Feb 15, 2007

The Week In Spies

The new spy movie Breach, based on the Robert Hanssen spy case, opens tonight in the United States to generally positive reviews. Stalwart genre staple (and fine actor) Chris Cooper plays Hanssen. John Hurt previously played the part in Master Spy, a 2002 TV movie scripted by Norman Mailer.

Retromedia released their eagerly-awaited (by me, at least) Eurospy triple-feature The Kommissar X Collection this week, too, touting it as "James Bond, German Style!" No, I still have no explanation for the porn-style cover art, and can't really see how it will help sales. Especially when the movies all had some pretty cool original poster artwork. But the obscure movies are on DVD at last, and that's cause for celebration. It's one double-sided disc, with Kiss Kiss, Kill Kill (1966) on Side A and Death Is Nimble, Death Is Quick (1966) and So Darling, So Deadly (also '66) on Side B. The movies are in full-frame, presumably because they're taken from 16mm TV prints. The prints don't look great, but they're certainly watchable and definitely better than nothing! I hope to have a full review up next week.

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