• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Spy-Fi: The New Trend?

Dick Barton Strikes Back is such an enjoyable film. Probably ripped off a bit from Bela Lugosi in Chandu the Magician, but nevertheless, a top bit of British pulp fiction.

I do enjoy the later Dick Barton films - the first is just so odd. The whole smugglers plot is a bit hackneyed and juvenile given the rather more square-jawed adventures happening at the time on the radio. It's not helped either by having a school boy character turning up (reading a Dick Barton comic strip) at various points - I swear he actually says "Cor! Dick Barton!"

That said, however, Don Stannard is great as Barton.
 
The first Barton film is a great comedy, a pity it was meant to be serious, really.

Stannard was indeed perfect, such a shame what happened to him. I wonder if Hammer would have been set on quite the same path had he lived?
 
The first Barton film is a great comedy, a pity it was meant to be serious, really.

Stannard was indeed perfect, such a shame what happened to him. I wonder if Hammer would have been set on quite the same path had he lived?
Yes, I've often thought that the early hammers were a mixed bag. They developed quite a lot of BBC properties not just Dick Barton but The Huggetts,Dr Morrell (early crime solving psychiatrist radio adventure), PC 49, A "Man in Black" adaption and of course Quatermass. Some of it was quite spy-fi too such as The Damned, Spaceways and so on. Then of course lavish 'historic' adventure productions like the Hound of the Baskervilles and Devil Ship Pirates

I think they got into the Gothic horror because of a tie-up with Universal pictures; hence, Dracula, The Mummy, Frankenstein and the Wolf Man titles becoming available to be remade, or re-imagined in modern parlance, by Hammer. In fact I'm sure they had Jimmy Sangster developing the Invisible Man too. That's a could have been Hammer I'd like to have seen
 
Last edited:
Daniel Radcliffe could have retired to count his millions aged 20, but I admire that he decided to apply himself to learning his craft. He was pretty terrible in the Harry Potter films, but is excellent in Imperium, though there's no science fiction element whatsoever - is it based on a true story? It feels that way.

Of course, he was also in true-life horror tale Jungle, which was very gruesome, only missing the odd bit of disgust (e.g. in real life the victim slid down an embankment and in the fall a branch was rammed straight up his bottom).

He was brilliant in Swiss Army Man - stunning performance.
 
Europa report, very good sci-fi. A international privately funded mission is sent to Europa to look for alien life. Keeps one at the edge of their seat with some good special effects (which are not over done, it's a plot orientated movie. Rating 9 out 10.
 
Europa report, very good sci-fi. A international privately funded mission is sent to Europa to look for alien life. Keeps one at the edge of their seat with some good special effects (which are not over done, it's a plot orientated movie. Rating 9 out 10.
This is why we have to send robots first.
 
Europa report, very good sci-fi. A international privately funded mission is sent to Europa to look for alien life. Keeps one at the edge of their seat with some good special effects (which are not over done, it's a plot orientated movie. Rating 9 out 10.
Great movie, well worth a watch.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jim
The Numbers Station: A cryptographer (Malin Akerman) and her CIA bodyguard (John Cusack) arrive at a communications facility in England for a shift change but find no trace of their colleagues. They come under gun and bomb attack and manage to gain entry to the station. A siege ensues and both of them come under pressure as it becomes obvious that some broader conspiracy is under way. The facility is a Numbers Station, used to transmit coded orders to operatives, only the cryptographer and the relevant agents have the keys. But could the attackers have forced Malin’s colleague to transmit fake instructions ?

The background is fleshed out through flashbacks of what happened to the previous shift. Cusack also has a history, this assignment is a last chance organised by his boss Liam Cunningham. This is where the suspension of disbelief starts to break down, Sure the CIA are ruthless but they aren’t going to kill a bar full of people (in the US) to get one individual, let alone follow a survivor home to slaughter him and his family. Cusack got in trouble because he wouldn’t kill a young girl, Cunningham having to carry out the task. It would have been so much easier to kill the target quitely. (This is not a plot twist reveal, it all happens in the opening sequence.)

Most of the action takes place in the underground station and this is where the film gains its strength with the developing relationship between Akerman and Cusack. As well as battles in the basement corridors, the film takes a distinct Spy-Fi turn with the stations equipment suggesting an NSA operation. Filmed in an actual bunker on an abandoned airbase the claustrophobic atmosphere adds to the tension. The good performances by Cusack, Akerman and Cunningham along with sharp direction by Kasper Barfoed just about make up for script failings. 7/10.
 
