Latest news with #spythriller
The Guardian
18-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
The Amateur to Happy Gilmore 2: the seven best film to watch on TV this week
Rami Malek lends his disquieting intensity to this surprisingly enjoyable spy thriller. He plays a mild-mannered CIA cryptographer sent on a bloodthirsty revenge quest after his wife is killed in a terrorist attack. What's fascinating about this film is that, had the lead been any other actor, it would have devolved into generic pulp. But Malek, in the hands of director James Hawes, really leans into the character's psychopathy. He has a dead-eyed stare throughout, the sort you'd usually expect to find on a film's antagonist. Sure, this is a globe-trotting Bourne-style romp, but you're never allowed to forget the ethical iffiness of, say, blowing someone up inside a swimming pool. Out now, Disney+ Based on the 2018 novel by Miriam Toews, which was in turn based on true events, Sarah Polley's Women Talking is startlingly unconventional. The story of a Mennonite community in remote Bolivia, whose women discover that they are being drugged and raped, Women Talking centres around the discussion of how they should react. Do they leave, do they fight back, or do they do nothing? With a world-beating cast (Rooney Mara, Jesse Buckley, Claire Foy and Frances McDormand), the film is light on action but will linger long after the credits roll. Tuesday 22 July, 11pm, BBC Two This 2020 Jane Austen adaptation was the directorial debut of photographer Autumn de Wilde, who brought all the experience of her old career to the table. The story of a wealthy woman who attempts to act as a matchmaker, with far-reaching consequences, has been told over and over again. What sets this version apart are the lively performances – from Anya Taylor-Joy, Josh O'Connor and Bill Nighy – and visuals that are modern enough to cut through all the period stuffiness. Wednesday 23 July, 11pm, BBC Two Well, this is a weird one. Tin Soldier is a film where Scott Eastwood attempts to infiltrate a cult and overthrow its leader. What makes it weird, however, is how heavily this is overshadowed by its supporting cast. Robert De Niro features in a typically underpowered late-stage role as a kind of military advisor. But even he recedes into the shadows next to Jamie Foxx, playing the aforementioned cult leader. He has huge hair. He has silly glasses. He has questionable facial hair. His name is The Bokushi. None of it makes any sense. It's sort of incredible. Wednesday 23 July, Prime Video Sign up to What's On Get the best TV reviews, news and features in your inbox every Monday after newsletter promotion Few recent films stumbled into cinemas as dead on arrival as Kraven the Hunter. Knocked by Sony's repeated duff attempts to create a universe of Spider-Man baddies, none of which actually featured Spider-Man, the film was so poorly anticipated that the director was reduced to begging people to give it a chance. The good news is that Kraven the Hunter is actually a good film. It's less silly than Madame Web and less wild than Morbius. Come expecting nothing more than a sturdy action film and you shouldn't leave disappointed. Friday 25 July, 10.50am, 8pm, Sky Cinema Premiere There is a huge portion of the world that treats Happy Gilmore like a foundational text. A 1996 sports comedy about a short-tempered ice hockey fanatic who finds a surprising affinity for golf, this is arguably the archetypal Adam Sandler performance; loud, profane, occasionally syrupy. Now, almost 30 years later, it's time for the sequel. Here, Gilmore is forced out of retirement to pay for his daughter's ballet school. Expect lots of shouting, a billion cameos and – most intriguing of all – a turn by Sandler's Uncut Gems director Benny Safdie. Friday 25 July, Netflix If you need to get acquainted with the man who'll lead James Bond into the future, this is a decent place to start. Denis Villeneuve's sequel to Ridley Scott's original is monumental in every way. It moves slowly but loudly, and every frame is a maximalist spectacle. Here Ryan Gosling plays a replicant who discovers that his kind are able to biologically replicate, leading him down a dark path that will take him to the fringes of society and make him question his own identity. If the next Bond is even a tenth as ambitious as this, we're in for a total treat. Friday 25 July, 11.25pm, BBC One
South China Morning Post
18-07-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Maggie Q on Bosch spin-off show Ballard, her gruelling Nikita workload and love for Hawaii
Landing a lead role in a television series would seem like a dream scenario for an up-and-coming actor. But it can also become a nightmare – just ask Maggie Q. The actress, who got her start in Hong Kong action films, scored the title role in the 2010 spy thriller Nikita, where she showcased her athletic prowess and became one of the few Asian actors to star in a US network drama series. Although Q was grateful for the experience, she also remembers the project as all-consuming and gruelling, prompting her to be more selective about her choices. Her inner red flag went up when she was first approached about starring in Ballard, Amazon Prime Video 's new show based on a series of bestselling novels about fictional LAPD detective Renee Ballard by former Los Angeles Times journalist-turned-author Michael Connelly. 'I get a lot of scripts, and a lot of them I don't like,' says Q, whose real name is Margaret Denise Quigley. 'I also wasn't looking to take on another show. It was like, 'Is this something I really want to do right now?' I know what it takes to be No 1 on a show. It's a massive output, and it really has to be good enough for me to want to do that again.'
