Spy movie recommendations

kitch

I'm not really looking for James Bond, here. More along the lines of Eastern Promises and such. It can be non-fiction or docu-drama as well. I particularly enjoyed BBC's Nuclear Secrets: The Spy From Moscow, which is about Oleg Penkovsky.

YouTube of said video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xh2pyg3dFA

PaperPritt

The Good Shepherd, with Mat Damon, about the origins and creation of the CIA.

Nakatomi2010

I concur, The Good Shepherd fits the bill here. I would also recommend any of the Jack Ryan movies such as Clear and Present Danger, Hunt for Red October and The Sum of all Fears... While heavy in fiction, I believe those fit the bill as well...

Tomanta

The Jack Ryan films are pretty good (Sum of All Fears is lackluster, though). Good Shepherd is ok, too.
Also:
Spy Game
The Company (miniseries)
Breach (about catching a Russian spy)

A few of not-quite spy movies (but with similar themes):
Manchurian Candidate
North by Northwest
Spartan

More may come to me later.

amateurhour

Sneakers, which is a hilarious and underrated spy movie.

Also seconding Spy Game, because like Sneakers, it has Robert Redford.

badpoet

As long as you're suggesting Redford (both Sneakers and Spy Game are excellent), I would suggest Three Days of the Condor.

Also:
Ronin - while it's not realistic, it's a very fun and very good spy movie
Rubicon (TV series on AMC) - I've only seen a couple of episodes but it fits your bill well
The Falcon and the Snowman
Little Nikita (with River Phoenix and Sidney Poitier, both are in Sneakers as well)

Reverend_Chaos

Nikita (French film by Luc Besson) which was remade in US as Point of No Return - It's basically a woman who gets into trouble as an accomplice to murder. A secret goverment agency offers her an out, and they train her to be an operative. The US version has Gabriel Byrne and Jean Reno. It's been too long since I watched the French one, there was a Canadian TV show in the early 90's Called La Femme Nikita based on the french film. There is also an asian version of this story, just in case you LOVE dubbed movies.

Hard Boiled. One of John Woo's early films, with Chow Yun Fat. Classic.

Face Off - another John Woo film with a ridiculous premise, but one I still liked.

True Lies - Arnie as a secret spy. Love it.

Enemy of the State - Will Smith being hunted by a covert black ops team, so he teams up with Gene Hackman.

Bad Company - similiar fomula as Enemy of the State - Chris Rock teamed up with Anthony Hopkins

The Professional - Jean Reno as a hitman, Gary Oldman as a corrupt Narcotics officer. This one is one of my all time favorites, I highly reccomend that you watch the Internation version, it has about 15-20 extra minutes that got cut from the original US release, and the film makes a lot more senes when you watch the longer version. I can't reccomend this one enough, even though it's not a spy thriller. It has some of the best gunfights ever done.

Munich

I second Sneakers - that's a great film

kaliyama

The Third Man, a welles classic.

The Spanish Prisoner is an amazing david mamet film which is about corporate espionage.

The Spy Who Came In From The Cold.

TychoCelchuuu

In addition to most of the recommendations:

OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies

Seattle Thread

Second THE THIRD MAN, it's an excellent film

Also, THE INFORMANT! is an excellent sort of anti-spy movie

kitch

Awesome, I'll get started on these. Hello, Netflix.

I typically list The Third Man as my favorite movie actually

Awk

I enjoyed Max Manus although it was more of a saboteur movie than spy, but definitely a great movie about a Norwegian resistance fighter. Sad movie..

kyleh613

Reverend_Chaos wrote: »

Munich

This is one of my favorite movies ever and doesn't get enough love. There really needs to be a blu-ray release of this film.

Thanatos

Reverend_Chaos wrote: »

Nikita (French film by Luc Besson) which was remade in US as Point of No Return - It's basically a woman who gets into trouble as an accomplice to murder. A secret goverment agency offers her an out, and they train her to be an operative. The US version has Gabriel Byrne and Jean Reno. It's been too long since I watched the French one, there was a Canadian TV show in the early 90's Called La Femme Nikita based on the french film. There is also an asian version of this story, just in case you LOVE dubbed movies.

The CW has made yet another TV series of this movie; it just started.

And honestly, you don't need to watch both the French and American versions of the movie; they're practically the same film. The American one has higher production values, the French one has a slightly grittier feel.

badpoet

Thanatos wrote: »

Reverend_Chaos wrote: »

Nikita (French film by Luc Besson) which was remade in US as Point of No Return - It's basically a woman who gets into trouble as an accomplice to murder. A secret goverment agency offers her an out, and they train her to be an operative. The US version has Gabriel Byrne and Jean Reno. It's been too long since I watched the French one, there was a Canadian TV show in the early 90's Called La Femme Nikita based on the french film. There is also an asian version of this story, just in case you LOVE dubbed movies.

The CW has made yet another TV series of this movie; it just started.

And honestly, you don't need to watch both the French and American versions of the movie; they're practically the same film. The American one has higher production values, the French one has a slightly grittier feel.