The Numbers Station: A cryptographer (Malin Akerman) and her CIA bodyguard (John Cusack) arrive at a communications facility in England for a shift change but find no trace of their colleagues. They come under gun and bomb attack and manage to gain entry to the station. A siege ensues and both of them come under pressure as it becomes obvious that some broader conspiracy is under way. The facility is a Numbers Station, used to transmit coded orders to operatives, only the cryptographer and the relevant agents have the keys. But could the attackers have forced Malin’s colleague to transmit fake instructions ?

The background is fleshed out through flashbacks of what happened to the previous shift. Cusack also has a history, this assignment is a last chance organised by his boss Liam Cunningham. This is where the suspension of disbelief starts to break down, Sure the CIA are ruthless but they aren’t going to kill a bar full of people (in the US) to get one individual, let alone follow a survivor home to slaughter him and his family. Cusack got in trouble because he wouldn’t kill a young girl, Cunningham having to carry out the task. It would have been so much easier to kill the target quitely. (This is not a plot twist reveal, it all happens in the opening sequence.)

Most of the action takes place in the underground station and this is where the film gains its strength with the developing relationship between Akerman and Cusack. As well as battles in the basement corridors, the film takes a distinct Spy-Fi turn with the stations equipment suggesting an NSA operation. Filmed in an actual bunker on an abandoned airbase the claustrophobic atmosphere adds to the tension. The good performances by Cusack, Akerman and Cunningham along with sharp direction by Kasper Barfoed just about make up for script failings. 7/10.
Seen that a couple of times now. 7/10 is fair.
 
If it hadn't been for the antics of the CIA assassins at the start it would have deserved at least 8/10.
Yeah, bits were not authentic. Plot is limited too.
 
Yeah, bits were not authentic. Plot is limited too.

While the plot was limited I thought the siege and fighting in the bunker were well staged. Also the whole psychology of the interactions between Cusack and Akerman.
 
TWO VINTAGE SPI-FI PAPERBACKS:

THE SHADOW OF BABEL by Glover Wright (Macmillan London Ltd, 1993).

Did the Soviets acquire technology that can access all sounds made throughout history? Is this technology now in the hands of some veangeful deposed Soviet period apparatchiks who will use it to undermine the West - by employing it to show, for example, that Jesus was never crucified? Or is it all just an elaborate psychops bluff? The President of the United States, no less, learns about this possibilty and becomes embroiled in a struggle to find out the truth - a struggle which will involve him with top ranking members of the Cathoilic church among others...

It is always risky to use a fictional President as the main protagonist, but Wright is enough of a craftsman to pull this off. This espionage thriller-cum-Frankenstinian science yarn is stylish, convincing. intense, apocalyptic, densely layered...and often rather confusing - but keeps you engaged throughout. In particular, the confluence of real-world political machinations and wacky new science is handled very well.
Spy-Fi rating: 9/10.

https://www.fishpond.com/Books/Shadow-of-Babel-Glover-Wright/9781490969749


FIREFALL TAKEN by Carl Huberman (Pan Books, 1998)

The American town of Firefall, as the site of a an ancient meteorite fall, relies on the tourism generated by the interest this creates. More recently oil prospectors have set up an oil rig there to drill for supposed oil in the region. One fateful day, the whole town is taken under seige by mysterious black clad masked men with nothing but numbers to identify them. They claim to be an ecological terrorist front opposed to drilling in the area and with a set of demands - but why are so many local businessmen involved in the conspiracy? The F.B.I is soon on the scene, but their director finds himself stymied at every step by a powerful and shady overseer, who shows no concern for the lives of the local people and seems to have his own agenda. Meanwhile, three locals - a deputy policeman, a despised African-American hoodlum and a primary school teacher - ignore the curfew imposed on them and band together to fight back ...but who, or what, are they fighting?

This is a cheesy action thriller for the most part, although then comes a gear change and the plot, which will involve a time travel device, ends up almost like a Pertwee era Who episode, (minus a Doctor). The suspense and sense of skullduggery is well sustained throughout but the action sequences (and the corresponding violence) gets a little overplayed. There is some well meant anti-racism in the portrayal of the balck street hood who redeems himself as one of the town's savious - but this now looks a little dated (and a tad condescending).
Spi-Fi rating: 7/10

https://www.fishpond.com/Books/Firefall-Taken-Carl-Huberman/9780330347228
 
The Day Shall Come: Chris Morris directs a dark comedy/satire/thriller along the same grounds as Four Lions but this one doesn't quite reach the Lion's level. It strays into SpyFi with the constant monitoring through drones cctv, wires, hidden bodycams. Morris says that this is based on 100 true tales of LEAs in the US entrapping hapless individuals incapable of carrying out any real attack. Moses (Marchant Davis) is the leader of a small cult which worships Jesus, Black Santa, Muhammad and Toussaint Louverture, a duck told him to found it (when he doesn't take his medication animals speak to him). His small group based in Miami is dragged into an elaborate plot involving a false Sheikh, guns, uranium and a horse.

