Over the course of the film we see that Muir is fairly hardened to the tasks he undertakes and Bishop is less able to let assets go or fail at an assignment. During his final operation with Muir, Bishop meets and falls in love with an asset named Elizabeth Hadley (Catherine McCormack) who becomes the wedge that separates the two agents. Muir looks inside himself while recounting Bishop's career with him and realizes that not everyone should be left behind in a failed mission.
The director, Tony Scott, is a well seasoned professional with movies like Crimson Tide, Top Gun, and Enemy of the State to his credit. He is able to bring a lot out of his scenes and his actors and it shows in this film. While Pitt and Redford do not give the performances of their lives, they are convincing and effectively draw you into the world they live in.
Spy Game did not perform as well at the box office as you may think with an esteemed director and two huge actors in the starring roles. It could be tied to poor marketing or the fact that Brad Pitt fever was at its height and some males chose to avoid his films. The simple truth is that Spy Game is a very effective and dynamic film with some outstanding performances and truly intelligent scenarios.
The Video
Spy Game does have a very capable transfer encoded in 1080p/VC-1 with a 2.35:1 aspect ratio; the only problem is we have seen this transfer before. Universal seems to have simply ported its HD-DVD release onto Blu-ray. Normally this not an issue (Transformers as an example) but this transfer is not perfect.
The image can be very soft at times and oversaturated in certain scenes. There is also some apparent digital scrubbing that mutes textures, in particular in flashback scenes. There is noise as well with periodic flecks and inconsistent film grain.
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