Dr.X

Watching this made me feel like I was a twelve year old who had fallen asleep after a lazy afternoon of reading comic books and had a really cool dream about a gorgeous swashbuckling heroine. The atmospheric photography and transitions and Yancy Butler's eyes slowly became intoxicating. The plot won't hold up to scrutiny and this obviously isn't Academy Award material, but I didn't mind. I wasn't expecting Shakespeare and this was a fun way to spend 90 minutes.

This is a nicely done action suspense film that depicts a CIA scenario involving hypothetical events in North Korea. Having read prior reviews and seeing an overall rating of 8.2 on this site before I viewed it, though, I was somewhat disappointed. There is some cool gadgetry and many good suspenseful scenes and it's certainly watchable and entertaining, and it does give some appreciation for what is at stake and the personal risks taken on by operatives. However, many of the bad guy characters and non-CIA government officials come off as self-mocking cardboard cutouts, and several of the scenes just don't hold up. Nice performances by Tom Berenger and Ron Silver and good location work. Overall, worth seeing but has some flaws.