Sadly Over-hyped

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Blistering performances.

"MI-5" and "Spooks: The Greater Good" are the same film. When a high level prisoner escapes, Harry Pearce (Peter Firth) of MI-5 accepts the blame. He knows there is a mole, so he goes off the grid and calls in those he can trust to trap the mole risking lives for the "greater good."This was an excellent film with enough twists to keep it interesting without acting overly clever. The plot is different from other spy thrillers. If I had one criticism it was the token hot Asian chick (Eleanor Matsuura) was not a martial arts fighter.Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity.

A decent spy film, but not the best around. Many features of the film are just okay, like the cinematography and shots. Not many creative shots and it should be more creative with them.However, I did enjoy most of the plot despite being a little confused. I am aware the film is based on a show, but never seen it before. The film manages to get you aware of the characters without seeing the series before, so this is another positive of the film.Some of the acting is decent like Kit Harington and Peter Firth. The villain is very minimal in the film, so there is not much to say about him. Some twist and turns in the plot which is good, but can sometimes get confusing. Another film to just watch on Netflix or on a DVD but worth seeing once.

I went in watching the movie this movie having no concept of the series on which it was based, SPOOKS, that ran from 2002-11 in Britain. The good news is that you don't have to be aware of that series or its characters. This film picks up with at least one but gives you enough information to stand on its own.Under Intelligence Chief Harry Pearce (Peter Firth) terrorist Adam Qasim (Elyes Gabel) is being transferred into the custody of the CIA when the convoy is attacked. Rather than jeopardize lives in the process Pearce tells his team to stand down and Qasim escapes. As if that weren't enough, Pearce disappears shortly thereafter making it seem as if he was involved.Rather than be left with egg on their face MI-5 calls in ex-agent Will Holloway (Kit Harrington) to locate and take down Pearce. As a protégé to the now missing Pearce, MI-5 feels that he will know better than anyone how to find him. With a grudge against Pearce as well, since it was he who took him out of MI-5, Will has every reason in the world to want to take on the task.The two eventually meet early on and Will discovers there was a reason for Pearce' disappearance. Pearce has discovered there is a mole in MI-5, an operative who seems more than happy to create a reason to bring the entire group down. While the risk Pearce took in the release of a known terrorist was high, the chance of ferreting out the mole was worth it to him. Now he must convince Will to help him discover who that person is.Playing against MI-5 while making it seem that he is indeed looking for Pearce is not an easy task but Will is up for it. As he tracks down the suspects and works to find the traitor, Pearce lends a hand when and where he can. It eventually leads to a showdown with Qasim who is little more than a pawn being used by the mole. As Qasim plans a massive siege on the city of London with bombs planted in various locations, the final discovery is made as to the identity of the mole.The movie works well on many levels. Rather than the suave and always calm Bond style of spy we're used to seeing from England we here have a disheveled looking spy in the form of Will who doesn't know all, isn't equipped with the "toys" Bond has and yet is just as if not more capable to handle most situations. Will is what you would expect a real spy to be like and Pearce as his mentor is a character that knows how to deal with the duplicitous nature of the job.Firth is comfortable in the role of Pearce as he well should be having played the part in the series. He's a spy who's gotten older, seen far too much and while perhaps weary of the tasks at hand is always willing to do his all for Queen and country. Harrington does a great job here as Will. Known mostly for his work on GAME OF THRONES it's nice to see him in something else and able to prove he's more than just worth being regarded for that alone.On the whole this was a fun movie to watch, a more thought provoking spy film than many and one that I would love to see carry on with sequels though I'm guessing it won't happen unfortunately. Then again after the initial rise of the Bond films who would have thought we'd see sequels to movies like THE IPCRESS FILES back in the day. This one is worth watching.

The movie is about a rogue agent that has to save MI-5 for certain destruction by foreign powers. Sounds familiar? The film has multiple problems, starting with Harington's acting (sorry, John Snow) and ending with a way too predictable script. Every twist it had I saw coming for a mile away and there were things that happened that were quite clearly impossible in the timeframe of the movie.But what was probably the thing that stopped me most from enjoying this film was that it felt like a clone after American movies. Way before MI5 was taken over by the CIA, the British film industry seems to be taken over by Hollywood. Same cardboard characters, same complicated plots that somehow survive the battle unscathed, even if they are full of holes, same "human" behavior thing where the trained agent can't shoot and ask questions later, same grandiose villain and hero speeches and so on.Bottom line: as entertaining as an American blockbuster, with a slightly lower budget. I watched it, almost regretted it and soon I will forget all about it. Completely unmemorable.