Wednesday 3 September 2014

THE NOVEMBER MAN

"Tell me about your target"
"Male...old...used to have skills"
"Used to?"




          The November Man has its moments that is satisfying enough as a spy thriller film with an excellent showdown of skills and wits between the two main cast. If you take those away, however, it becomes a boring movie with typical action, typical story, and really unsatisfying characters. The only thing done right with this film, is the two main characters, and nothing else.

          The relationship between the two main characters, Deveraux and Mason, is really the only thing exciting about this film. The confrontation between the master and his best student. Testing each others skills and wits, while costantly revolving around the notion of one character knowing the other all too well, to predict moves and make their next one. It could have been done better, but at least they pulled it off satisfying enough that I can enjoy these confrontations all the time. Yet I have to give credit to both Pierce Brosnan and Luke Bracey for making it work and being such likeable characters too.

          Aside from this though, the movie really don't have anything to show for. The action is very typical. You'd seen it a thousand times before. The story is quite typical, holding on to some of the general cliches and twist that you may (or may not) come to expect from these kind of movies. The only special thing about the plot, is again, pitting the master against the protege, and pushing the relationship to the limit, is all that makes the plot interesting.

          Meanwhile, in terms of characters, none of the other characters are even slightly interesting, including the villain. When you have a villain that is neither fierce or compelling, it becomes a problem. This is no superhero flick, granted, but even spy movies could have a villain that could really bring the shit (sorry) down. Take a look at the Bond movies (no pun intended for Brosnan, really). Yet again, even in terms of characters, the only ones interesting are Deveraux and Mason. Luke Bracey did well as the young student who is both skillful but has internal struggles of his own. Meanwhile, Brosnan just always have that charisma and flair onscreen, making him look cool in anything that he does.

VERDICT:

Good: Excellent two main characters (relationship, character, plot)

Bad: Everything else, Typical action, Almost typical plot, Uninteresting supporting characters

SCORE: 6.0

    

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