314 reviews
A slow burn, throwback spy film
Don't come into this expecting nonstop action and thrills. What we have here is a ponderous, character-driven Cold War style espionage film that takes it time telling its intriguing story and has a satisfying payoff.
I was happy that some of the twists have much more depth than at initial glance and feel more natural than a lot of shock value storytelling. Pine and Newton do most of the heavy lifting and fit their roles well. Pine gives off some serious elder Brosnan vibes here and I'm here for it. The story ends up being quite heartfelt and bypasses most of the cliches that plague the genre.
The people complaining about how confusing it is clearly did not pay attention because every prior moment of intrigue is explained by the end.
I was happy that some of the twists have much more depth than at initial glance and feel more natural than a lot of shock value storytelling. Pine and Newton do most of the heavy lifting and fit their roles well. Pine gives off some serious elder Brosnan vibes here and I'm here for it. The story ends up being quite heartfelt and bypasses most of the cliches that plague the genre.
The people complaining about how confusing it is clearly did not pay attention because every prior moment of intrigue is explained by the end.
Very good and underated so far
Definitely a 7 or more. Right now showing a 6 is very underated. Great acting by both Newton and Pine. Keeps you interested throughout. I'd recommend for sure.
- Blumanowar
- Apr 8, 2022
- Permalink
trusting those who are trained to not trust
- ferguson-6
- Apr 7, 2022
- Permalink
Political espionage
Slow boil thriller. Moves at a deliberate pace over two timelines. A solid cast and story. Just as things get predictable, a third act plot twist adds to the story intrigue.
- user-35583
- Apr 8, 2022
- Permalink
For the connoisseurs of the genre
The movie has all the good accessories: sleek production, atmospheric mise-en-scene, glossy photography, powerful soundtrack.
But it's the excellent screenplay (from author Olen Steinhauer) and acting performances that make All The Old Knives a high quality espionage thriller, one made of the good old stuff.
For once the genre is not represented in movies by the usual kiss-kiss bang-bang, car chases, fistfights and the whole James Bond enchilada. This is espionage for connoisseurs.
But it's the excellent screenplay (from author Olen Steinhauer) and acting performances that make All The Old Knives a high quality espionage thriller, one made of the good old stuff.
For once the genre is not represented in movies by the usual kiss-kiss bang-bang, car chases, fistfights and the whole James Bond enchilada. This is espionage for connoisseurs.
- gcarpiceci
- Apr 7, 2022
- Permalink
Doesn't make sense
A spy thriller a little bit modern, a little bit conventional, and fun.
All the Old Knives is a genre movie trading on the John LeCarre-like tropes of intrigue and betrayal but with more of the latter and less the former. CIA agent Henry Pelham (Chris Pine) investigates the the successful hijacking of a Turkish airliner in a Vienna airport by jihad terrorists in 2012 with over a hundred people murdered-- suggesting a mole within the CIA ranks.
The pace is deliberate, slow if you will, allowing director Janus Metz and writer Olen Steinhauer (from his book) to linger on protagonist Henry and his former love, Celia Harrison (Thandiwe Newton), a retired agent who worked for the agency at the time of the hijacking. The film dwells on their intimate conversation and lovemaking with closeups too many even for me, who usually gains insights from such intimacy.
The emphasis leaves too little time to be caught up ordinarily in plot twists and distracting clues. Even the least sophisticated viewer will not miss Jonathan Price's Bill Compton as a possible red herring for the mole-the conventions of this genre don't allow an obvious suspect that early in the game.
The plot, then, misses the richness of spy mechanics and twists that point everywhere and nowhere-always an anarchic joy keeping cinephiles engaged.
When the plot devolves into Henry and Celia at a Carmel restaurant by the sea with free-range bacon and only wine, their intimate conversation struggles about who is the culprit and whether the two still love each other. It exhausts with their mooning, her cliche-required tears, and their lovemaking, which is gratuitous.
However, the virtue of this approach is to allow the film's theatrical quality to emerge and treat theatre lovers to tight dialogue and pent-up passion. However, if emphasis had been placed on deconstructing the possible perps, the mystery would have crackled. Other engaging characters are plentiful in All the Old Knives but not used.
