Skip to main content

The Double

    Good evening. It is cooler tonight, about 62 degrees at ten P.M. I had a nice day and so far a very pleasant evening. Carley and I just watched a very good movie called The Double. It stars Richard Gere as a retired CIA agent named Paul Shepherdson and Topher Grace as an FBI agent named Ben Geary. Martin Sheen stars as Paul's former boss, Tom Highland.
     Ben Geary is young, bright and naive. Most of his knowledge is based on the classes he had at Harvard. He got into the FBI because he wrote an exceptional thesis about a legendary assassin, code-named Cassius. He is convinced that Cassius is still alive, though Paul (Gere) claims to have killed the hit man many years ago.
     Paul is called out of retirement to assist the youngster on the case because he knows more about the guy than anyone. This is certainly true because we learn, early on, that Paul is actually Cassius. He assists Ben for a while and feels sorry for the poor bonehead, so he doesn't kill him. Actually, he likes the kid's family, a wife and two little ones. He doesn't want to make the children fatherless.
    So, Paul endeavors to keep Ben off his trail and tries to keep him alive at the same time. He could have killed the rascal in a hundred different ways but holds back.
      Paul, in his alter ego of Cassius, has a special watch he likes to use. It has a knob which is used to wind the watch but if you pull the knob out, there is a length of steel cable admirably suited for a Garote. He can and does take down one target on a busy street, stealing his bag and cutting his throat from ear to ear in a split second; then strolling away nonchalantly with the bag.
     Ben begins to get odd feelings about his new partner. (Not in a romantic way.) He suspects that Paul is the legendary killer. Paul just wants to be off the grid, out of action and to live in his quiet house on a quiet street. Since he has neither wife nor children, on lonely evenings he watches youth baseball games in which he has no child playing. The softer side of life has no place in the career of a spy or assassin. In fact, in that glamorized yet ugly world of espionage, all the good things in life are held at arms length in order to fully embrace the harshness. Goodness is weakness, kindness is a luxury thrown away the day you lose your conscious.
   I must refrain from going very far into this movie, lest I ruin it for you. Why it never was a hit, I don't know. I found it to be excellent. True, I love spy stories and have written several myself, but I love to watch them and I think this one is good enough to entertain anyone. Seldom will I look up who wrote a screenplay or story but I did this one. I think it was excellent. It was written by the director, Michael Brandt, and also by Derek Haas.
    Check it out, if you wish. From the author's green retreat, I'm CE Wills.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

It's So Easy

     Hey, everyone, out there in etherland. I've been playing some new songs this morning on my keyboard. You may remember a Buddy Holly tune called It's So Easy . I hadn't matched the title to the song before today so I was delighted when I saw that it was the one that goes like this: "It's so easy to fall in love, it's so easy to fall in love." It rocks pretty good. A later version of it, after amps and guitars had improved, really rocked. It seems like Joan Jett may have done a version. Anyway, I was playing this song and I thought about a fun thing I like to do. Sometimes I'll start to play a song and tell Carley, or the grandkids, whoever may be there, a silly story about it.      For instance, I would say that once upon a time Buddy Holly came to me and said, "CE, I need a hit, my man. The kids need shoes. I want to go on American bandstand, you know what I'm saying?"     "Yeah, Buddy, I hear you. But the thing is, I think ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Movie Review: Limitless

    Hey, everyone. I ventured off the mountain today, down into the haunts of men. I'll tell you about a movie I saw, then later I'll tell you about some other stuff. The movie is Unlimited . This is a story that you would have to call science fiction, but in the not so distant future you may call it reality.      Bradley Cooper plays Edward Morra. If you looked up loser in the dictionary you would see this guy's picture. He has freeloaded off his girlfriend for years. He claims to be a writer but can't seem to put words on paper. His woman leaves him; he is a scroungy, dirty dude with no future, no drive and no money. He is about to be evicted from his scummy apartment.     Then he bumps into an old friend. The friend wants him to try a new drug which comes in the form of a small, clear pill. What Edward doesn't know is that the pill is pretty awesome. The drug is designed to unlock the true potential of the human brain. We only use a...
4 comments
Read more

The Biscuit

    Hey, everyone. What a relief that Christmas is over, huh? I don't think it was meant to be the way it is.     I started thinking about the so-called good 'ole days today. My wife says that at her house, they would take a left-over biscuit and shine their shoes before church. I one-upped her by saying, "Oh, yeah? I ate the biscuit when everyone got finished with it. And I was grateful for it." Truly, though, you can and people did, shine their shoes with a biscuit. Hey, they were greasy little buggers.     Speaking of greasy little buggers, I remember when everyone had wells and were very conservative about water, particularly those of us who had to crank a handle up and down to get a bucket of water. There was no daily bath. (No showers in those days, mate.) About twice a week we took a bath and here's the recipe: The oldest kid took a bath first, then the next oldest etc. You can see why younger siblings hated the older. Bathing in the...
Post a Comment
Read more