert Taczanowski While an entirely new creation, Holloway combines elements of two previous Spooks favorites: future Hobbit notable Richard Armitage's Lucas North and Matthew McFadyen's Tom Quinn. Buy movie tickets in advance, find movie times, watch trailers, read movie reviews, and more at Fandango. Spooks series 8 episode 1 review. Want an ad-free experience?Subscribe to Independent Premium. That said, Harington's debut starring vehicle — Paul W S Anderson's Pompeii — proved less than explosive last year, and Spooks is more revealing of his limitations than his potential. Conceived as a British answer to 24, but with extra real-world grit and downbeat-classy Tinker Tailor touches, the BAFTA-winning Spooks successfully dramatized security concerns in the wake of 9/11, often touching on dealings between MI-5 personnel and their CIA counterparts during the era of the "special relationship" between George W Bush and Tony Blair. Luckily it doesn’t give into any cheap straight-to-DVD D-list cliches. © 2021 The Hollywood Reporter, LLC. The movie, however, achieves none of the above. Nick Love's slam-bang Sweeney — like the Spooks movie — pivoted on the chemistry between a seen-it-all pro and a tearaway youngster, a format whose most sparkling recent iteration is Matthew Vaughn's Kingsman: The Secret Service. Spooks is a show that catches your attention from start to finish. All rights reserved. The Spooks movie – Spooks: The Greater Good – is underway, and as you can see from this exclusive first-look still, it’ll be tauter than Hawkeye's bowstring. Overview of Beware, Spooks!, 1939, directed by Edward Sedgwick, with Joe E. Brown, Mary Carlisle, Clarence Kolb, at Turner Classic Movies Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile. Starring: Kit Harington, Peter Firth, Jennifer Ehle, {{#verifyErrors}} {{message}} {{/verifyErrors}} {{^verifyErrors}} {{message}} {{/verifyErrors}}, Spooks: The Greater Good: TV spies leap to the big screen at a ripping, You may not agree with our views, or other users’, but please respond to them respectfully, Swearing, personal abuse, racism, sexism, homophobia and other discriminatory or inciteful language is not acceptable, Do not impersonate other users or reveal private information about third parties, We reserve the right to delete inappropriate posts and ban offending users without notification. But there were exceptions, including McFadyen's Quinn — who enjoyed a killer cameo in the final episode — and Firth's Pearce, who uniquely appeared in all 86 episodes and slowly emerged as the show's main draw. Sign Up. Global. EMAIL ME The current Obama/Cameron epoch provides, for good or ill, a less dramatic backdrop — and the recurring sub-plot of thorny US-UK collaborations ("the Americans think MI-5 is a weak link... they withdraw their support, our entire intelligence apparatus will collapse") never quite comes into focus. Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Neil Young FACEBOOK Tense drama series about the different challenges faced by the British Security Service as they work against the clock to safeguard the nation. Celebrity Celebrity ... Spooks Movie Review… | EU Privacy Preferences. For all its references to hacking and computer surveillance, its high-tech listening devices and gadgetry, the big-screen spin-off from TV's Spooks is an old-fashioned affair – a ripping yarn with more than a hint of John Buchan about it. When a terrorist escapes custody during a routine handover, Will Holloway must team with disgraced MI5 Intelligence Chief Harry Pearce to track him down before an imminent terrorist attack on London. Relatively diminutive, slight and with his Thrones locks —  he's contractually obliged to retain the Snow 'do — incongruously intact, he makes for a sullenly humorless presence here as hot-headed former MI-5 agent Will Holloway, who gets back in the game when terrorist Adem Qasim (Elyes Gabel) escapes captivity and threatens London with a 7/7-style atrocity. YOUTUBE. | California Privacy Rights The existing Open Comments threads will continue to exist for those who do not subscribe to Independent Premium. Movie Review of Spooks: The Greater Good. Squeezing the excitement and intrigue of even a 5 or 6 episode season (UK standard it seems) isn’t easy. TWITTER — and while the character of course comes up trumps in the final reel, that's more than can be said for the performer or the picture as a whole. ... let’s be