It’s an espionage double feature starring Chris Pine. That’s right, he has two espionage thrillers coming out within a week of one another, so for the purposes of this review we will look at both films. The first movie is All the Old Knives starting Chris Pine and Thandie Newton. This film is very much a slow burn and in a lot of ways feels like you’re watching Tinker Taylor Soldiers Spy. I admit, I did like the film even if it’s not the best spy film out there. It’s the kind of old-school espionage story where there’s not a lot of action but slowly draws you into the conspiracy at the heart of the story. This movie is about a rogue agent that has to be drawn out after an asset tells the CIA that one of their own has betrayed them. Chris Pine plays the character who has to find the truth. Classic espionage stories don’t really exist anymore, the best espionage stories always seem to take place during the Cold War, and even though intelligence gathering is still very prominent, it’s not like it used to be when America had one main adversary in the world. The best parts of this film are the performances and all the misdirection between the characters until we get to the truth. You won’t get a lot of action, but that also makes the story better.

I grew up reading Cold War espionage novels from great authors like John le Carré, Robert Ludlum, and Ian Fleming. Their stories were not about shootouts and in a lot of ways weren’t always about secret assassinations. At the heart of these stories were always agents who were trying to find secret information that could stop a war or find a mole, or even turn an enemy agent. That’s why this story feels like a classic espionage novel because the main part of the film is the conversation between Chris pine’s character and Thandie Newton’s character, leaving you to question yourself, whether one of them betrayed their country during a terrorist plot years before. I found myself not wanting either one of them to be a mole, both characters are sympathetic, and I think that’s marked by their brilliant performances. I could have sworn that this movie was from the 1950s. But the best part of this movie and what makes it worth watching is how their conversation is blended with flashbacks that help drive the story until you get to the end and are caught by surprise. The movie slowly draws you in. Everybody is great in this movie.

However, what I do complain about is even though it is a slow burn and the use of flashbacks is meant to give the story more action, we get a lot of needless conversation that draws out the ending and it makes this movie longer than what it needs to be. You could have easily cut out 15 minutes and made this movie better. But it’s also easy to ignore something like that when you have such great performances. And, I also have to complain that there isn’t enough action. I know that goes against everything that makes this film good, but putting action at the right moment does drive a story, it gives it the perfect pace and for the most, the heart of the story is just a conversation between the two main characters. I don’t necessarily mind cat-and-mouse games, it certainly works when it comes to heightening the intensity in the movie. However, there are times that this movie is a little too slow and takes a little too long to get to the point or even the misdirection that will keep you interested.

These are minor complaints. If you’re looking for an action spy thriller, then this is not it. It is a classic espionage story where the characters play a cat-and-mouse game to uncover the truth behind the CIA’s mole. If you know that going in, then you won’t be so bored by the movie, and I could see how an audience would be bored with it if they’re looking for action. This is definitely not a James Bond movie and it doesn’t need to be. Great storytelling can be effective when you slowly draw out the story only to be surprised in the end. But as I said before, it is the performances of Chris Pine and Thandie Newton that make this movie worth watching. Chris Pine is absolutely believable as a CIA agent, unlike the very lackluster Jack Ryan movie he did years ago. You’re sympathetic for the characters which can only be done if you have great performances. And the brilliant part of the story is there is no absolutely right answer in the end. If you’re a fan of classic espionage then you will enjoy this film. If you’d like to Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy, you’ll like this film, and you should definitely check it out on Amazon Prime.

The Contractor

The second espionage thriller with Chris Pine is The Contractor. It’s a high-octane thriller that reunites him with Ben Foster after they both had a great showing in the movie Hell or High water. The Contractor is far different than All the old Knives. If you’re craving action in an espionage movie, then this is the Chris Pine Movie for you. The best way I can describe it is it’s like Chris Pine decided to do a Bourne Identity movie. There’s not much to the story, but you will get a lot of action and I’m not saying that’s a bad thing. Chris Pine can definitely do an action role, he’s certainly believable. I could see him as Jason Bourne if Matt Damon had never done the role. The story is about an army special forces soldier who is drummed out of the military and in order to make enough money to stop drowning in debt, he accepts a job with his best friend being a private contractor. Essentially, he goes to work for a private special forces firm and when a job goes sideways, the best way for the company to clean up its mess is to kill all those who did the job. I don’t really consider this a spoiler because it’s not hard to figure out what’s going to happen.