The film is quite funny in parts but it doesn't hang together so well. The FBI/Police office politics, insults and wisecracking involving Anna Kendrick, Denis O'Hare and James Adomian seem divorced from the main plot yet they seal Marchant's fate. Things perhaps get over-complicated when a nazi gang are introduced as end customers for the uranium. Worth watching and with a running time of 88 minutes it doesn't drag but I was expecting better from Morris. 6/10.
 
A new voice in Spy-fi has emerged on the scene: Iain M. Rodgers with The Zima Confession.

Zima 1.jpg

This is a complex, almost Kafkaesque, tale which begins in seventies Glasgow and takes us to contemporary Moscow and Frankfurt and elsewhere - all locations which are described vividly by an author who clearly knows these places.

A disenchanted anarcho-Trotskyist is on a mission to disable the world banking system with a cunning computer bug - but the operation seems to have been infiltrated by MI5...or is it somebody else?

This is part a novel of ideas, part noir thriller and part hi-tech adventure and recalls Desmond Bagley, Garros Evdomikov (of `Headcrusher` fame) and even, in parts, Colin Forbes (Hallowed-be-his name). It is more `Spy` than `Spy -fi`, but there is enough mind washing jiggery pokery and mad science - as well as contemplation of major sociopolitical issues to keep most Forteans happy.

Where to get it:

https://www.thezimaconfession.com/ebook


Radio interview with the author:

 
Have you tried googling this name ?

It only gives you Ian M Rogers. Not as an author.

And throws up Iain M Banks, who we all know.
 
Have you tried googling this name ?

It only gives you Ian M Rogers. Not as an author.

And throws up Iain M Banks, who we all know.

Hi, I thought I had answered this - but I might be mistaken. Please search again. You should find the name - NB - you need two i's in the "Iain" of Iain M Rodgers
 
A lost Spy-Fi gem from `thaw` period Soviet Russia: THE HYPERBOLOID OF ENGINEER GARIN (1965).

This film was based on a 1926 novel by Alexei Tolstoy* and is an early doomsday weapon thriller.

In St Petersburg, an investigator and local cop grow suspicious of the activites rumoured to be going on at a local dacha. They decide to investigate. They find the property empty but full of evidence of strange scientific investigations. Then they discover what they take to be the body of engineer Garin - except that it turns out to be his double! The real Garin is at large and is perfectin g a deadly ray with which he intends to rule the world. To so so he needs the co-operation of some French industrialists who have agendas of their own. Meanwhile the cop and investigator are in hot pursuit....

It's as silly as it is prescient (you have to keep reminding yourself that the novel was written long before lazer was invented). Also I find it impossible not to imagine that Ian Fleming must have been aware of it. The Man With the Golden Gun seems almost like a rip off.

In the convoluted plot there's a bit of everything: boardroom politics, Paris, body doubles, an ice cool femme fatale, codes and, of course...death rays! Plus the twenties setting - with dirigibles and so on- gives it a sreampunk feel.
Full movie - ENGLISH SUBTITLES:


*Not to be confused with Leo Tolstoy, of War and Peace fame, although there is a family connection.
 
I think that the novel The Tourist by Robert Dickinson (Orbit, 2016) deserves a place here This is on account of it having a strong focus on technological espionage and a serpentine plot. The novel is very much on the Science fiction end of the Spy-Fi spectrum, but definitely constitutes Spy Fi for all that.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29467314-the-tourist

Dickinson seems to be a not-so-young denizen of Brighton who has had two (I think) self-published novels out before, this being his first big exposure publication.

In this, a 24 century civilisation - stratified and militarised, having survived an unspecified g;obal catastrophe - is revisting the 21st Century for reasons of tourism. They do so with the knowledge and consent of the 21st Century `natives` and have domes built outside our cities in which the `translation` (Time travel) devices are housed.

The narrator works for as a tourist rep chaperoning these future time tourists. (Hence, we get the 24th century take on our own times, which is often quite perspicacious). He becomes involved in a case where one of his own clients goes missing on a tour to a shopping mall. The subsequent investigation opens a can of worms in which we discover that the absent tourist could be a drug seller, a terrorist or - more likely - something much worse....

