Mixed tape movies: I-Spy

In the eighties it was the-thing-to-do to make a mixed tape (like an mp3 but touchable, always in need of a pencil and definitely cooler). On it you would make a little playlist of all the cool songs. Now the trick was to make each song correspond with the rest of the tape. In this post I will try to do the same with movies.

Every once in a while I will select a general topic and select movies to accompany it. As you can see the more child-friendly movies are at the start of the day, but  when night falls: ‘here be monsters’. Please feel free to give suggestions of other unknown movies.

One rule though: Auteur themes like ‘Shakespeare’ or ‘James Bond’ are not allowed. ‘Spy-movies’, naturally, are.

Theme: Spy movies
Spying.  We’ve all done that. But some people do it for a living. Some people are actually good at it. In this list I will name my favorite spy movies.

08:00-10:00
Harriet the Spy: A fun movie to start the day with. Straight from the child-spy overdose films of the late 90s early 00s (Agent Cody Banks, Get a clue and others).True it is all feels a little convenient at times. But it’s a children’s movie: it’s all about having fun and adventures.

10:00-12:00
Cloak and Dagger: I always enjoyed this movie because it took the threat serious. Yes it’s a children’s movie but the stakes are very real. That and seeing Dabney Coleman as a superior American Bond is well worth the ticket of admission.

12:00-14:00
Redboy 13: A strange B-movie for this list but a charming one nonetheless. It’s quite the smart Bond-spoof that doesn’t shy away from critique (often targeting the American Way). Just to hear one character state something as: ‘Un-American’ is hilarious.
Plus this movie has a great opening song and a good usage of Gustav Holst’s the planets.     
 
14:00-16:00
Alex Rider: Stormbreaker: I always liked this movie. Maybe it’s because –the great- Stephen Fry got to play a ‘Q’. As a Bond spoof this movie fails terribly. The main villain is a tremendous cash-grab by Mickey Rourke (he really is rather annoying). And the potential sequel-strands this movie deals out are uninteresting. Yet the action and the humor make up for a lot. Plus every great British actors seems to be in it.
 
16:00-17:00
Teen agent: The ultimate teen-who-becomes-a-spy-movie. And yes it is absolutely bonkers brilliant. We’ve got struggles with a condom, X-ray glasses, wall climbing sneakers, a villainess with a deadly necklace and a main plot that would fit nicely in any Bond movie.
It is a delicious movie that is driven by a creativity that knows what a pubescent mind wants. This is one of those rare movies that actually delivers what it wants to give its target audience.
 
17:00-19:00
Undercover Blues: Two retired spies on holiday with their baby are called to do ‘one last job’. One thing this movie does very well is playing with the concept that the main characters are unbeatable super-spies. This can be both comforting and annoying. This movie, however, accepts it and plays with it.
There’s never any real danger and the movie knows it. Instead this movie uses its lightheartedness to direct the ‘super-spy-powers’ to a low-life criminal calling himself Morty/Muerte (a great role by Stanley Tucci). A hilarious comedy ensues.
 
19:00-21:00
Jumpin Jack Flash: Talking about comedy, the Queen of comedy shouldn’t be left out. Playing an IT-bank employee Whoopie Goldberg is the swearing  -grounded in the eighties- centerpiece of this movie. She carries this weak-plotted movie on her shoulders as if it is nothing. Just to see her ‘cancel the message’ in the end is hilarious to behold and, yet, there’s quite some tension to be found as well.
 
21:00-23:00
The 39 steps (1979): Talk about a forgotten movie. I only remembered the clock-hanging scene but googling it –in our current time- only brought forth the obvious.

Yet this movie is one of the best (albeit very loose) translations of the original novel. I has the common man trying to save the free world and he has to stop a bomb in the most dangerous way possible to achieve it.
 
23:00-01:00
Tinker, tailor, soldier, spy: A great book, an even better movie. Cat-and-mouse is one of the main things mentioned when dealing with the topic of spying. Well, Tinker, tailor is most certainly that. I prefer the remake over the Alec Guinness first version simply because it’s a bit faster moving.
This is one of those movies where the acting overshadows the (already clever) script. You just have to sit down and let this movie take you hook, line and sinker.
 
01:00-03:00
James bond: Goldfinger: I originally reserved this spot for The Departed (or its original) when I realized I didn’t have a single Bond movie in my spy-list. Goldfinger is the best Bond-film, hats down. It has everything from smart gadgets to some actually smart sleuthing and a villain’s plan that –actually- makes sense.
True, it’s outdated (and probably a feminist nightmare of a movie) but still it shows James Bond at his best.
 
Honorable mentions:
There are far too many examples of spy movies to name here (so maybe I’ll return to this topic one day). I haven’t mentioned a single movie from Michael Caine’s portfolio. Nor have I mentioned a single Hitchcock film. Basically I wrote down the movies I like to return to time and again. Nothing beats: “my name is Muerte!”
So there are no ‘honorable mentions’ this time around because the spy-pool is still filled with gems waiting to be uncovered.