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This guy has used every single weapon you can think of. From an M-24 from 800 meters, to a rusty nail.


The Double
(2011)

With a plot as stupid and nonsensical as this, The Double might have worked as a surreal comedy if co-writer and first-time director Michael Brandt (co-scripter of Wanted, amongst other less-than gems) had even a single interesting idea for his visuals.

Richard Gere’s CIA operative is pulled out of retirement to work with a younger FBI guy (Topher Grace, unconvincing and miscast) when a Soviet assassin he once hunted apparently resurfaces. But just who is this assassin, and is he really responsible? The trailer had me thinking the movie would be off-the-scale deranged, not a million miles from that John Cusack film where he discovers… (Identity). But, instead, it’s just your average dumb spy thriller, amped up by a couple of writers out-betting each other for the most unlikely twists possible. As a director Brandt seems barely able to work out where to place the camera, something the otherwise competent production values can’t disguise.

Gere walks through it all with a perma-squint and an expression of resigned constipation, but he’s still able to invest some dramatic urgency into events. Grace, in contrast, is a wet lettuce. Stephen Moyer pops up for a scene-stealing Hannibal Lector-esque cameo as an incarcerated Russian assassin.

**1/2

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