The November Man (review)

 An ex-CIA operative is brought back in on a very personal mission and finds himself pitted against his former pupil in a deadly game involving high level CIA officials and the Russian president-elect. (from IMDB.com)

The November Man stars Pierce Brosnan (Remington and Mrs. Steele), Luke Bracey (G.I.Joe:  Retaliation), Olga Kurylenko (Quantum of Solace), and Bill Smitrovich (Millenium). You will likely recognize several of the other actors playing second string characters.

The movie is based on the book There are No Spies by Bill Granger. I have not read the book. If anyone has, please speak up as to whether or not it's worth picking up.

Pierce Brosnan makes his return to the world of the spy/thriller genre with a solid movie.

An ex-CIA operative is brought back in on a very personal mission and finds himself pitted against his former pupil in a deadly game involving high level CIA officials and the Russian president-elect.

It stars Pierce Brosnan (Remington and Mrs. Steele), Luke Bracey (G.I.Joe:  Retaliation), Olga Kurylenko (Quantum of Solace), and a bald Bill Smitrovich (Millenium). You will likely recognize several of the other actors playing second string characters.

The movie is based on the book There are No Spies, by Bill Granger. I have not read the book. If anyone has, please speak up as to whether or not it's worth picking up. The book and movie are likely very divergent, that does not matter to me.

There was much speculation over the ending of Pierce Brosnan's run as Ian Fleming's James Bond. A role he strove for during and following his run on Remington and Mrs. Steele. A role I felt he was destined to play and a role I feel was destroyed by the end of his run. His third and fourth were the first Bond films I remember never seeing in the theatre. (But Goldeneye, oh Goldeneye, you were a thing of beauty.) He has repeatedly held the line that the end of his run was a decision of the production company deciding to move in a different direction. Seven years after The World is Not Enough, Casino Royale hit the big screen and proved they went in a new direction like they said they would. Post The World is Not Enough, Pierce Brosnan has stayed away from action roles. Pierce Brosnan makes his return to the world of the spy/thriller genre with a solid movie. 

Pierce Brosnan plays Devereaux, a man who retired from the spy business, lives in Europe where he runs a cafe, and has a deeply burried secret that even his old friends know nothing about. The movie starts by setting up the primary male leads of Peirce Brosnan, Luke Bracey, and Bill Smitrovich's character. An Op goes down, tradecraft saves the life of the bad guy's target, but there is blowback due to a mistake. You find out later how much blowback likely occurred. We aren't told, we're just shown what paperwork was filled out. Flash forward a few years and Devereaux is a retired man when Hanley (Bill Smitrovich), his former handler, walks back into his life. Hanley shows some evidence of bad things happening and who he thinks is next, an old acquaintance of Deveraeux's.

This is a basic set up. As we move through the story, we discover that opposing players (from the same team) are working to exfil the next target, a bad ass Russian assassin (played by Amila Terzimehic), and several different reversal reveals. We learn the truth from the bad guys (of course) and it's a truth we can't handle (but we will). We learn what buried secret exists about our hero, and there are at least three reversals of who is a good guy, who is a bad guy, and who is just a selfish bastard. The movie does not confirm the death of all the characters, which could leave it open to more movies. However, I don't think another movie is needed. Everything is wrapped up in a mostly neat bow by the time credits roll.

There are elements of other spy/thriller movies at play. At times I was reminded of Bond, Bourne, and even Sam. Throughout it all, Pierce Brosnan plays it to the hilt. He is conflicted over his secret, conflicted over who is burning who, conflicted over he should let others get their revenge their way or his own, and uses whisky as necessary. In a way, this is James Bond five years later. He's done, retired, making a living outside the Agency, the Company, or in Bond's case, MI6. When completely stressed, he turns to alcohol, a feature of the Bond films I find is not as solid in movies as it is in the books. All Devereaux wants to do is the right thing to help the people that need the help.

This movie is not for people who do not like the spy genre. This movie is not for people who like big, over the top, spy movies such as Bourne or Bond. There are big scenes, but it is not a movie filled with big explosions and over the top chase scenes. It is more realistic (as much as movies can be) than that. It is a movie where the characters try to do smart things to outwit the others, before shooting each other. If this movie does not do well at the box office, it is because it does not pander to the stereotypical movie goers who just want to sit and watch a screen.

This movie is for people who like the genre. There is action, there is very little blood, and enough thinking for people who want a little brain candy. Do not think too hard throughout the movie, as there are a couple of things that occur which made me do a double take. There was nothing in the movie that made me feel like I had to see it on the big screen. It would be just as good on the television via your video provider of choice. The movie was fun to watch and is not overly bloody. In face, in most scenes involving blood, they are reaction scenes - as they should be. Showing blood after the fact reinforces the point someone was just injured. Showing blood during the fact is a way to show off the action and does nothing to move the story forward.