Although that Carmel restaurant is as glamorous as the leads (even if constructed on a sound stage in the UK), it occupies almost half the film, loading us with flashbacks and incompetent waiters, none of which is fleshed out enough to be suspicious. Rest assured that ends are tied up and spy justice administered with a twist on honor to get your attention.
Betrayal is the name of the game and has always been for the spy agencies and their operatives. Here not only does the mole betray his country, but our two heroes also have a history. For those related to agents, betrayal is an everyday game of what the agent really does.
For the audience, a certain amount of action while still offering potent dialogue is welcomed in spy stories, some of that in All the Old Knives. But don't ask me about that title: It's as inscrutable as the story is much of the time.
I'm happy for the challenge at this low season for movies after Oscar.
The pace is deliberate, slow if you will, allowing director Janus Metz and writer Olen Steinhauer (from his book) to linger on protagonist Henry and his former love, Celia Harrison (Thandiwe Newton), a retired agent who worked for the agency at the time of the hijacking. The film dwells on their intimate conversation and lovemaking with closeups too many even for me, who usually gains insights from such intimacy.
The emphasis leaves too little time to be caught up ordinarily in plot twists and distracting clues. Even the least sophisticated viewer will not miss Jonathan Price's Bill Compton as a possible red herring for the mole-the conventions of this genre don't allow an obvious suspect that early in the game.
The plot, then, misses the richness of spy mechanics and twists that point everywhere and nowhere-always an anarchic joy keeping cinephiles engaged.
When the plot devolves into Henry and Celia at a Carmel restaurant by the sea with free-range bacon and only wine, their intimate conversation struggles about who is the culprit and whether the two still love each other. It exhausts with their mooning, her cliche-required tears, and their lovemaking, which is gratuitous.
However, the virtue of this approach is to allow the film's theatrical quality to emerge and treat theatre lovers to tight dialogue and pent-up passion. However, if emphasis had been placed on deconstructing the possible perps, the mystery would have crackled. Other engaging characters are plentiful in All the Old Knives but not used.
Although that Carmel restaurant is as glamorous as the leads (even if constructed on a sound stage in the UK), it occupies almost half the film, loading us with flashbacks and incompetent waiters, none of which is fleshed out enough to be suspicious. Rest assured that ends are tied up and spy justice administered with a twist on honor to get your attention.
Betrayal is the name of the game and has always been for the spy agencies and their operatives. Here not only does the mole betray his country, but our two heroes also have a history. For those related to agents, betrayal is an everyday game of what the agent really does.
For the audience, a certain amount of action while still offering potent dialogue is welcomed in spy stories, some of that in All the Old Knives. But don't ask me about that title: It's as inscrutable as the story is much of the time.
I'm happy for the challenge at this low season for movies after Oscar.
- JohnDeSando
- Apr 11, 2022
- Permalink
its like a good old chessmatch...
Where the complicated strings of life in the shadowlands of spying at each other, ultimately leads to the fall of a king or chessmate or chest mate and good night...
an unusual tight , extremely dusk, grey and dark spythriller, not as action filled as ''spy games'', but eventually pretty decent try on a genre that hasnt been overflowing the market lately. Its got pieces and bits of material from 70 and 80's classics, like ''sting'' and ''the mole'', and the story is pretty tense to follow.
A bit slow on plot speed, and some lack on prescicionediting, its overflowed with decent filmatographic and dramaturgic cleverness, and the surprises never seems to end. A bit dull is the musical score, and the acting never reaches the upper cut, but entertaining it is. So without blood and gore and heavy shootouts, the grumpy old man recommends this kinda spy chess.
an unusual tight , extremely dusk, grey and dark spythriller, not as action filled as ''spy games'', but eventually pretty decent try on a genre that hasnt been overflowing the market lately. Its got pieces and bits of material from 70 and 80's classics, like ''sting'' and ''the mole'', and the story is pretty tense to follow.
A bit slow on plot speed, and some lack on prescicionediting, its overflowed with decent filmatographic and dramaturgic cleverness, and the surprises never seems to end. A bit dull is the musical score, and the acting never reaches the upper cut, but entertaining it is. So without blood and gore and heavy shootouts, the grumpy old man recommends this kinda spy chess.
A thriller without thrills
What a tragedy!
Slow, confusing and dull
So if you want a 90 minute sleep here's your chance.