There's also a Hong Kong action movie based off Le Femme Nikita. I think it's called Black Cat. It's actually pretty good as an action movie. Not much of a cerebral spy movie.

truck-a-sauras

Anybody ever see this?

http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Tinker-Tailor-Soldier-Spy/60035698?strackid=3b622673955308b2_0_srl&strkid=1358582010_0_0&trkid=222336

Been sitting on my netflix queue forever, but haven't gotten to it yet. Alec Guinness and spy stuff and also have the sequel series "Smiley's People" on my queue which has Patrick Stewart in there.

If anybody beats me to ever watching this let us know if the quality is good enough for a recommendation here. It does seem to fit the topic, just don't know if it is a fun watch or not.

ben0207

Would the Bourne movies count?

Rogueknight-

I really enjoyed "The Ipcress File" with a young Michael Caine as Harry Palmer.

Synopsis from the box
"Michael Caine stars in the first leading role of his career as Harry Palmer, a stubbornly insolent sergeant working for the Ministry of Defence who is transferred to an elite counter-intelligence unit. Palmer is less than thrilled when he finds out he is replacing a murdered agent but he has no choice other than to take the job when his boss effectively blackmails him with knowledge of his previous indiscretions in Berlin. Twist follows twist as Palmer and the rest of the unit follow the trail of the missing scientist, and when he finds a piece of tape marked "IPCRESS" in an abandoned warehouse he suddenly becomes a marked man..."

Caine is brilliant as the dry witted, charismatic secret agent who bucks the rules and forges his own path.

Also, not really a "Spy" movie per se, but when I was running a very similar search to you I came across "The Maltese Falcon" starring Humphrey Bogart.

Bogart is absolutely brilliant in this movie as a charming private eye Sam Spade, and the film feels very similar to a spy movie in that it is Bogart working through the layers of intrigue, the lies and trying to work out the players involved before someone puts a bullet in his back.

y2jake215

Spy Hard

Madpanda

Spooks (bbc tv show)

Reverend_Chaos

xXx starring Vin Diesel as an adrenaline junkie turned blackmailed US Spy. Not an awsome movie, but it's decent, and the guy who plays the Villain is very cool. Also, it has Samuel L. MotherF*in Jackson as the the head of operations. I like him in this as well.

Also, there are 3 Mission Impossible movies. Each one is very different than the last. I like all three, but the 3rd one is probably one of the best.

Bionic Monkey

If comedies are an option, I heartily recommend Spies Like Us, a mid-80's comedy from Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd.

useless4

Spy Game/Sneakers double feature is perfect.

Shadowfire

amateurhour wrote: »

Sneakers, which is a hilarious and underrated spy movie.

Also seconding Spy Game, because like Sneakers, it has Robert Redford.

Good recommendations. Also, if you want a bit of hilarity, Hopscotch is great and has Walter Matthau.

And Sam Waterston.

Slider

SPIES LIKE US!

Zenitram

Seconding North By Northwest and True Lies. True Lies is probably my favorite Arnie movie.

Munich

3 Days of the Condor

Ronin (especially if you like car chases)

tofu

Rogueknight- wrote: »

I really enjoyed "The Ipcress File" with a young Michael Caine as Harry Palmer.

Synopsis from the box
"Michael Caine stars in the first leading role of his career as Harry Palmer, a stubbornly insolent sergeant working for the Ministry of Defence who is transferred to an elite counter-intelligence unit. Palmer is less than thrilled when he finds out he is replacing a murdered agent but he has no choice other than to take the job when his boss effectively blackmails him with knowledge of his previous indiscretions in Berlin. Twist follows twist as Palmer and the rest of the unit follow the trail of the missing scientist, and when he finds a piece of tape marked "IPCRESS" in an abandoned warehouse he suddenly becomes a marked man..."

Caine is brilliant as the dry witted, charismatic secret agent who bucks the rules and forges his own path.

Also, not really a "Spy" movie per se, but when I was running a very similar search to you I came across "The Maltese Falcon" starring Humphrey Bogart.

Bogart is absolutely brilliant in this movie as a charming private eye Sam Spade, and the film feels very similar to a spy movie in that it is Bogart working through the layers of intrigue, the lies and trying to work out the players involved before someone puts a bullet in his back.

The Ipcress File is so good, I picked up a bootleg russian DVD of it (in english) since the region 1 version is so rare and expensive

The other films in the Harry Palmer series aren't so great though

Bionic Monkey

JEFFERY wrote: »

The spy film genre deals with the subject of fictional espionage, either in a realistic way (such as the adaptations of John Le Carré) or as a basis for fantasy (such as James Bond). Many novels in the spy fiction genre have been adapted as films, including works by John Buchan, John Le Carré, Ian Fleming and Len Deighton.

Wikipedia Spy Films wrote:

The spy film genre deals with the subject of fictional espionage, either in a realistic way (such as the adaptations of John Le Carré) or as a basis for fantasy (such as James Bond). Many novels in the spy fiction genre have been adapted as films, including works by John Buchan, John Le Carré, Ian Fleming and Len Deighton.

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Seattle Thread

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ceres

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