The tale combines the twisty weirdness of A.E. Van Vogt. the sociopolitical satire of the Strugatsky brothers and the slightly creepy Englishness of Christopher Priest. We get a lot of dark humour and intrigue in a novel which works through offering a series of revelations in dribs and drabs.

Online, a lot of reviewers have had gripes about how the book ends - or ather doesn't end! I must say that, whilst I wasn't all that put off by the complex plotline per se (I've got through John Le Carre novles which were just as Byzantine and still got something out of them) I do agree that the author fails to tie up the loose ends and concludes with a kind of lazy delirium.

It was this that prevented the novel from being a Contemporary British Mini-Classic of Science Fiction that it could otherwise have been. Still, it was the best Science fiction novel I have read in about ten years - and reminded me ( and God knows I needed to be) of why I liked the genre to begin with. Robert Dickinson is a talent to keep an eye on.
 
Last edited:
I think that the novel The Tourist by Robert Dickinson (Orbit, 2016) deserves a place here This is on account of it having a strong focus on technological espionage and a serpentine plot. The novel is very much on the Science fiction end of the Spy-Fi spectrum, but definitely constitutes Spy Fi for all that.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29467314-the-tourist

Dickinson seems to be a not-so-young denizen of Brighton who has had two (I think) self-published novels out before, this being his first big exposure publication.

In this, a 24 century civilisation - stratified and militarised, having survived an unspecified g;obal catastrophe - is revisting the 21st Century for reasons of tourism. They do so with the knowledge and consent of the 21st Century `natives` and have domes built outside our cities in which the `translsation` (Time travel) devices are housed.

The narrator works for as a tourist rep chaperoning these future time ttourists. (Hence, we get the 24th century take on our own times, which is often quite perspicacious). He becomes involved in a case where one of his own clients goes missing on a tour to a shopping mall. The subsequent investigation opens a can of worms in which we discover that the absent tourist could be a drug seller, a terrosist or - more likely - something much worse....

The tale combines the twisty wierdness of A.E. Van Vogt. the sociopolitical satire of the Strugatsky brothers and the slightly creepy Englishness of Christopher Priest. We get a lot of dark humour and intrigue in a novel which works through offering a series of revelations in dribs and drabs.

Online, a lot of reviewers have had gripes about how the book ends - or ather doesn't end! I must say that, whilst I wasn't all that put off by the complex plotline per se (I've got through John Le Carre novles which were just as Byzantine and still got something out of them) I do agree that the author fails to tie up the loose ends and concludes with a kind of lazy delirium.

It was this that prevented the novel from being a Contemporary British Mini-Classic of Science Fiction that it could otherwise have been. Still, it was the best Science fiction novel I have read in about ten years - and reminded me ( and God knows I needed to be) of why I liked the genre to begin with. Robert Dickinson is a talent to keep an eye on.

Good review. I really liked The Tourist.
 
The Courier: It looks as if this film was inspired by the movie Diva, although there's a sort of double pun.homage as villain Gary Oldman listens to the vocals from Diva Plavalaguna's performance in The Fifth Element. The eponymous courier in this case is Olga Kurylenko who has a rather Hi-Tech helmet with a HUD and night vision. She is tricked into delivering a device which kills the bodyguards of a witness who is going to testify against Oldman. But she manages to help the witness to escape. A game of cat and mouse ensues in a multi-level car park. Oldman exudes evil, perhaps a tad too hamishly. Kurylenko is no ordinary courier as she proves in hand to hand encounters. No shortage of extreme violence as people are gassed, stabbed, shot, heads are crushed. There are a few plot holes but the tension is maintained throughout and at 99 minutes it doesn't outstay it's welcome. Directed and co-written by Zackary Adler. 7/10. On Netflix.
 
Daniel Radcliffe could have retired to count his millions aged 20, but I admire that he decided to apply himself to learning his craft. He was pretty terrible in the Harry Potter films, but is excellent in Imperium, though there's no science fiction element whatsoever - is it based on a true story? It feels that way.

Of course, he was also in true-life horror tale Jungle, which was very gruesome, only missing the odd bit of disgust (e.g. in real life the victim slid down an embankment and in the fall a branch was rammed straight up his bottom).

Similar to Robert Patterson who is choosing some very strange roles and by his presence probably ensures those films get a budget.
 
Similar to Robert Patterson who is choosing some very strange roles and by his presence probably ensures those films get a budget.

Both Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart made no secret of doing Twilight for the money, and happily became indie fixtures thereafter. Though R-Pats is now Batman, and back on topic, K-Stew was a tremendous amount of fun in the unfairly maligned Charlie's Angels reboot.
 
