From: drsteerforth@yahoo.com   
      
   On Thu, 16 Sep 2021 21:14:17 -0000 (UTC), "Adam H. Kerman"   
    wrote:   
      
   >Mack A. Damia  wrote:   
   >>On Tue, 17 Aug 2021 17:04:03 -0600, George  wrote:   
   >>>"Adam H. Kerman"  wrote:   
   >>>>super70s  wrote:   
   >>>>>Mack A. Damia  wrote:   
   >   
   >>>>>>"Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" (2011)   
   >   
   >>>>>>Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a 2011 Cold War spy thriller film   
   >>>>>>directed by Tomas Alfredson. [...]   
   >   
   >>>>>>Oldman is outstanding as George Smiley.  You have to be on your toes   
   >>>>>>for this one.   
   >   
   >>>Yes, Oldman is good in this role, but he's not quite the   
   >>>unassuming time server described in the novel.  And he's not Alec   
   >>>Guiness.   
   >   
   >>>>>A little too much boring British political discourse for me, many think   
   >>>>>it's inferior to the TV version. But yeah Oldman never disappoints.   
   >   
   >>>It's a good effort - if you know the either novel or the 1979 BBC   
   >>>miniseries (the gold standard).   
   >   
   >>>>Excellent cast but the directing is plodding. Oldman is terrific.   
   >   
   >>>>Aargh. The tv miniseries never turns up on tv!   
   >   
   >>>But it is still available on Amazon.   
   >   
   >>Got the Alec Guinness six-hour BBC version on Tuesday.  Although   
   >>Guinness is marvelous, I thought the first disk was a bit tedious   
   >>until the last half of the second installment.  I haven't gone   
   >>further, yet.   
   >   
   >>Watched "The Good Shepherd" starring Matt Damon, too. Rather long and   
   >>has been accused of being tedious. It held my interest.  I enjoy the   
   >>spy genre.   
   >   
   >I've seen that on tv. It takes a while to develop the plot and   
   >characters. I liked the deliberate pacing.   
      
   Does it help a spy to look "boyish"?  This is my only comment about   
   Damon, and I won't even call it a criticism.  He hardly showed any   
   emotion throughout the film, and it worked for him.  Guinness was   
   marvelous with his changing expressions - almost nuances, delicate   
   shadings of his facial features.   
      
   >I suppose anything can be ordered these days. Game, Set, and Match was   
   >quite excellent, a 13 episode series produced for ITV from three decades   
   >back. Ian Holm as Bernard Samson was brilliant, best role of his career   
   >and one of the few times he got to star in something. Alas, ITV didn't   
   >get the ratings they were looking for and they never adapted the rest of   
   >the novels in the Berlin series.   
   >   
   >Len Deighton was at the top of his game, and stopped writing novels   
   >after completing the Berlin series. The prequel novel Winter is part of   
   >the series.   
   >   
   >There's some repetition in the novels and I don't think there was quite   
   >enough for nine novels, but I enjoyed them at the time. Winter was   
   >particularly good.   
   >   
   >>Both films (Damon and Oldman) were nothing like James Bond.  Rather   
   >>refreshing.   
   >   
   >There's no need to compare. Bond movies are a separate genre.   
      
   I suppose that I have a lot of catching up to do.  I need more and   
   more shelves these days for the DVDs that I buy.   
      
   Trying to think of some of the spy films that I have seen in the past.   
   I recall in the late 1960s seeing "The Quiller Memorandum" with George   
   Segal and Alec Guinness - and I remember it only very generally as   
   quite good.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)