Ralph's Movie Reviews: THE NOVEMBER MAN

Friday, September 5, 2014

THE NOVEMBER MAN

Espionage thriller

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS

Pierce Brosnan: CIA agent Peter Devereaux

Luke Bracey: his protegé David Mason

Bill Smitrovich: Peter’s former CIA boss John Hanley

Olga Kurylenko: valuable witness Mila Filapova

and lots of others

REVIEW

At the risk of giving away anything, this film could easily become the text book example of spy clichés for any up-and-coming movie producer since it includes the following:

Former CIA agent lured out of retirement
Suspicious mole in the agency
Beautiful, intelligent heroine
Shoot-outs
Car chases through busy city streets
Hand-to-hand fight scenes
Huge explosion behind the unflinching hero
Unscrupulous and evil high-ranking antagonist
Convoluted, confusing and completely unfathomable

But for all that it lacks the basic premise of any good movie: a well told story. Characters are not well fleshed out so we’re left to try and figure out who is doing what to whom and why? And there are far too many side stories including several explicit scenes of gratuitous sex.

CLASSIFICATION

for strong violence including a sexual assault, language, sexuality/nudity and drug use.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY

When Peter is talking with John his watch shows it to be 4:25 when they sit down. After just five minutes or so they are about to depart and his watch is now 4:55.

P.S.

Even the title is confusing and makes no sense. Apparently it refers to Peter’s nickname when he was an active CIA agent because "when he blew through nothing lived." Really now, is that what November is all about?

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my ratings system

I've always thought that telling too much about a movie or warning someone about a "twist" at the end deprives the person the pleasure of seeing it as it unfolds, so I don’t do it. You may not always agree with my rating of course, but at least it is an unbiased opinion unlike some of the full time professional reviewers who are on the studio’s payroll.

A few movies you won’t see any review from me:

Scary movies: I’m the world’s biggest chicken and just hate getting the crap scared out of me. I can handle an unexpected door slam, that kind of thing, but a movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat…not for me. Sorry.
Movies geared to the young teen and pre-teen crowd with dialog comprising mostly of crude remarks, awful jokes and lots of rude, socially unacceptable body noises. "The Spy that Shagged Me" comes to mind. (I wonder if the kids know what the British verb to shag someone really means? They probably do; I bet you it’s the parents who haven’t a clue).
Sometimes Hollywood gets on a roll and they produce a series of movies that are all very much alike. For example movies about the CIA were very popular and so we had The Bourne Identity and Bad Company and The Sum of All Fears. They all had the same basic theme and it becomes repetitive. I will see some, but not all of them.

FYI this is my rating system:

0 stars = Terrible: so bad it’s not worth talking about; in fact, I’d pay you not to go
= Lousy: I actually got up and walked out before the end it was just that bad (no kidding)
= Not so good: thought about walking out but hung in just in case it got better (but it didn’t)
= A so-so good movie: I enjoyed it somewhat but wasn’t all that crazy about it
= A really good movie: I recommend seeing it
= An excellent movie you just got to see! I suggest you put it on your "To Do List" it’s that good.

some favourite websites

For those into it, Nitpickers at

has more movie mistakes than you could ever imagine. My contributions can be seen if you check out the Nitpickers Registry and click on the link Nitpickers Listed by Nitpicker Number, select the group 45,401 - 45,500 and drill down to number 45411. Although I have 56 nitpicks to my credit, some have almost 2,000. You wonder sometimes where they find the time to do it.