The November Man

Espionage films have been a main staple genre that Hollywood can depend on for a number of decades, so it's no wonder that yet another spy flick would come crawling out from out of the woodwork. Hey, there have been so many novelists which these films have been based such as Tom Clancy, John Forsyth, John Le Carre, and the like, that it has been so easy to keep up that conveyor system to keep churning them out. As with "The November Man", this is one more to add to Hollywood's belt notch.

Code named 'The November Man' Peter Devereaux (Pierce Brosnan) is a lethal and highly trained ex-CIA agent, who has been enjoying a quiet life in Switzerland. He is retired because of a botched mission in 2008 with his then protégé, David Mason (Luke Lacey). When Devereaux is lured out of retirement by colleague Hanley (Bill Smitrovich) five years later, for one last mission which is to protect valuable witness Alice Fournier (Olga Kurylenko), he soon uncovers that this assignment marks him a target of his former friend and CIA protégé Mason. With growing suspicions of a mole in the agency, there is no one Devereaux can trust, no rules and no holds barred. This is the ultimate cat and mouse game set in a world of international espionage.

Others to round out the cast are Lazar Ristovski as Arkady Federov, Russian president elect, Eliza Taylor as Sarah, Mason's neighbor, Amila Terzimehic as Alexa, Russian assassin, Will Patton as Perry Weinstein, Devereaux's boss, Patrick Kennedy as Edgar Simpson, investigative reporter, Caterina Scorsone as Celia, a CIA agent, Ben Willens as Agent Jones, Akie Kotabe as Meyers, Mediha Musliovic as Natalia Ulanova and Milos Timotijevic as Federov's Chief of Staff.

This is directed by one of the best directors of espionage films to date, which is why Roger Donaldson ("The Bounty" '84, "No Way Out" '87, "Cocktail" '88, "Cadillac Man" '90, "The Getaway" '94, "Dante's Peak" '97, "Thirteen Days" 2000, "The Recruit" '03, "The World's Fastest Indian" '05, "The Bank Job" '08, "Seeking Justice" '11) is lured back time and again to direct yet another spy or political oriented film. His work on "No Way Out" was brilliant in that the way he was able to get the lead character played by Kevin Costner, and others for that matter, to exude an extremely caged, frenetic, trapped feeling, kept one riveted to the edge of their seats. This film was very reminiscent of the aforementioned film, because you could see the desperation and trapped feelings these characters were displaying. It was written by Michael Finch and Karl Gajdusek based on the book, "There Are No Spies" by Bill Granger. It was a solid premise and was carried off well, however it was a bit non-cohesive in parts, and a bit choppy. But all in all, this keep moving you in the direction of a very good twist near the end.

As espionage flicks go, this is a very solid one and once you get into the plot of this, the 'cat and mouse' game will be the thing that will keep you on that roller coaster ride until the end credits roll.

Out of 4 Stars: 3                                Rated: R                                108mins.