| Review:
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"The Double" stars off with the murder of a U.S. Senator
Darden (Edward Austin Kelly), recently on a TV debate, arguing
that Russia is a slowly growing threat that is going unnoticed
because the U.S. is dealing with the Middle East. The murder
attracts the highest levels of Homeland Security since his
death is identical to methods used by a Soviet agent presumed
to have died a long time ago. Code name: Cassius. The CIA
Director (Martin Sheen) turns to Paul Shepherdson (Richard
Gere), a retired CIA operative who spent 20 years tracking
down the Cassius Seven, except for the original Cassius,
who escaped. Of course, Shepherdson thinks it is just a
copycat murder. Soon he is teamed up with Ben Geary (Topher
Grace), a young FBI agent whose thesis on Cassius has attracted
the attention of the CIA. Now, Geary is eager to find out
who Cassius really is. However, what Geary and the rest
of the CIA do not know is that Shepherdson is actually Cassius.
From then on it is a cat-and-mouse chase between Shepherdson
and Geary, with the former trying to find Cassius, and the
later also trying but is intentionally misdirecting the
search. I do not like to give out spoilers in my reviews,
but this is a perfect example of a movie trailer giving
away the whole plot of the film.***
If you watch the trailer you find out that Gere is
the Soviet agent. Plus the name of the movie is "The Double",
so that should be a pretty big hint. However, let's say
that you have not seen the trailer before watching the movie.
Even then the big twist is revealed at about the 30 minute
mark of the film, which is way too early. However, you can
argue that there is a bigger twist at the end, but the payoff
was not that satisfying for me. Ultimately, the movie is
another forgettable spy thriller and it has elements that
we have seen before in better spy films. The trailer advertises
that the film is from the same writers (Michael Brandt and
Derek Haas) as "Wanted" and "3:10 to Yuma", which is a shame
because this film is a big step down from those movies.
It almost as if the script is just a hodgepodge from different
spy movies.***
Image and Sound:
For a low budget film like this, the video quality
is good. The film is shot well by the Director of Photography
Jeffrey Kimball, who has an impressive resume of films like
"Top Gun", "Mission: Impossible 2", "True Romance", and
"The Expendables". So this is one of the film's strengths.
The texture, details, and colors look good on Blu-ray and
the film actually looks like it's shot with film and not
digital. The audio is nice as the dialogue is clear and
you get a clear sense of the environment with small sounds
(creaks, rivers, traffic) that blend in with everything.
Plus the score is done by John Debney (Iron Man 2, The Passion
of the Christ") and compliments the action scenes well.***
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| Special
Features: |
There are a few special features on the Blu-ray. The
main highlight is the audio commentary by Writer-Director
Michael Brandt and Writer-Producer Derek Haas. The commentary
is very technical, but there are some interesting parts
about working under time pressure and budget restraints.
There is only one featurette on the disc, which consists
of interviews with the cast and crew. Unfortunately they
are brief and do not really provide that much information.
In addition, the disc also comes with the trailer which
basically gives away the whole plot of the film. Nevertheless,
the featurette and trailer are in HD, so that is a plus.***
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