Overuse of flashbacks leads to the very confusing nature of the film. The use of some good British actors is diluted by them speaking faux American. It is very ponderous, with minimal suspense, thrilling moments are non existence. Overall the film is dull and offers no moments of excitement, just a state of confusion.
Overuse of flashbacks leads to the very confusing nature of the film. The use of some good British actors is diluted by them speaking faux American. It is very ponderous, with minimal suspense, thrilling moments are non existence. Overall the film is dull and offers no moments of excitement, just a state of confusion.
This is why when I joined the CIA, I had to sign a waiver confirming no inter-employee relationships.
This spy thriller is more about spy-relationships with hardly any thrills. It's a very slow burn, and I can see how many would become impatient. I'm also not a fan of timeline back and forths, and this has many, and more than just two timelines. However, although not perfect, the timelines are what kept me intrigued to continue to watch, as they revealed small pieces of the puzzle throughout. The reward at the end is worth it imo, I just wish the felt-longer 101 min runtime with slow pacing had been shorter and faster. Huge credit goes to Pine and Newton for their exceptional performances, and another reason why I didn't throw in the towel mid-way, plus adding Fishburne and Pryce into the mix was a bonus. So if you don't go into this expecting a James Bond action spy thriller, and have the patience, you may enjoy it once it reaches the end. All the Old Knives had sharp performances, but the story-telling was dull and needed much sharpening. It's a 7.5 rounded up to an 8/10 from me.
- Top_Dawg_Critic
- Apr 13, 2022
- Permalink
Why would he go to that length
All the Old Knives
- Prismark10
- Apr 10, 2022
- Permalink
Sweet Twist
Slow movie but suspenseful and so well acted. Pine is very good, but Thandiwe is exceptional! She's always been one of my favorite actors to watch on screen.
Keeps you guessing
Simply done. Just two ex-lovers having dinner and trying to put the pieces together on an investigation. It had the right amount of twists to keep you guessing and interested. I enjoyed it a lot.
- hypernutt-194-476124
- Apr 7, 2022
- Permalink
Henry and Celia were lovers.
The story centers on (fictional) Flight 127 in 2012 that was taken over in Austria by terrorists, their demands weren't met, everyone died, including the terrorists. Now 8 years later, in 2020, the American "agency" again sets out to examine how things unfolded back then with the new, unverified information that a captured terrorist said there was an inside informant that gave them some key information. Henry is assigned the task to interview key personnel to try to verify or refute that information. One of those is his ex-lover Celia.
The movie uses an editing approach that is frustrating at times, as they switch frequently between present time and eight years earlier. Then as things start to jell near the end, a key scene is replayed showing information that was withheld from the audience the first time around. Then everything we saw is tied together only during the last few minutes of the movie.
It certainly is manipulative, to keep viewers guessing until the very end. Ultimately the doomed flight 127 is just an event that allows the story to explore the real relationship between Henry and Celia and what some people will do for love.
My wife and I watched it at home on Amazon Prime streaming movies. Not a great movie but we were entertained. Pine and Newton are good.
The movie uses an editing approach that is frustrating at times, as they switch frequently between present time and eight years earlier. Then as things start to jell near the end, a key scene is replayed showing information that was withheld from the audience the first time around. Then everything we saw is tied together only during the last few minutes of the movie.
It certainly is manipulative, to keep viewers guessing until the very end. Ultimately the doomed flight 127 is just an event that allows the story to explore the real relationship between Henry and Celia and what some people will do for love.
My wife and I watched it at home on Amazon Prime streaming movies. Not a great movie but we were entertained. Pine and Newton are good.
Fair to middling.
An engaging spy thriller whodunnit, great for a one-time watch
All The Old Knives, the new spy thriller released on Amazon Prime, is a tense engaging spy thriller whodunnit that works the audience like a police interrogator, studying and casting doubt on all possible suspects until the very end. I deem it "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy lite."
At its one-hour forty-minute runtime, Janus Metz directs efficiently, crisscrossing between multiple timelines at ease with no confusion. Chris Pine and Thandiwe Newton both deliver solid performances, playing up the ambiguity and maintaining a palpable tension in long dialogue-driven setpieces.
Knives is a heavily dialogue-driven film that requires the audience's full active attention. There are many "Is he/she lying?" and "What did he/she mean by that?" moments for the audience to interpret. It is fun in the same vein as a detective mystery board game.
