... the year was 1974 and a hard-bitten journalist named Bill Granger decided to follow the trend and write yet another spy novel about a hard-bitten secret agent caught in a web of deceit. This was after all the peak of the cold war and spy themes dominated fiction, film, TV, even cartoons.
As it turned it, the November Man was well received and a number were written in the series before it finally fizzled. Critics of the day felt all were considerably above average. Granger had a knack for hard prose because of his background.
Flash forward about a quarter-century and you will find an ex-Bond lead with money in his pocket looking for projects he can continue working in, even if the process involves spending some of his own money to catch the plum roles. Which he accomplishes by buying the rights to one of the later books in the Granger Series and re-naming the project after the very first book in the series .. see? And so kind reader here we are in 2014 with a project written in the late 20th century, upgraded on a shoestring, mis-named, and spawned with the sole intention of giving its greying star a payday.
What can possibly go wrong? Just about everything. I will point out, for the record, and for skeptics, that it is possible to make something new and wonderful out of something old and dusty -- look at the Bourne Trilogy. (Which I have seen about six times, each).
But that is not what is happening here. Bereft of talent, we have a weak script that constantly stumbles over the material it is adapting, direction so lacklustre that even the action scenes appear to be in slow-motion, and a star who might just as well have phoned it in.
Brosnan never, not once, connects with his character. At best, you have an ageing Bondish character who appears to have landed in the wrong movie. And, if the central character cannot find motivation ... how can the audience?
As it turned it, the November Man was well received and a number were written in the series before it finally fizzled. Critics of the day felt all were considerably above average. Granger had a knack for hard prose because of his background.
Flash forward about a quarter-century and you will find an ex-Bond lead with money in his pocket looking for projects he can continue working in, even if the process involves spending some of his own money to catch the plum roles. Which he accomplishes by buying the rights to one of the later books in the Granger Series and re-naming the project after the very first book in the series .. see? And so kind reader here we are in 2014 with a project written in the late 20th century, upgraded on a shoestring, mis-named, and spawned with the sole intention of giving its greying star a payday.
What can possibly go wrong? Just about everything. I will point out, for the record, and for skeptics, that it is possible to make something new and wonderful out of something old and dusty -- look at the Bourne Trilogy. (Which I have seen about six times, each).
But that is not what is happening here. Bereft of talent, we have a weak script that constantly stumbles over the material it is adapting, direction so lacklustre that even the action scenes appear to be in slow-motion, and a star who might just as well have phoned it in.
Brosnan never, not once, connects with his character. At best, you have an ageing Bondish character who appears to have landed in the wrong movie. And, if the central character cannot find motivation ... how can the audience?