Moving the story forward is something done very well in this film. The writing is tight and the editing follows right along. There are not a lot of extra story bits included in the movie. The movie is stripped down to what is needed and stays focused on just that. At the same time, nothing feels left out. We need to know Devereaux is a former spy, who is a bad ass, and is thrust back into his old life. That is what we get. I find we get more than that in movie's today. I don't want exposition. I want a tight story that moves along and gets me to the end. Exposition will show itself in the actions of the characters and the actors portraying them.

For those of you playing Night's Black Agents or other spy games (Spycraft, Top Secret, or even James Bond), this is a good movie for you. The activities are present for you to see and count the spends. When Bill Smitrovich's character is being questioned, he spends the points to resist interrogation, playing the situation back on the interrogator. They then spend more points to bad ass the situation up. When Luke Bracey is racing to save the day at the end of the film, he burns through at least six points in Athletics and likely another 10 in Firearms, looking like the pro he is throughout the entire sequence. When Devereaux needs money or to move between locations, it stays in the background like it should with an NBA game. "I spend Preparedness and hand a wad of money to the girl" and then we see the money exchange hands. There is no, "Let's go show where all of this money is hidden" business you see in many movies. We already know Devereaux is a bad ass, so why would we need to watch him go get his money? On the technology side, there is a hand held cell phone tracker that I do not recall seeing in a film, before. We see the use of an aerial, unarmed drone. They even track cell phones that are not being used to locate someone.

#FavoriteRPGofAllTime #RPGaDay

#FavoriteRPGofAllTime #RPGaDay

This is a bit of a hard one for me. I don't like to play favorites with rpgs. I tend to be very picky about my games.

Most nostalgic that no longer plays like it used to? World of Darkness products

Most nostalgic game I feel I never had an opportunity to do enough with it? Traveller

Most fun I have had at a table with a game that had lots of dice to roll? WEG Star Wars game of Jedi. My players rivaled Warhammer 40k players with the number of dice being cast on the kitchen table.

Most innovative game I've played in the past two years? Action Cards! from Age of Ravens.

Game I seem to go back to time and time again in this series of blogs? Most likely All Flesh Must Be Eaten. That probably sets this up as my favorite rpg of all time. Night's Black Agents creeping up on it, though.

Well, that's it for this event - a double tap to the brain. . . 

#RPGaDay #RarestRPGOwned

#RPGaDay #RarestRPGOwned

I don't think I own very many rare RPG products. Sure, I have a bunch of Traveller stuff. Maybe some of that is rare? I think the rarest book I own is the Deities & Demigods book for AD&D containing the Cthulhu Mythos and Nehwon deities. I picked it up used for the fact it had deities in it. I had no idea there was a whole controversy surrounding the book.

And if you want to find out more about that controversy, I suggest you check out book one of the Designers and Dragons series. It's a great read!

#RPGaDay #MostMemorableEncounter

#RPGaDay #MostMemorableEncounter

I think the most memorable encounter I have played in would be part of Lowell's World of Darkness game. We were on the track of an informant and our Assamite player did not catch on to something the rest of us caught in an interaction with the Prince or some other higher than us in station muckety muck. We broke into the informant's apartment and discovered vampires can't see in the dark without flashlights - or at least our vampire assassin couldn't. We crept into the bedroom and the Assamite did what they do best, he killed a human informant by staking him through the heart!

You see, the player had it in his head that this NPC was a vampire that needed staking. We broke for a smoke break, came back in and replayed it.



But there's always the first year we ran demo games of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the high number of women who came out to play for the first time.

And running an one shot of Night's Black Agents and thinking, this is a damn cool game.

And discovering that World of Darkness first edition and early second edition combat rules were bad for Werewolves. I could hit a gnat, but could not do more than one point of damage on TWELVE dice.

#RPGaDay #ScariestGameI'vePlayed

#RPGaDay #ScariestGameI'vePlayed

I can't think of the scariest game I played, but I can think of one that I have run.

I ran an one shot of Werewolf first edition for my brother and a friend in the way back. You can find bits of it in prior World of Darkness related posts. While investigating the murder of their Sept, they discovered an enemy who was using mirrors to move through reality and other nefarious places best left to their elders. They went into those mirrors and nefarious places trying to capture the person responsible for skinning their Sept-mate alive. They never did catch him, but they did confront some nasty demons and shred them with their claws.

The scary part was due to the fact we were playing late at night, in a house that was cramped, with the lights turned down low, and we had to be quiet as to not wake the friend's kids. This led to a very spooky evening of good fun.