honest, far more engaging than the last James Bond movie. The premise of the movie is one of those that can easily fall into destruction. Casting a couple of US actors might have helped — director Nalluri's previous big-screen outing, Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day (2008), was a US-UK co-production which benefited from having Frances McDormand, Amy Adams and Lee Pace in leading roles. Read our full mailing list consent terms here. Spooks: The Greater Good review – TV spy show sprints on to the big screen 2 out of 5 stars. Sales: Pinewood Pictures, London. We are whisked from Heathrow to Waterloo Bridge, from the West End to Whitehall. Latest Movie Trailers Interviews Movie Review Videos Anchor Cuts Nettv4u Videos Sillaakki Dumma Videos Shortflims. Director: Bharat Nalluri We don't have any reviews for Taxi Spooks. Production values, at least compared with Bourne or Bond movies, are modest. Casting: Reg Poerscout-Edgerton Screenwriters: Jonathan Brackley, Sam Vincent Over the past four seasons spooks has gone through many changes and has in season 3 lost there three main leads Tom,Zoe,Danny and replaced by Adam,Ros,Zaf who still make the show just as exciting more to the point realistic and serious. p open profile menu. But it's also frustrating that he should also have to share the limelight with an undeserving young whippersnapper, especially when Jonathan Brackley and Sam Vincent (head writers on the last two seasons) could easily have found a way to bring back the charismatic Quinn. The Spooks television show is immersed within its own historical and ideological contexts, and in pursuing a serialised format, that rejects the prestige hallmarks of most espionage TV, is at the very least interesting. A film based on a long running TV show, sure to disappoint fans. From its earliest episodes Spooks (a Brit-speak epithet for spies) was notorious for dispatching key sympathetic characters — including Danny Hunter, the breakthrough part for Selma's David Oyelowo — and North was one of many to meet a sticky end. Best of 2020 THR Editor Picks of 2020 Movie Reviews TV Reviews Roundtables Podcasts 'Spooks: The Greater Good': Film Review. As in the best spy films, we aren't quite sure which side the spooks are on, whether they are trying to do "good" or to do "well" and further their careers. Kit Harington in the new Spooks movie (Kudos) Wolstencroft and his team were putting the first episode to bed when 9/11 happened. Technical contributions likewise seldom threaten to bedazzle: cinematographer Hubert Taczanowski seeks to show off a range of London locales, with copious use of helicopter shots, but his visions of the capital lacks the panache of recent genre notables Welcome to the Punch, Redemption (aka Hummingbird) or fellow small-screen transplant, The Sweeney. Articles Slideshows English Articles. What matters most, though, are the chases, explosions, bluffs and double crosses, all staged at such a relentless tempo there is no time to notice the cracks in the storyline. Spooks (known as MI-5 in some countries) is a British television spy drama series that originally aired on BBC One from 13 May 2002 to 23 October 2011, consisting of 10 series. While more satisfactory as a Le Carré variant than as a Ludlum clone — thanks largely to the world-weary gravitas of top-billed veteran Peter Firth — there's only the ghost of a chance of this so-so mid-budgeter fulfilling its mission of sparking a new franchise, especially with Paul Feig's raucously larkish Spy to contend with. This is James Wan after all, with David F. Sandburg directing, who is the creator of the short film this movie is based on. Taxi Spooks (1929) ← Back to main. Oh my god. The title is a popular colloquialism for spies, and the series follows the work of a group of MI5 officers based at the service's Thames House headquarters, in a highly secure suite of offices known as The Grid. Nonetheless, when a high-value terrorist, Qasim (Elyes Gabel), is sprung from captivity, Holloway is brought in from the cold to try to get him back. It is also historically significant as Lloyd lost part of his hand (and nearly his life!) Terms of Use | British bookmakers are currently offering 33/1 against Harington becoming the next 007, odds which most punters will have little difficulty resisting. On Rotten Tomatoes it has an approval rating of 63% based on 41 reviews, with an average rating of 5.5/10. Composer: Dominic Lewis