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Black Doves (2024) – Pulp Trashy Fun

Genre – Spy (Crime?) Action Time: 6 x 55 minutes episodes Platform: Netflix Cast: Keira Knightly. Ben Whishaw. Sarah Lancashire. Andrew Buchan.   You don’t like serious stuff. You want your entertainment clean and without any great philosophy about the nature of spies and spying. In short you want gunfights, explosions and witty dialogues. In…

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Leave the World Behind (2023) – Digital 9/11?

Clickable links in red   Director: Sam Esmail Cast:  Julia Roberts. Mahershala Ali. Ethan Hawke. Myha’la. Kevin Bacon. Farrah Mackenzie. Charlie Evans. Duration: 2 hours 18 minutes Platform: Netflix.   You are reading this probably on your mobile or on your laptop browser. Everything is fine. Your network is good.  Your Internet Plan is fantastic…

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Hopscotch (1980) –  Delightful

Clickable links in red.   Genre – Spy Movie + comedy Time: 1 Hour , 45 minutes Platform: You Tube – Free Director: Ronald Neame Cast: Walter Mathau. Glenda Jackson. Ned Beatty. Sam Waterston. Herbert Lom.   Delightful is not a word that one would normally use when the subject is a spy movie. But…

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Citadel Honey Bunny – Predictable

Genre – Spy + Action Time: 6 episodes x average 50 minutes each Platform: Amazon Prime   Let’s start with some disclaimers.   First: I haven’t seen the ‘other’ Citadel series due to which I miss/am unaware of the connection between ‘those’ and the constant references to Citadel ‘here’. The others – from some online…

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Prime Suspect (1982) – Trial by media

Clickable link in red   Dir: Noel Black Cast: Mike Farrell. Teri Garr. Veronica Cartwright. Time: 1 hour, 32 minutes Platform: You Tube (Free)   Innocent until proven guilty is the basic rule supposedly followed by law enforcement agencies worldwide. Which is why, there are things like courts and lawyers to determine whether an accused…

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The Americans 2013 – 2017 – Fascinating

All clickable links in red     Genre – Spy Movie Time:  6 Seasons. 5 seasons x 13 episodes x average 45 minutes. 6th season – 10 episodes x average 40 minutes Platform: Disney Hotstar     Illegals and Russia – a “mini history”: In June 2010, ten Illegals were arrested by the FBI’s counter…

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Hell in the Pacific (1968) – A  unique film

Clickable links in red   Genre – War Movie Time: 1 Hour, 43 minutes Platform: You Tube Free Director: John Boorman. Cast: Lee Marvin. Toshiro Mifune.   There are war movies and then there is  Hell in the Pacific.  A unique film with ONLY two characters onscreen. The American cannot speak Japanese while the Japanese…

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East (2020) – Unique film on a forgotten war

  Genre – War Movie (based on true events) Time: 2 Hours 20 minutes Platform: Amazon Prime Language: Dutch         Historical background: World War 2 showed to the colonial subjects that their Colonial Masters were not a hundred feet tall and could be defeated. This was especially so in the Asian colonies,…

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Ulajh (2024) – Dull and Uneven

Clickable links in red   Genre – Spy + Conspiracy thriller Time: 2 Hours, 8 minutes Platform: NetFlix Director: Sudhanshu Saria Cast: Janhvi Kapoor. Roshan Mathew. Gulshan Devaiah.     Many spy thrillers commonly talk of honey trapping which is sexually entrapping a male and blackmailing him to obtain secrets. The opposite of that is…

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The Veil (2024) – Contemporary but …

    Director:  Daina Reid. Damon Thomas (3 episodes each) Genre: Spy thriller Time: TV series – 6 x 55-minute episodes Platform: Disney + Hotstar Cast:  Elisabeth Moss. Yumna Marwan. Dali Benssalah.     Imogen Salter (Elisabeth Moss) is an MI6 operative who takes down rogue traders. She is sent to a refugee camp on…

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Berlin (2023) – Brilliant slow burn

Genre: Spy Story Time: 1 Hour 50 minutes Platform: Zee 5 Writer Director: Atul Sabharwal Cast: Aparshakti Kurana. Rahul Bose. Ishwak Singh.   People have complaints, and my favorite is that the James Bond franchise has distorted people’s perception of spy films. If pressed, they will reluctantly concede that while it’s not real, it’s great…

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IC814 – Gripping

ALL CLICKABLE LINKS IN RED     Genre – Drama (true story) Time: 6 episodes x 45 minutes Platform: Netflix Language: Hindi Director: Abhinav Sinha   On a monday morning in 2003, one of my colleagues came back  after watching a movie and joyfully said “I saw a great movie.” Zameen”. I went goggle eyed…

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Ill Met by Moonlight (1957) aka Night Ambush – Unbelievable but true

All clickable links in red   Genre – War Movie (true story) Time: 1 Hours 30 minutes Platform: You Tube Director: Michael Powell, Emrich Pressburger    Powell and Pressburger, forged their collaboration during World War 2, as they produced war propaganda films, including the wartime classic 49th Parallel (1941). Their films epitomize British cinema and…

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Firefox (1982) – How Clint Won The Cold War!

Clickable links in red    Director: Clint Eastwood Genre: Spy cum techno Thriller Time: 1 Hour 57 minutes Platform: Amazon Prime (rent) Cast: Clint Eastwood. Freddie Jones   It is 1980 and The Cold War is intensifying. Both sides are intensifying the race to create deadlier weapons. British Intelligence obtains information that the Soviet Union…

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The Assassination of Trotsky (1972) – Interesting

All clickable links in red  Director: Joseph Losey Genre: Spy Drama (True Story) Time: 1 Hour 38 minutes Platform: You Tube Cast: Richard Burton. Alain Delon. Romy Schneider.   French Superstar Alain Delon, personified French cool in his best period during the 1960s and 1970s, where he played a wide range of interesting roles that ranged…

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North by Northwest (1959) – Classic Hitchcock

All clickable links in red  Director:  Alfred Hitchcock Genre: Spy thriller Time: 2 Hours 16 minutes Cast:  Cary Grant. Eva Marie Saint. James Mason. Martin Landau. Platform: Amazon Prime Rent   As mentioned in my post on Notorious (see here), Alfred Hitchcock made 11 spy movies, which were marketed as suspense thrillers. Hitchcock’s films are…

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Danger Close (2019) – War is hell

All clickable links in red Genre – War Movie (true story) Time: 2 Hours Platform: Amazon Prime Director: Kriv Stenders. Platform : Amazon Prime   Whenever we think of the Vietnam War, the popular image is the American image, with helicopters ferrying troops, US air force combat planes blasting and napalming jungles and pictures of various…

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