18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The greatest spy movie of all time, October 9, 2002
This is the greatest spy thriller ever produced. Pierce Brosnan is the quintessential cold-blooded, mission-bound, Cold War Soviet spy, and Michael Caine is superb as an exasperated, mid-level British intelligence agent, on a fast-track to burnout. There were some good supporting performances, but Brosnan and Caine carried the show; they were at the top of their game in this nailbiter. Had Brosnan not been under contract with the Remington Steele show at the time (before 007 went p.c.), and the Bond franchise gotten its wish, he would have been the greatest Bond, too - you can see it so clearly in this show. Frederick Forsythe wrote The Fourth Protocol, and it was excellent, and the movie followed it faithfully. This same textual fidelity served the industry and fans well with another of Forsythe's works, The Day of the Jackal (the original, not the remake with Bruce Willis and Richard Gere, which was trash). If you like well-conceived, well-written, and well-acted spy movies, this is it. Everything else is make-believe.
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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Why do British actors make the best movie spies?, June 30, 2004
After watching THE FOURTH PROTOCOL, I'm left wondering why British actors seem to make the most accomplished spies in releases for the Silver Screen, both big and small. In my mind, the top trio is Michael Caine (as Harry Palmer), Sean Connery (as "007"), and Alec Guinness (as George Smiley). Perhaps it's because, in real life, the UK's international spy agency, the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), has so much more traditional panache than the Yanks' CIA. In MI6, martinis are no doubt "shaken, not stirred". It wouldn't surprise me to learn that the drink of choice in the Central Intelligence Agency is simply light beer.
Here, Michael Caine plays John Preston, a domestic Security Service (MI5) agent on the wrong side of his boss. After being banished to Ports and Harbours, Preston stumbles across evidence that the Soviets are smuggling an atomic bomb into the UK. And indeed they are, as part of a renegade plot by KGB Director Govershin (Alan North) to re-heat the Cold War during the days of détente in the late 1980s. Govershin's infiltrates his superagent, Valeri Petrofsky (Pierce Brosnan), who's assumed the English identity of James Ross, to co-ordinate assembly of the explosive device next to a U.S. air base that stores nuclear bombs. Detonation of the Red nuke will thus be blamed on American carelessness, causing stress on the Anglo-American alliance.
More than a decade after the collapse of the U.S.S.R, the plot of THE FOURTH PROTOCOL, which is above average in entertainment value, approaches being quaint, though the danger of a "suitcase nuke" remains real enough in today's world of pan-national terrorism. The real joy of the film is watching Caine's portrayal of the cheekily insubordinate Preston. (Cheekiness is what defines Caine's acting style and makes him so consistently engaging.)
Brosnan's Petrofsky/Ross is baby-faced and not much beyond just sullen. Pierce has yet to acquire the patina of age that makes him one of the better, though never the best, James Bonds. (Brosnan, sure and begorry, was born in the Republic of Ireland, and is decidedly not British. Perhaps his best spy role - and it was truly excellent - was as the Bond-gone-to-seed secret agent in THE TAILOR OF PANEMA.)
Also eminently watchable is Ian Richardson as the MI6 wallah who has more use for Preston than the latter's boss. (Richardson, if you recall, played the Soviet's mole in MI6 in the refreshingly intelligent TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER SPY, in which Alec Guinness debuted as superspy George Smiley, my most favorite of that actor's screen roles.) I'm always mesmerized by Richardson as his character of the moment swings from smooth charm to understated menace.
Michael Caine's ability to play a believable spook has evolved over a continuum from such of his early films as FUNERAL IN BERLIN and THE IPCRESS FILE to the relatively recent THE QUIET AMERICAN. Whereas Sean Connery has abandoned the genre, and the late great Alec Guinness limited his participation to TTSS and SMILEY'S PEOPLE, Caine continues to venture into the espionage shadow world and THE FOURTH PROTOCOL is a rewarding mission impossible from the past.
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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
First Rate Cold War Thriller, October 27, 2003
I first saw this film on the same night as -- and as an antidote to the utter silliness of -- Kevin Costner's "No Way Out" (don't get me started). It was by far the better film. Like most movies made from Frederick Forsyth novels ("Day of the Jackal," "Dogs of War," "The Odessa File" etc.) the film cannot be expected to convey all the detail of the book, but serves as a useful introduction to it. It is in any case clearly better than most films on similar themes because the novel on which it is based is so carefully crafted and well researched. Although the Cold War is over, the combination of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction that the film protrays can certainly resonate with modern audiences. Both Pierce Brosnan and Michael Caine are excellent in their roles. My only questions are: Why is this film only available on DVD in Europe? And why are the European (Region 2 - PAL) versions not issued as a single DVD with multiple language tracks (E/Fr/G/Sp/I is customary) instead of one separate (expensive) DVD in English only ("The Fourth Protocol") and a less expensive DVD in German only ("Das Vierte Protokoll"). Who makes these nutty decisions, anyway? When the US DVD is issued (and I hope soon) it should have E/Sp/Fr/Port languages and subtitles. If the distributor wants to do us us a real favor it should add the German language track and subtitles, since the these are already available in the European version anyway. Do have a look at this film, however -- it is a very good and unusually intelligent thriller, and the book is even better!
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