I love this type of spy film as it reflects what real spy work would be like; a ton of interviewing people and fact-checking. For those looking for this type of spy film, I recommend Tomas Alfredson's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. It takes an arthouse approach but also makes it about something beyond its spy plot.
While it doesn't break new ground for the spy genre, All The Old Knives just delivers the spy plot but it is a satisfying one-time watch.
At its one-hour forty-minute runtime, Janus Metz directs efficiently, crisscrossing between multiple timelines at ease with no confusion. Chris Pine and Thandiwe Newton both deliver solid performances, playing up the ambiguity and maintaining a palpable tension in long dialogue-driven setpieces.
Knives is a heavily dialogue-driven film that requires the audience's full active attention. There are many "Is he/she lying?" and "What did he/she mean by that?" moments for the audience to interpret. It is fun in the same vein as a detective mystery board game.
I love this type of spy film as it reflects what real spy work would be like; a ton of interviewing people and fact-checking. For those looking for this type of spy film, I recommend Tomas Alfredson's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. It takes an arthouse approach but also makes it about something beyond its spy plot.
While it doesn't break new ground for the spy genre, All The Old Knives just delivers the spy plot but it is a satisfying one-time watch.
- ObsessiveCinemaDisorder
- Apr 11, 2022
- Permalink
If you have 90 minutes to spare, skip this movie and do your laundry or walk the dog
High hopes. Chris Pine. Jonathan Pryce. Thandie Newton. Laurence Fishburne. All great actors doing the best they could do with a script that needed more rewrites coupled with a director who, it seems, put all his time and energy into the long sex scene that really was not necessary. We get it. They were hot for each other so we needed some "artistic" porn to show us just how much these two good looking people really liked each other. I would love to have those 90 minutes of my life back.
- dredgewrites
- Apr 8, 2022
- Permalink
Interesting although slow
Why bad score ???
Chris and Thandiwe plays well, the story is good and if you are familiar with the terms "Love is Blind and Makes People Stupid", this movie says it all. Slow and boring might be agreeable but for me it does create curiosity to continue, and the ending is quite acceptable, still it has good value of a story.
Chris and Thandiwe plays well, the story is good and if you are familiar with the terms "Love is Blind and Makes People Stupid", this movie says it all. Slow and boring might be agreeable but for me it does create curiosity to continue, and the ending is quite acceptable, still it has good value of a story.
Incredibly Boring
I wasn't expecting a lot out of this movie, but I was not prepared for it to be a complete, put me to sleep movie. This was just completely boring. Everything about it was old, used up, boring clichés and wannabe thriller style. I fast forwarded through so much of it, I finally hit the end.
Maybe some will like this, but if you are looking for fun, it isn't here. If you are looking for mystery, it isn't here. If you are looking for thrills, nope. I didn't even want to go to sleep to it.
Maybe some will like this, but if you are looking for fun, it isn't here. If you are looking for mystery, it isn't here. If you are looking for thrills, nope. I didn't even want to go to sleep to it.
- vidarrkerr
- Apr 8, 2022
- Permalink
Moving And Gripping Le Carré-esque Espionage Thriller
A small-scale, ale Carré-esque spy thriller that both moves and grips. Centering around a meal shared between Thandiwe Newton and Chris Pine, former lovers and espionage colleagues, it uses flashbacks deftly to tell its story, and convincingly portray the way former partners share remembered intimacies and conflicting agendas. The story itself unfolds layer by layer, and the economic run time is refreshing. There are just enough hints to the truth to make you think you know what's going on, but not enough to spoil the final act revelations. It's deftly played, emotionally truthful and gripping right to the end, with Newton especially impressive with her layered performance.
- david-meldrum
- Jun 19, 2022
- Permalink
It's good actually
I didn't have much expectations. But the movie is good.
Some twists are indeed predictable, just not all of them. I didn't find the flashbacks unsettling (some people hate non linear stories).
A very decent and entertaining movie.
Some twists are indeed predictable, just not all of them. I didn't find the flashbacks unsettling (some people hate non linear stories).
A very decent and entertaining movie.
- satin-48250
- Apr 8, 2022
- Permalink
How can a movie so short feel so long?
When you see the Amazon Original logo on a movie, it usually serves a warning. You're going to get a slow moving film with lots of slow panning camera shots, cinematography ridden with lens flares, mist filter lighting and lots of closeups of the actor's faces with the rest of the scene blurred out in the background.
