Going through a spy thriller phase, Please recommend me some movies or series.

Fantastic series - one of the all time best.

 

This post made me wonder what Damien Lewis is doing now. At his website - Damian Lewis - I see he hosted a non-fiction series in 2020 called Spy Wars. This Sunday, the Smithsonian Channel is showing episodes 2-5. Not sure why they are skipping episode 1, but my DVR is set.

Apropos this thread, he also has a new miniseries starting in October called A Spy Among Friends. Not immediately clear to me where it can be seen in the UK or the US.

 

The German movie, The Lives of Others, is a great movie about the Stasi.

 

The Good Shepherd (2006)

 

The series Deutschland 83, D 86 & D 89, was a good show about an East German border guard who is recruited into the DDR Foreign Service. While the Stasi spied on the citizenry, this unit spied on West Germany and the Americans. I really liked it.

 

Austin Powers is the greatest spy there ever was. Yeah baby yeah!

 

I liked The Spy on Netflix.
It starred the Borat guy in a dramatic role.

 

Most Wanted Man
Tailor of Panama
Russian House
Tinker tailor (movie)
Smiley's People (TV)

 

Man From UNCLE (2015 film)

 

The Impcress File
Funeral in Berlin

 

Three Days of the Condor, with Robert Redford, is another good one.

 

The new Greyman movie on Netflix ain't bad! Nothing groundbreaking but quite watchable.

 

The show Condor is even better.

 

Absolutely. Talk about underrated!

 

Another shout for Slow Horses, the best TV I've seen this year, Gary Oldman brilliant as the office-bound head of a unit he calls "MI f***ing useless".

I'm about to revisit the 2 seasons of Patriot (Prime), a black comedy-drama featuring a crack but taciturn CIA op.

 

Not your typical spy thriller,but a thriller nonetheless - Marathon Man.

 

The best!


Well you really have to watch Richard Burton in “the spy who came in from the cold. “Now that’s a spy movie. Gritty, real, depressing.

And believe it or not the pilot for “Hawaii Five-0” is more of a spy movie with McGarrett facing off against a Doctor No type character. I don’t think it was that great but it was cool as a kid.

A series of movies with a cool spy but stupid movies are of course the “in like flint” movies. Pretty stupid movies to watch as an adult but James Colburn is cool for a caricature of a spy. Not what you want.

For a little more Patrick Magoohan secret agent man action of course I recommend my favorite “Ice station zebra”. Magoohan is badass in that. His best role. Great film.

 

any of the Tom Clancy books turned into movies...
Tom Clancy Movies in Order To Watch

 

I’ll add my recommendations for

The Ipcress File
The Looking Glass War
Tinker Tailor
The Constant Gardener

 

Larry Crowne. What? The best spies are the ones you least suspect.

 

Yes, excellent.

 

"Is it safe?"

 

If you love the first seasons of Homeland, you need to check Rubicon, which was cancelled after one season, with the showrunner, Henry Bromell, joining the writing room of Homeland. Bromell’s father worked for the CIA, and Bromell was great at depicting the state of mind of an operative. He was the one who wrote all the episodes about Brody getting interrogated, and he was a major loss for the show (even if it had already started to turn into something less interesting before he died).

Rubicon has a major change of tone between the pilot (handled by a different guy) and the rest of the season, and doesn’t have a lead as compelling as Carrie Mathison but it gets a lot of things right.

 

starting watching this and yes it is right up my ally...

 

Why is that film so much better than anything being made today? It so rich in genuine angst, fear and depth — stylishly presented. No cheese. Maybe that's why.