Tony Scott’s latest offering is Spy Game, starring Robert Redford as a CIA operative on the verge of retirement, and Brad Pitt as his protege who gets himself in trouble in China.

Scott employs his usual battery of tricks, including the rapid zooms he used in last year’s Barclays adverts, and this one is more or less grey and blue filters all the way through, with occasional bits of orange for hot countries. There’s a more sophisticated level of politics behind the plot here than you would expect, even if it only serves to add an extra level of motivations, and an unusual narrative structure where most of the story is told in flashback. The only letdown is a wildly improbable turn of events at the end of the movie, but I forgave them as the previous two hours were such a pleasant surprise.

The DVD contains lots of extras including some interesting deleted scenes and a commentary. Another victory for Tony.

Mild Peril Rating:

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