Peter Devereaux (Pierce Brosnan) is a retired CIA agent who is brought back into the fray when official matters become personal. Pitted against rogue CIA officials, his own protege and a Russian president elect, Devereaux has his hands full just trying to stay alive.
We say, “It’s about time we disagreed on something.”
TAYLOR: The November Man is either the worst good film of the year, or the best bad film of the year.
There was some bad acting, bad directing and bad writing, but for the most part, it was simply a case of the wrong choices being made, for the sake of supplying audiences with a Bond/Bourne type film that goes through the motions.
The film is polished, well shot and does contain exciting, sometimes shocking action sequences. Unfortunately for audiences, other bad choices begin to tally up, such that about half way through the film, you start waiting for the next stupid plot point to arrive, or the next over-the-top performance, or the next cliche.
I had to stifle a few giggles, some in the audience were unable to. To be clear, people are not laughing with this film, they’re laughing at it.
HOWE: I know what you are saying, and yet I really enjoyed it. I can’t remember the last time we reviewed a spy/thriller, so that could have an impact on how I felt about The November Man.
The acting is over the top and cheesy, especially from Brosnan, but he is like that in nearly all of his movies and if you changed his character’s name to Bond it wouldn’t have been any different than his 007 days. The only thing missing was his martini, shaken not stirred.
TAYLOR: I agree that Brosnan is his usual smarmy self, but Bond and Bourne films, despite their flair for the fantastical, do not contain such thinly motivated characters, unbelievable performances or plot holes you could drive a truck through.
I can see why people might like this film, but in order to do so they will have to get lost in its convolution.
HOWE: The storyline did keep me guessing who the good or bad guys were, which is appropriate for a spy movie. All too early in these types of movies, you can normally guess who is who, but this film covers its tracks well. There’s lots of chasing, killing and double crossing going on to keep the action flowing from start to finish and that’s another plus point in my opinion.
TAYLOR: You were conned by this film. Anyone who keeps tabs on who is doing what and why will soon discover the film’s flaws and start asking questions. Anytime you start asking questions about character motivations, actions and plot lines, that either don’t get answered or worse yet, get poorly answered, you have a failure. The November Man fails.
– Howe gives The November Man 3.5 SIM cards out of 5.
– Taylor gives it 1.5 unused gymnasts out of 5.
The film is currently playing at the Galaxy Cinemas in Vernon.
– Brian Taylor and Peter Howe are movie reviewers based in Vernon, B.C. Their column, Reel Reviews appears in The Morning Star Friday and Sunday.
