Review: For a man whose acting career highlights revolves a lot about being James Bond during the 90s, The November Man is a niche movie that fits into Pierce Brosnan's bill. Adapted from the seventh The November Man book series by Bill Granger, Brosnan plays Peter Deveraux, a boozehound ex-CIA agent who is forced to come out of retirement to conduct an unsanctioned covert operation to retrieve an important asset out of Moscow. The operation invokes plenty of Peter's past as he tries to find the answers in an espionage game involving a war criminal, a refugee shelter worker, and his protege.
Brosnan works with director Roger Donaldson for the first time since their 199-'s collaboration in Dante's Peak, but the result in The November Man is often a bumpy action thriller that fails to give justification to the source materials and payoff for the tedious plot it builds up. The decent set-up in the first half does enough to provide the movie with excellent depths on the plenty characters that are converging around the international espionage and political saga. It is pretty much influenced by many of 80s and 90s spy thriller signatures; including throngs of car-chase, elusive cat-and-mouse game, and bullet sprays in the hallway.
As much as nostalgia is beginning to settle in for what looks like a decent thriller in the making, the story takes a tumble during the second half. It is easy to notice how absurdity and lack of originality have forced the plot to make an unpleasant sideways trip that ruined it. Instead of moulding on a standard genre of political thriller, the inclusion of nonsensical and unnecessary provocative revenge, as well as a lethargic third act, are not interesting and do not add any value to the main arc. The twists you hope to see it coming, are far from the unexpected. Unfortunately and ultimately, The November Man fails to become one reasonable and memorable entree in the political spy thriller. C+
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Brosnan works with director Roger Donaldson for the first time since their 199-'s collaboration in Dante's Peak, but the result in The November Man is often a bumpy action thriller that fails to give justification to the source materials and payoff for the tedious plot it builds up. The decent set-up in the first half does enough to provide the movie with excellent depths on the plenty characters that are converging around the international espionage and political saga. It is pretty much influenced by many of 80s and 90s spy thriller signatures; including throngs of car-chase, elusive cat-and-mouse game, and bullet sprays in the hallway.
As much as nostalgia is beginning to settle in for what looks like a decent thriller in the making, the story takes a tumble during the second half. It is easy to notice how absurdity and lack of originality have forced the plot to make an unpleasant sideways trip that ruined it. Instead of moulding on a standard genre of political thriller, the inclusion of nonsensical and unnecessary provocative revenge, as well as a lethargic third act, are not interesting and do not add any value to the main arc. The twists you hope to see it coming, are far from the unexpected. Unfortunately and ultimately, The November Man fails to become one reasonable and memorable entree in the political spy thriller. C+
Numerical Rating (In case you are also interested):
Story: 2.5
Casts: 3.0
Cinematography: 3.5
Effects: 4.0
GREEN-TEA-O-METER: 11.2/20.0
Story: 2.5
Casts: 3.0
Cinematography: 3.5
Effects: 4.0
GREEN-TEA-O-METER: 11.2/20.0
Trailer:
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The November Man
Casts: Pierce Brosnan, Olga Kurylenko, Luke Bracey, Eliza Taylor, Bill Smitrovich, Will Patton
Distributor: Relativity Media
Director: Roger Donaldson
Screenplay: Michael Finch , Karl Gajdusek
Rating: 18
Release date: 25 September 2014
Running time: 108 minutes
Casts: Pierce Brosnan, Olga Kurylenko, Luke Bracey, Eliza Taylor, Bill Smitrovich, Will Patton
Distributor: Relativity Media
Director: Roger Donaldson
Screenplay: Michael Finch , Karl Gajdusek
Rating: 18
Release date: 25 September 2014
Running time: 108 minutes
