Customer Reviews

The Spy Within

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1 star:		(1)

 

 

This reviewer attempts to describe something of merit within each work under consideration, but with this wretchedly made film, one must slide by the woeful efforts by those who generally provide audience enjoyment, i.e., director, screenwriter, actors, editors, et alia, before finally recognizing the customary able efforts from crew technicians as the sole evidence of adequacy. In a plot seldom coherent, Theresa Russell, billed second, is cast as Alex Canis, A.K.A. "The Dove", an entrapment specialist employed by the National Security Agency (N.S.A.), who gathers her information through acts of prostitution, with a specialty as dominatrix, her clients being Federal government officials, and blackmail undoubtedly a goal for her unit, a "covert section" of the N.S.A. that collects photographs of her activities. Since Alex has written, for therapeutic reasons, a not-for-publication autobiography, her supervisor, after learning of the opus, determines that she must be eliminated, and during her flight from homicidal pursuers, she unites with a discredited demolition expert, Will Rickman (Scott Glenn), who is fighting a lawsuit originating from two accidental deaths within his most recently demolished building and the pair exchange sexual bouquets when not avoiding being killed. In his only stint as director of a feature, Steve Railsback, although a charismatic actor, obviously lacks those skills requisite for guiding other players, since he merely turns Russell and Glenn loose to fish for whatever they might find of worth within a sloppily written screenplay and as these two happen to benefit from a strong director, their mannered performances must rate at the bottom of their portfolios. Adding liberal footage of amorous thrashing about between Alex and Will is a clear attempt to add mustard for the largely incomprehensible proceedings, but the result is more silly than sensuous, and gives only momentary surcease for a storyline that has more flaws in continuity than can be found in any average score or two of other films, to a point where one feels simply embarrassed for all involved.