Ava: Jessica Chastain is Ava, an assassin working for an "organisation". We get a useful info-dump of her background over the credits, a problem drinker/addict in the past, ex-special forces, 40 kills to date as an assassin. But her superiors are getting worried, she's beginning to question her targets before she kills them. Then an operation goes wrong, she escapes but now must face the wrath of organisation leader Colin Farrell. John Malkovich is her handler and mentor, he tries to protect her. A tale of the world of smoke and mirrors where private contractors are used to terminate those who have become problems. Could be a Congressman, an IMF official, even a German general. Some really great and realistic scenes of hand to hand combat and shoot outs. Chastain is convincing as an assassin and an addict; both Malkovich and Farrell seem to enjoy themselves in this thriller which may in essence be a B movie but a good B movie. The narrative falls down when it deals with Chastain's family but even there we get a good performance from Geena Davis as Ava's mother, It also provides a couple of fight scenes in an old church which is now an illegal gambling den and nightclub. Diana Silvers plays Camille, Farrell's daughter, also an assassin. Directed by Tate Taylor (Ma, Winter's Bone) from a screenplay by Matthew Newton. On Netflix. 7/10.
 
Kate: There have been a few female assassin moves lately, Ava, Anna, now we have Kate. Kate (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is an an experienced assassin who is manipulated by her mentor/handler Varrick (Woody Harrelson) into doing one last job, another common theme, as is the requirement for the assassin to be extremely attractive. Kate enters a world of smoke and mirrors when she is poisoned, trying to track down the person behind it in the 24 hours she has left to live. Tension is maintained throughout the film with some good fight scenes and the all seeing eye of surveillance tech. Betrayals, temporary alliances abound as the narrative progresses. Nothing really new here but it's a competent assassin thriller. Directed by Cedric Nicolas-Troyan from a screenplay by Umair Aleem. On Netflix. 7/10.
 
Kate: There have been a few female assassin moves lately, Ava, Anna, now we have Kate. Kate (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is an an experienced assassin who is manipulated by her mentor/handler Varrick (Woody Harrelson) into doing one last job, another common theme, as is the requirement for the assassin to be extremely attractive. Kate enters a world of smoke and mirrors when she is poisoned, trying to track down the person behind it in the 24 hours she has left to live. Tension is maintained throughout the film with some good fight scenes and the all seeing eye of surveillance tech. Betrayals, temporary alliances abound as the narrative progresses. Nothing really new here but it's a competent assassin thriller. Directed by Cedric Nicolas-Troyan from a screenplay by Umair Aleem. On Netflix. 7/10.
I watched that last week, the location lifted it but as you say nothing really new.
 
In From The Cold: US mom Jenny Franklin is acting as chaperone to her teen daughter Becca's figure skating team in Madrid. She is abducted by a CIA team and it is revealed that she is a Russian assassin who adopted a new identity in the 1990s, She is blackmailed into working for the CIA, the alternative being prison. She hasn't lost her skills and we soon discover that she is more of a Bionic Woman than a run of the mill liquidator. I won't give away all of her powers as some of them are crucial to the plot development. We enter a world of smoke and mirrors, plots, counter-plots, red herrings and secret organisations intent on State Power. Spy-Tech observation is ubiquitous, no one knows who really watching them not even the watchers. Some convincing well choreographed fights and flash backs to the young Jenny on her first mission in Moscow in 1994. Family loyalty as well as betrayal and infighting is important to the spies and assassins in both the CIA and SVR as well as to the organisations plotting in Spain. An enjoyable twist on the female assassin with tropes with quite a few plot twists and surprises. Created and Written by Adam Glass, Directed by Ami Canaan Mann and Birgitte Stærmose. Eight episodes on Netflix. 8/10.
 
Yaksha: Ruthless Operations: South Korean Spy Thriller. A prosecutor (investigating magistrate) messes up a raid on a corrupt Chaebol and is banished to n an office which has no real work. He is given a chance of rehabilitation if he inspects an intelligence team in China who have gone dark, there are suspicions of malfeasance. The inspector gets himself caught up with a black ops team who make James bond and the Impossible Missions Force look like sticklers for the rules. A North Korean defector is being sought by Japanese, South Koran and North Korean agents. Shootouts, hand to hand fighting, car chases, hi-tech surveillance, corruption, betrayals and conspiracies keep the narrative going. Some parts of the plot may seem a bit far fetched but if James bond can get away with shooting up cities then why can't these guys? Quite violent and gory so be warned. A few interesting plot twists towards the end. Directed by Hyeon Na. On Netflix. 7/10.
 
Back
Top