BEFORE: I'm getting a late start tonight due to an unexpected beer dinner. When I realized yesterday that the chef from the famous Schlenkerla Brewery & Tavern in Bamberg, Germany would be appearing at a Manhattan restaurant, I decided that I had to attend. The main course was the notorious "Bamberg Onion", which is a hollowed-out onion, stuffed with pork, topped with beer gravy and a piece of bacon. Pub food simply does not get any better than that - it's a food that was on my "bucket list", paired of course with the brewery's famous Rauchbier, or smoked beer.
Which was a nice lead-in to a spy film where much of the action takes place in Eastern Europe...
THE PLOT: When a Harvard-educated CIA agent is killed during an operation, the secret agency recruits his twin brother.
AFTER: I really enjoyed this one, it had the requisite action, including some great car chases and shootouts, and this was nicely balanced with humor supplied by Chris Rock (last heard in "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa")
Rock plays Jake Hayes, a small-time ticket scalper (and chess expert) who's not aware that he has a twin brother, since they were separated at birth and raised in different foster homes. His brother was a CIA agent killed in the line of duty, and he gets recruited to impersonate his own brother, to finish a transaction to obtain a nuclear bomb and keep it out of the hands of terrorists.
The idea of a common man getting caught up in international intrigue is a somewhat common one, I've seen it used already in "Marathon Man", "The Tailor of Panama" and "The Russia House", but it's done very well here, largely due to the cultural differences between Hayes and the CIA agents, and also between Hayes and his dead brother - he has to take a crash course in fine art, wine tasting, and international customs just to impersonate his brother for a nine-day period.
His guide through the world of international intrigue is Agent Oakes, played by Anthony Hopkins (last seen in "The Wolfman"). Though Hopkins seemed a little old to play an active CIA agent - one has to assume he's been passed over for promotions several times and is counting the days until retirement - he did a fine job as a spy.
Also starring Gabriel Macht (last seen in "The Spirit"), Peter Stormare (last seen in "The Brothers Grimm"), Kerry Washington (last seen in "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer"), Daniel Sunjata (from TV's "Rescue Me"), and John Slattery (from TV's "Mad Men").
RATING: 7 out of 10 courtside seats
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