Now, if you want to know about the most terrifying games I've run. . . well, those would involve Kult and All Flesh Must Be Eaten, but we're not talking about terrifying in this post, now are we?

#RPGaDay #GameYou'dMostLiketoSeeaNew/ImprovedVersion

#RPGaDay #GameYou'dMostLiketoSeeaNew/ImprovedVersion

I think John Dodd called it when he proclaimed a|state needs a new edition. Talking with +Malcolm Craig about the game after it was published, he told me that his direction was to provide a setting where the idea was to build hope. He thought about adding mechanics to reward the players whenever they brought hope to the community.

I think the idea is solid and I think he could easily find a way to port that into the game. He has proven he has the ability to develop unique settings and rules mechanics.

Other games I would like to see a new edition of include All Flesh Must Be Eaten, 7th Sea, and Ravenloft. I know I'll get one of the three. I just don't have a date, yet.

#RPGaDay #CoolestCharacterSheet

I can't say as I have a fave of these. They are a tool to get the job done. They can be notes cribbed on a lined piece of paper, printed copy of a text only character sheet, or a fanciful work of art. I don't care as long as it doesn't detract from the game. So, let's go with a few standouts.

The first character sheets I remember having an impact on me were created by friends and myself for the WEG Star Wars game. We made them for each and every archetype. We listed out all of the skills. It was 1992 or 1993 and I have no idea what computer program we were using.

I'll mention some of the work for Night's Black Agents next. There are character sheets floating around out there designed to look like dossier pages. That's pretty cool to me. Maybe I am under exposed to such things in the rpg world? Don't care, I like 'em.

I'll wrap this up with the character sheets and journals you can get for All Flesh Must Be Eaten. You can start with the core book. There, you have a character sheet and a sheet for tracking all of your bullets. If that's not good enough for you, the Character Journal should set you straight.

#RPGaDay #FavoriteRPGNoOneElseWantstoPlay

#RPGaDay #FavoriteRPGNoOneElseWantstoPlay


Seriously? I don't have one. As I go through my list of books in my head, I have so many players interested in games around me that there is a different struggle at play. When do we have time to schedule all of these games?

There's Streets of Bedlam, Dark Heresy, Night's Black Agents, All Flesh Must Be Eaten, Ars Magica (3rd edition, please?), Pendragon (we're getting that one started soon), Conspiracy X, Deadlands Noir, Amazing Adventures, Ghosts of Albion, Savage World of Solomon Kane, Kult, SLA Industries. . . 

Seriously, I can line up players for all of these games - and more! With online resources like Google Hangouts and Roll20, the only thing holding us back is scheduling time!

PS:  Amazing Advenures and Streets of Bedlam have Kickstarters going on RIGHT NOW!

PSS:  Streets of Bedlam is on sale for $10 (digital format)!!!

#RPGaDay #MostComplicatedRPG

The most complicated rpg setting I own is likely Vampire: the Requiem. Someone unfamiliar with the WoD is stepping into a setting where they need to track their Coterie, Clan, and Covenant. If the player is stepping into an experienced group, it is likely they will need to learn the other supernatural groups, too. And all of that is before The God Machine Chronicle updates.

For complicated due to the depths of rules, I think Dark Heresay is likely the winner. However, I think they work. As in depth and detailed as they are, they work for me.

For overall complication, SLA Industries wins the prize from me. The setting is all over the place between the different books over the decades of publication and companies publishing it. The magic rules are something that have never made sense to me and the combat is over the top. And I still love it and all of its supplements. The more that gets published, the more it all conceals. 

And if that's enough of a reason to like it, well, I suggest you check out The Esoterrorists from Pelgrane Press. All of the monsters from SLA Industries could fit into an Esoterrorists game, because the Ocean Game is by the same creator as SLA Industries.

#RPGaDay #CoolestLookingRPG

Stylistically, I think the two magic supplements for Kult are some of the coolest looking rpg supplements out there. They have metallic looking paper, crazy color choices, and a lay out that was far and away better than the core book (first USA edition).

For lay out, I tip my hat to George Vasilakos for Buffy core book and the Decipher Lord Of the Rings core book. When it comes to using screenshots from media in a rpg, George makes beautiful books.

For interior text lay out, check out what Chris Huth did with Pelgrane Press core book for Night's Black Agents. That book is filled with text, in three columns, not two, and it remains legible. It's pretty darn awesome.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention the Eclipse Phase rpg books from Posthuman Press.Those books are beautifully done in full color. The text is nearly as tightly packed as Night's Black Agents, but something about them just isn't quite as sleek about them. Still, their color and art more than make up for the text. Adam Jury has a whole line of these books.