Geek Tyrant
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Tyrant
Action-Packed Trailer for Prime Spy Thriller Series BUTTERFLY Starring Daniel Dae Kim and Reina Hardesty — GeekTyrant
Prime Video has released an action-packed trailer for the spy thriller Butterfly , starring Daniel Dae Kim, Reina Hardesty, Piper Perabo, Kim Ji-hoon, Park Hae-soo, Kim Tae-hee, Charles Parnell, Sean Dulake, and Nayoon Kim. They are joined by Sung Dong-il and Lee Il-hwa in recurring guest roles. Butterfly is executive produced by Daniel Dae Kim, and is created and written by Ken Woodruff and Steph Cha, with additional writing by Dave Kalstein, Sung Rno, Diana Son, and Denise Thé. The series is based on the graphic novel written by Arash Amel. The show's episodes are directed by Japanese-American filmmaker Kitao Sakurai ( Dave , Twisted Metal , The Eric Andre Show ). The synopsis reads: 'Butterfly is a character-driven spy thriller that explores complex family dynamics within the treacherous world of global espionage. Centered on David Jung (Daniel Dae Kim), an enigmatic, highly unpredictable former US intelligence operative living in South Korea, whose life is blown to pieces when consequences of an impossible decision from his past come back to haunt him, and he finds himself pursued by: Rebecca (Reina Hardesty), a deadly, sociopathic young agent assigned to kill him, and also Caddis, the sinister spy organization she works for.' Check out the trailer below, and watch Butterfly when it premieres on Prime on August 13th.
Yahoo
12-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Spy Thriller ‘The Partisan' Sets October Theatrical Release as Capture Inks Key Presales (Exclusive)
James Marquand's The Partisan with Malcolm McDowell will premiere in theaters this fall, The Hollywood Reporter can reveal. Sisyphus, Nostromo Films and Brainstorm Media have confirmed the spy thriller will debut in October, via Brainstorm Media for the U.S. and Canada and in partnership with High Fliers Films in Britain. Media Squad Distribution and Monolith Films will release the movie in Poland. More from The Hollywood Reporter As Oasis Kicks Off Reunion Tour, Fans Lap Up New Merch (and Seek New Ticketing Options) The Podcast Exchange Warns of Bankruptcy Protection Amid Rough Advertising Market Why Wet Leg's Rhian Teasdale Can't Stop Writing Silly Love Songs The Partisan reunites the producing team of Robert Chadaj, Krystian Kozlowski and Matt Whyte whose previous productions include 2018's Hurricane. It stars Morgane Polanski (Vikings) as Polish agent Krystyna Skarbek, who works for the British Special Operations Executive. The movie's central character was a real-life operative often credited as the inspiration for Ian Fleming's Vesper Lynd. The Partisan focuses on the exploits of Skarbek, one of Britain's premier female spies, whose bravery helped shape the course of World War II. An exclusive still for the film was released to THR on Friday and shows A Clockwork Orange actor McDowell in character. Piotr Adamczyk (Hawkeye), Ingvar Sigurdsson (Everest) and Agata Kulesza (Cold War) also star. The Partisan's worldwide sales are handled by Capture, which has inked additional deals with Germany (Lighthouse), ANZ (Eagle), Eastern Europe excluding (Daro), Spain (Divisa Red), LATAM (Global Media Distribution), the Middle East (Phoenicia), Portugal (Nos Lusomundo), Greece (Spentzos), South Korea (Poongkyung Sori) and airlines (Ricochet). Best of The Hollywood Reporter The 40 Best Films About the Immigrant Experience Wes Anderson's Movies Ranked From Worst to Best 13 of Tom Cruise's Most Jaw-Dropping Stunts
CBC
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
In Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning, Tom Cruise shows off his Jesus complex
Even after nearly 30 years — and a slightly disappointing box-office performance in the last outing — Mission: Impossible is not a movie franchise hurting for publicity. That, of course, is partly due to what's on offer: a truly international buffet of action and locales that gives James Bond, Jason Bourne and even Carmen Sandiego a run for their money. But outside of that glitzy sheen, a large part of the draw lies with its star: an old-school leading man who, alongside Brad Pitt's example in the upcoming F1, may be among the last celebrities with the requisite star power to sell a movie through a grizzled picture of their face alone. The newest film, Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning, is definitely cognizant of this level of fame. The eighth instalment in Tom Cruise's spy-thriller action series (following the somewhat confusingly titled Dead Reckoning Part One, the franchise's first two-parter) provides as many explosions, chases and death-defying stunts as ever. While not the series' best, Final Reckoning is solidly middle-of-the-pack, and as always, the set pieces are reliably thrilling — if not quite as marketably dangerous. But beyond Cruise's seemingly boundless appetite for grabbing onto the outside of airplanes, this is a film aware of the mythos he's created. Here, that legend lies in Ethan Hunt: the funny-running, more-deadly-when-disavowed embodiment of willpower and breath-holds, a man with a penchant for gunfights, eerily lifelike masks and falling from high places. A true last action hero so firmly embedded in popular culture, the roughly