True Lies is an action movie with several elements of comedy. It is as hilarious today as it was back in 1994. There are so many impossibilities that makes you go "did that really happen?" but that's Hollywood for you.
Premise: Harry Tasker is a spy who chases down terrorists and do other spy things with help of his team. He kept his professional life separate from his home life, but he is having trouble at home. He thinks his wife may be having an affair with a smarmy car salesman, and his daughter is apparently a pickpocket and of relatively low morals. Unfortunately, he really has no time to take care of stuff at home when some terrorists may be smuggling in nukes into Florida... Then everybody in the family got involved, and things got VERY complicated indeed...
The idea of secrets and multiple identities are used for comic relief very effectively in this movie. The scene where Tasker got the truth serum is hilarious.
The movie could be improved on several levels, but it is great fun. And admit it, you don't watch Arnold films to get educated or have deep thoughts...
Showing posts with label Spy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Spy. Show all posts
Friday, June 10, 2011
KCR: Torch of Freedom (scifi, novel)
Torch of Freedom is a novel set in the "Honorverse", i.e. the world of "Honor Harrington" series by David Weber. This book only peripherally involved Honor Harrington herself, but rather concentrated on the characters Anton Zilwicki and Victor Cachat, and Queen Berry of Torch.
To describe the novel would be rather difficult, as the Honorverse, with a dozen novels and several short story anthologies, is almost huge beyond description, but here's a tiny summary, just to set the stage:
The planet "Torch" was a slave planet held by "Mesa Corporation", which manufacturers genetic slaves. In a previous book, a slave revolt, with a little help from the outside, threw off Mesa, and with some outside help, the ex-slaves kept their freedom. The ex-slaves elected Berry, adopted daughter of Anton Zilwicki, to be their queen (yes, I know it sounds weird), because Zilwicki had a part in revolution, and Zilwicki's wife, Lady Montagne, was a Manticoran noblewoman who gave up her title to get a seat in House of Commons in order to fight for more help genetic slaves. When Queen Berry was almost assassinated, and similar strange assassinations were reported in other star systems as well, Anton Zilwicki (ex-Manticoran Navy Intelligence specialist), and Victor Cachat, his counterpart in the Haven Republic (both have a love for Torch), went off to look for clues on who may really be behind this...
The world is rich, and characters varied, but each is unique. You may have problem keeping the characters straight, but David Weber's novel reads like Tom Clancy writing science fiction, with a dash of Horatio Hornblower's derring-do.
My main problem with Weber is sometimes his characters goes into lecture mode, as the two characters have to say out loud every thought where they explain all the angles verbally, even when the two are like-minded. That's more of a nitpick though, not a fault.
If you read any of Honorverse novels, you should pick this one up.
To describe the novel would be rather difficult, as the Honorverse, with a dozen novels and several short story anthologies, is almost huge beyond description, but here's a tiny summary, just to set the stage:
The planet "Torch" was a slave planet held by "Mesa Corporation", which manufacturers genetic slaves. In a previous book, a slave revolt, with a little help from the outside, threw off Mesa, and with some outside help, the ex-slaves kept their freedom. The ex-slaves elected Berry, adopted daughter of Anton Zilwicki, to be their queen (yes, I know it sounds weird), because Zilwicki had a part in revolution, and Zilwicki's wife, Lady Montagne, was a Manticoran noblewoman who gave up her title to get a seat in House of Commons in order to fight for more help genetic slaves. When Queen Berry was almost assassinated, and similar strange assassinations were reported in other star systems as well, Anton Zilwicki (ex-Manticoran Navy Intelligence specialist), and Victor Cachat, his counterpart in the Haven Republic (both have a love for Torch), went off to look for clues on who may really be behind this...
The world is rich, and characters varied, but each is unique. You may have problem keeping the characters straight, but David Weber's novel reads like Tom Clancy writing science fiction, with a dash of Horatio Hornblower's derring-do.
My main problem with Weber is sometimes his characters goes into lecture mode, as the two characters have to say out loud every thought where they explain all the angles verbally, even when the two are like-minded. That's more of a nitpick though, not a fault.
If you read any of Honorverse novels, you should pick this one up.
Monday, May 23, 2011
KCR: Hanna (2011)
Hanna is an weird movie to rate. The premise is sorta borrowed from Le Femme Nikita, The Fugitive, the Pretender, and so on, yet the approach is fresh enough to be interesting.
Premise: a father had been training his daughter in the wilderness, away from any technology, since her birth, so she can be ready for a certain mission. Later, it was implied that her mission was to kill a certain person who was looking for her. Then she had to go on an adventure (fish out of water, wonder of seeing a world she had only read or heard about), except the bad guys are still around, and there's a big fight at the end, as expected.
The movie is quite well done, and the soundtrack by the Chemical Brothers is excellent. The viewpoint is a little shaky (not quite Blair Witch, but it ain't steadi-cam). The problem is a lot of plot points were simply not covered, like what happened to the family (you'll know if you watched the movie).
Still, it's worth one viewing, at least.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0993842/
Premise: a father had been training his daughter in the wilderness, away from any technology, since her birth, so she can be ready for a certain mission. Later, it was implied that her mission was to kill a certain person who was looking for her. Then she had to go on an adventure (fish out of water, wonder of seeing a world she had only read or heard about), except the bad guys are still around, and there's a big fight at the end, as expected.
The movie is quite well done, and the soundtrack by the Chemical Brothers is excellent. The viewpoint is a little shaky (not quite Blair Witch, but it ain't steadi-cam). The problem is a lot of plot points were simply not covered, like what happened to the family (you'll know if you watched the movie).
Still, it's worth one viewing, at least.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0993842/
Saturday, May 14, 2011
KCR: Splinter Cell, Conviction and Splinter Cell, Endgame (spy, thriller)
Image via WikipediaDavid Michaels is one of those "official novelization" writers that is writing all the novelization of games for Ubisoft, and two of his results are Splinter Cell: Conviction and Splinter Cell: Endgame.The problem with these two books is... they are about the exact same events, albeit from two different points of view. Basically, Sam Fisher allegedly have gone rogue, and the Splinter Cell team has been ordered to catch Sam Fisher... dead or alive. And Sam Fisher is giving them the slip, while trying to figure out who inside the Splinter Cell team is the REAL mole.
So you basically, you got ONE novel for the price of two. One novel is from Sam's viewpoint, and the other novel is from the team's viewpoint. But they cover the EXACT same events. Phooey.
KCR: The Ghost War (spy, novel, terrorism)
Image via WikipediaCIA Agent John Wells is back... back on US soil, but restless. When news of Taliban fighters getting mercenary trainers reached the CIA, John Well is going back to Afghanistan... and what he finds there is shocking... Iran about to go nuclear, a mission rescuing a defector going horribly wrong, a mole in the CIA about to destroy spy ops in China, and a general in China making a power play for world dominance...This book is very reminiscent of Tom Clancy, albeit less techno-wiz, and bit more about the nitty-gritty world of human spies. It's a bit more reminiscent of Larry Bond's books, though not quite as globe-spanning. It's a good yarn. I wouldn't quite compare him to some of the existing masters, but he's pretty good.
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