First off, let’s just get this out of the way. This is not a great movie, the best parts of the movie are the action scenes. And if you’re looking for a repeat of the magic that Chris Pine had with Ben Foster from Hell or High water… Just go watch that movie again. Well, I don’t want to make the comparison to The Bourne Identity too much, I honestly feel like that’s what I was watching and if that’s the story you’re going to tell, isn’t this story better told in a series. The movie starts out a little slow but once the action starts, we’re off to the races until the very end and because the action moves so quickly, we don’t get that much of a story. That’s this movie’s biggest downfall, it doesn’t take the time to explore what could have been a great story on why Chris Pine’s character is betrayed and how he’s going to fix it in order to save his family. You can’t tell this kind of story in 1 hour and 45 minutes and expect it to be that good. This is the kind of story that needs six to eight episodes because there’s so much more happening behind the scenes than just some rogue leader of a private special forces unit who has to clean up his mess when everything goes wrong. Kiefer Sutherland plays the leader of this outfit and I found myself wanting to know more about his character. Nothing is really explained about his character.

Great espionage thrillers take the time to tell all parts of a story, especially the backstory. An important part of storytelling is how your characters got to where they are at the beginning of your movie or your series. You can certainly tell that throughout flashbacks and that’s one of the things they did in All the Old Knives really well. And unfortunately, there’s only two good scenes in this movie that bring out the human element to the story or more specifically make you care about the characters. One is the scene where Chris pines character is talking to the Marine who just tried to kill him and finds out more about who is trying to kill him. And the other scene is with the character who runs the safe house when they’re having dinner.

I enjoyed the action in this movie and Chris Pine was great at it, but to tell a great espionage thriller you have to have a proper amount of action and drama… The story can’t be all action. There are moments when as the audience, we have to catch our breath. A slow burn to the investigation within your story is just as important as the action sequences and there has to be a good balance between those things. I feel like with The Contractor they just went for action and that’s it. Like I said, it’s like they wanted to make their own version of The Bourne Identity. But here’s what does work in the film. The performances are great. Yes, we could have seen a lot more with Chris Pine’s character and Ben Foster’s character. All that could have been explored more if this had been a series, but they have great chemistry together and it is evident in this film. Kiefer Sutherland does make a great leader of a private special forces firm. It’s not like the casting wasn’t good, we just didn’t get as much with the characters as we could have if this had been a series. Like for example, J.D. Pardo, who played the Marine has a short amount of screen time and he is an actor that has a great presence on the screen and a lot of charisma. If you don’t know what I’m talking about then go watch Mayans MC… It’s almost a waste to have him in this film if you’re not going to let him do anything except a few fight scenes.

The idea for this movie was great, but they failed to deliver, simple as that. It’s okay for the action sequences, but the story seems familiar and there’s not enough backstory to make us really care about what’s going on. A good espionage thriller should make the audience have a vested interest in the story and sometimes that’s why you need the slow burn as I mentioned before. But the thing with great ideas is to be more than just an idea… you gotta deliver with the story, or you just have a wasted film or series, and more importantly, a waste of a great cast. Writers and directors have to give the actors something to work with. This is one of those films where I wouldn’t have minded a three-hour movie so it makes me wonder if this film was cut short by the studio and who’s to blame for wasting such a great idea and making what is a “B” version of a story we’ve already seen. This isn’t a movie that’s worth renting on premium high demand for $20 or even going to the theater to see. It may be worth a good rental just for the action, but sadly The Contractor doesn’t live up to what it could have been!