quadrennial marketing push for whatever insane way he's risked his life this time has become a more exciting media touchstone than the Olympics. Cruise is far from the only action star to force a new character into America's hero pantheon. Like many of the others, he's had enough sequels to slowly but surely overemphasize Ethan Hunt's core traits and see the character become a caricature — or "flanderized," the TV trend named after The Simpsons ' once subtle, now clownishly religious Ned Flanders. As a result, it becomes impossible to look past the character's predominant trait. It happened to Vin Diesel in Fast & Furious. His Dominic Toretto started as a rough-and-tumble antagonist before morphing into a superhero with the power to collapse entire parking garages through the power of his stomp. It happened to James Bond, whom Daniel Craig took from a suave but damaged spy to sad-eyed Sisyphus, doomed by fate to watch every metaphor for hope bleed out below a sunset vista. And now, it's happened to Hunt. He began as a field agent on the outs, always on the hunt for loyalty, but Final Reckoning sees him in the endgame. When all is said and done — at least in Cruise's opinion — Ethan Hunt's final form is Jesus. Miracle marketing That message is almost painfully transparent, and whether that means death or resurrection is best left for audiences to discover. Besides, whether or not we say goodbye here, Mission: Impossible 's creators have jumped at the chance to make what amounts to an in memoriam segment to both Hunt and Cruise. For Hunt, that amounts to a roughly 10-minute intro thanking him for his many sacrifices: a voiceover from U.S. President Erika Sloane (Angela Bassett) plays over a collage of prior M:I films. "It's been 35 years since circumstances brought you to us," she says, constructing the thematic framing the rest of Final Reckoning will hammer us over the head with. "Though you never followed orders, you never let us down." This is paired with another voiceover, doing its best to recall the events of the second-longest Mission: Impossible movie, as we gear up to sit through the longest. The Entity — a Skynet meets I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream"truth-eating parasitic AI" — plans on hijacking the world's nuclear arsenals to all but eliminate the human race, before rebuilding a utopia from the ashes for the remaining few. It has inspired an international doomsday cult with members in every world government, so our heroes can't trust their handlers. The only way to cripple it is by acquiring its source code, which currently lies in the bowels of a Russian submarine sunk somewhere in the Bering Sea. And the only one who can get it is Ethan Hunt, who both holds the literal key to this treasure and — as he is repeatedly told, by virtually everyone he meets, every five minutes — a metaphorical one. Only he can save us. Why? Well, we'll get to that later. This set-up does allow for what Mission: Impossible does best: team-ups and action sequences. Our old hands do an admirable job. Hayley Atwell's pickpocketing Grace may read as something of an Artful Dodger clone straight out of Oliver!, but her relationship and chemistry with Hunt becomes more important than ever this time around. More interesting, though, are the new characters. Nunavut's Lucy Tulugarjuk is an absolute delight as Tapeesa, and Tramell Tillman a revelation as Captain Bledsoe. The only complaint with either is how much more screen time both deserved. But it is also a drastically simplified synopsis; the further we go into the plot, the harder it becomes to follow how this poison pill relates to that biological computer virus, to this Podkova, to that Sevastopol, to some optical drive in whichever Doomsday Vault halfway around the world. It gets even more clunky and confusing as this movie insists on interconnecting the plots of all eight movies, interweaving everything from the first movie's release date to every time Hunt has tried to sacrifice himself for the world's sins. Cruise's myth-making And it's here that the myth-making between Hunt and Cruise becomes a bit blurred. Because as more scenes of past movies are interspliced with more and more characters telling Hunt how he is the only one with the power to save every single soul on Earth, it becomes harder to ignore the case Cruise seems to be making for himself. After his 2005 debacle on Oprah's couch, followed by the semi-commercial failure of his last purely dramatic outing, 2008's Valkyrie, many saw Cruise's career as on the rocks. Since then, he's pivoted almost entirely to franchise fare, and an incredibly effective PR coup turning him into the man saving the movies. Everyone from Steven Spielberg to CBC has bandied his title as the saviour of cinema. Cruise has either started believing his own headlines, or simply doubled down on the marketing. To be fair, this movie only partially suffers for it — after a dragged-out beginning, Final Reckoning culminates with a fantastic white-knuckle ending. But it's hard to ignore how these movies have also become a sort of brainwashing technique to sell us on both a fictional and real martyr. There is only one man who can save us, Mission: Impossible continues to scream — and here's another line of dialogue and headline about how both he and his character once again nearly died doing it.