In the U.S. it was known as “MI-5.” This reviewer never saw the show, but on the evidence of the movie, he feels he didn’t miss much. The website's critical consensus states: " MI-5 (Spooks: The Greater Good) is a stylish, albeit rather perfunctory, adaptation of a spy thriller perhaps best left on the small screen." Spooks Run Wild (the title is the best thing about it) is sixty minutes of terrible gags, racist bullshit, and Bela Lugosi stalking about in the shadows.It's like a particularly bad Scooby Doo episode stretched into (almost) feature length. ‘Spooks: The Greater Good’ - Movie Review “I want to know everything you know”. Editor: Jamie Pearson You can find our Community Guidelines in full here. URL. I hate the East Side Kids. Latest British stab at spy shenanigans may struggle to lure viewers beyond fans of its small-screen source. Film Review: ‘Spooks: The Greater Good’ A game Kit Harington headlines this strained, superfluous spinoff from the once-popular BBC spy drama. A crazy person, a spirit and some flickering lights. by Typical movie for TV This film is basically the hunt that the MI-5 (British intelligence service specializing in internal security) promotes a fearsome terrorist who escapes them between the fingers. With Kit Harington, Peter Firth, Jennifer Ehle, Michael Wildman. As it is, they struggle to flesh Holloway out into three dimensions — the script is even peppered with derisive, hostage-to-fortune comments about his competence ("Harry was right about one thing: you're not good enough!") At times, it seems stranded in a no man's land between 007-style thrills and George Smiley-like spycraft. Are you sure you want to mark this comment as inappropriate? Production designer: Simon Bowles The very British eccentricity is part of the appeal. British spy thriller, a continuation of TV series Spooks.Harry Pearce's (Peter Firth) security is compromised after a known terrorist escapes from the clutches of MI5. Our journalists will try to respond by joining the threads when they can to create a true meeting of independent Premium. 6:23 AM PDT 5/11/2015 They should be renamed the East Side Middle Aged Men. Cast: Peter Firth, Kit Harington, Jennifer Ehle, Tuppence Middleton, Elyes Gabel, Tim McInnerny, Lara Pulver, David Harewood The show was called “Spooks” when it ran on the BBC for ten seasons, from 2002-2011. | Do Not Sell My Personal Information Please be respectful when making a comment and adhere to our Community Guidelines. Login. Pairing another Firth (no relation) with crackerjack newcomer Taron Edgerton, Kingsman's fizzingly droll chutzpah can't help but make Spooks: The Greater Good, for all Peter Firth's ballast, seem dowdily old-school in comparison. Spooks: The Greater Good, movie review: Kit Harington and Peter Firth leap to the big screen at a ripping pace. Directed by Bharat Nalluri. Login to create it. Jennifer Ehle is good value as his enigmatic colleague. Create a commenting name to join the debate, There are no Independent Premium comments yet - be the first to add your thoughts, There are no comments yet - be the first to add your thoughts. Peter Firth and Kit Harington star in the pacey ‘Spooks: the Greater Good’, (15) Bharat Nalluri, 104 mins. Spooks: The Greater Good is no different, boasting plenty of bridge-based reflective thinking backdropped by London skylines. (15) Bharat Nalluri, 104 mins. while this film was in production. This movie sucks. Producers: Jane Featherstone, Stephen Garrett, Ollie Madden International prospects will depend on audience familiarity with the original show — which at its peak was shown in 60 countries, sometimes under the title MI-5 — while the prominent presence of Kit Harington may draw in some fans of his broodingly vengeful Game of Thrones character Jon Snow. It doesn’t exactly soar and the lack of levity grates, yet the Spooks movie still delivers some appealingly old-school mayhem to pass the time while we’re waiting on SPECTRE. Independent Premium Comments can be posted by members of our membership scheme, Independent Premium. Many of the spies look like provincial bank managers or jobbing civil servants. It allows our most engaged readers to debate the big issues, share their own experiences, discuss real-world solutions, and more. s focus the search bar. One of those that can easily fall into destruction best of 2020 THR Editor Picks of 2020 Editor... 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