Posted: 07/26/2010

Operation: Endgame

by Michael J. Nicholas

Operation: Endgame is a government spy movie that doesn’t feature any exotic locations, get caught up in foreign intrigue or weigh itself down with a lot of fancy political jargon. Instead, the movie is more of dark, action-comedy that takes place pretty much in the same building.

Joe Anderson(Across The Universe, The Crazies) plays ‘The Fool’, a spy who is starting his first day at work at a secret underground lair that employs two competing groups of government assassins, whose code names are picked from the Tarot Deck. Shortly after his arrival, the boss is murdered and a sequence gets activated that will explode a bomb deep inside the building while locking it down, leaving the spies to team-up, find the killer and a way out.

The two different groups of assassins- Alpha and Omega, are actually split into two-man teams, one from each group. Bad idea? Probably. Some of the spies have past histories with each other that are bad and others that are even worse. Not only is the movie comically perverse in a dark way, there are also a lot of great action sequences. Definitely a lot of over the top bloodshed in this one as well, basically because the agents can’t get their guns out of lock-down and have to use office machines and whatever else they can get their hands on for offensive/defensive measures.

The movie also stars some other funny talents like Rob Corddry (Hot Tub Time Machine), Zach Galifianakis (The Hangover), Ellen Barkin (Ocean’s 13) and Jeffrey Tambor (Arrested Development). Although the movie doesn’t really consist of themes you haven’t seen before, it’s just a fun watch and doesn’t take itself seriously at all.

Directed by Fouad Mikati and produced by Michael Ohoven (Devil’s Reject’s, Capote), the film is an Infinity Media and Darko Entertainment production distributed by Anchor bay Films. Rated R with a running time of 82 minutes.

Bonus features on Blu-ray and DVD are:
*Behind the scenes featurette
*Alternate opening
*Alternate ending
*Theatrical trailer

Michael J. Nicholas - a.k.a. Nicky The Note - reviews, opinions & life lessons.

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