For once though, at least the color grading was nice.
The movie starts off somewhat intriguing, mostly due to Chris Pine, who seems to have prematurely entered the Neeson / Travolta Geezer teaser phase of his career after a few high profile misfires. But the plot quickly unravels as the narrative loses focus and becomes bogged down in cell phone records and endless flashbacks to the two main character's relationship. This is the core of the story, and it's supposed to lay the groundwork for the big reveal at the end, but the two leads have little to no chemistry, the love scenes and romance has no spark, and therefore the entire emotional core of the story falls apart.
As the plot meanders on from flashback to flashback, it becomes more and more ludicrous. Never mind that the CIA would never allow lovers working in the field like this, no one except Laurence Fishbourne feels like a CIA agent. The side characters are just window dressing with the exception of Johnathan Pryce, who get show off his acting chops in one scene.
The response to the hijackers is ludicrous, as is the entire story about how the Germans or Austrians don't want to release 5 prisoners. Ridiculous. Neither of these countries would risk a plane full of people being killed on the internet over 5 prisoners they could easily track after release. Never mind that they don't actually hold high profile terrorists in those countries.
Even more ridiculous is the plot about the Informant in Russia, naturally an entirely innocent man.
This is where the obligatory amazon wokeness comes in. Aside from one, the white characters are all either corrupt or killers. The non-white characters are predictably flawless and blameless. And of course the Russians are portrayed as pure evil again.
Even more ridiculous is a line about a character dying in Iran because they don't have medicine there due to western sanctions. Who writes this garbage? Iran has better medical care than most middle eastern nations and a life expectancy of 77 which is higher than most East European nations and only 2 years lower than the US. Sanction against Iran don't even include medical products.
As mentioned the portrayal of the CIA is ludicrous as well, presenting them like some incompetent squad of hobbyist hitmen who sell out innocent informants at a whim and kill their own agents in elaborate theatrical setups over a phone call instead of bringing them in for questioning.
What good is there to say about the film? Some of the acting is good. The color grading is nice to look at for once. And it's not 2 hours, though the slow pace makes it feel longer.
For once though, at least the color grading was nice.
The movie starts off somewhat intriguing, mostly due to Chris Pine, who seems to have prematurely entered the Neeson / Travolta Geezer teaser phase of his career after a few high profile misfires. But the plot quickly unravels as the narrative loses focus and becomes bogged down in cell phone records and endless flashbacks to the two main character's relationship. This is the core of the story, and it's supposed to lay the groundwork for the big reveal at the end, but the two leads have little to no chemistry, the love scenes and romance has no spark, and therefore the entire emotional core of the story falls apart.
As the plot meanders on from flashback to flashback, it becomes more and more ludicrous. Never mind that the CIA would never allow lovers working in the field like this, no one except Laurence Fishbourne feels like a CIA agent. The side characters are just window dressing with the exception of Johnathan Pryce, who get show off his acting chops in one scene.
The response to the hijackers is ludicrous, as is the entire story about how the Germans or Austrians don't want to release 5 prisoners. Ridiculous. Neither of these countries would risk a plane full of people being killed on the internet over 5 prisoners they could easily track after release. Never mind that they don't actually hold high profile terrorists in those countries.
Even more ridiculous is the plot about the Informant in Russia, naturally an entirely innocent man.
This is where the obligatory amazon wokeness comes in. Aside from one, the white characters are all either corrupt or killers. The non-white characters are predictably flawless and blameless. And of course the Russians are portrayed as pure evil again.
Even more ridiculous is a line about a character dying in Iran because they don't have medicine there due to western sanctions. Who writes this garbage? Iran has better medical care than most middle eastern nations and a life expectancy of 77 which is higher than most East European nations and only 2 years lower than the US. Sanction against Iran don't even include medical products.
As mentioned the portrayal of the CIA is ludicrous as well, presenting them like some incompetent squad of hobbyist hitmen who sell out innocent informants at a whim and kill their own agents in elaborate theatrical setups over a phone call instead of bringing them in for questioning.
What good is there to say about the film? Some of the acting is good. The color grading is nice to look at for once. And it's not 2 hours, though the slow pace makes it feel longer.
- kuner-59029
- Apr 9, 2022
- Permalink