UKC

Book, film or both? In which order? Are either very good?

I am intrigued but they have mixed reviews on Amazon. The consensus on the book seems to be there is an in depth knowledge of contemporary spy craft but a lot of the characterisation is hackneyed, i.e the Americans are portrayed good looking whilst the Russians are not (The author is ex CIA).

I was totally captivated by the Russian film Spacewalker and am wondering if Red Sparrow is also worth watching/reading? 

In reply to Phantom Disliker:

Following someone recommending them in the 'what are you reading?' thread, I bought the first two.  I shan't be reading them until I'm on holiday at the end of next month though, so won't be able to offer any help until after that.  If you aren't in a rush though...

T.

In reply to Pursued by a bear:

Be sure to report back! I read the first 2 pages on the 'Look Inside' feature on Amazon and it's littered with acronyms... SDR, FSB, CIA, MARBLE, SVR and KGB. Looks as though Google will be required to unravel it all!

In reply to Phantom Disliker:

Books first and hadn't realized at the time they were actually popular - thought I stumbled across something good and niche for a change.  Not seen the movie but always recommend books before movie.

In reply to Phantom Disliker:

I haven't read the book, but I really enjoyed the film

In reply to Phantom Disliker:

I haven’t read the book(S) and didn’t know they existed until after seeing the film.

I found the film to be truly awful

In reply to Phantom Disliker:

I thought the film was bobbins.

In reply to Phantom Disliker:

Red Sorghum, is good

In reply to Blue Straggler & DerwentDiluted:

Ok, thanks for the heads up.

How does it compare to the Bourne Trilogy - and do you rate those at all?

In reply to Phantom Disliker:

I like the Bourne films, including the most recent one (I didn't see The Bourne Legacy, the one with Jeremy Renner)

Red Sparrow doesn't come close.

I gave it 4.5/10. It was just awful.

I didn't care what happened to any of the characters and had no interest in the story. It was so unengaging. 

I didn't have a score system in place when I saw the first three Bourne films but I gave "Jason Bourne" something like 8.5/10 or 9/10)

In reply to Phantom Disliker:

Not seen the Bourne films for ages, so a bit unfair but I think they were much much better. Red Sparrow was, to my mind, very tedious. Blue Straggler hits the nail with the word 'unengaging', I got up to make a cuppa and didn't bother to pause it. In one torture scene, quite pivotal to the plot, all I could think was 'that must be how they make pork scratchings'. The characters were shallow and unconvincing.  Interestingly I also found the Hunger games unwatchable, I sat through the first one unimpressed but switched the second one off after about 15 mins, and I normally make it through films. I have liked Jennifer Lawrence in other films though so it's not her.

In reply to DerwentDiluted:

Correct (see: mother!, Silver Linings Playbook, Winter's Bone, The Burning Plain, Joy....) although she was pretty bad in Red Sparrow - some poor directorial decisions I think (such as "hey Jennifer don't bother with a proper Russian dialect coach, it'll be better if you keep a bit of Kentucky in a bad Bond-movie-style Russian accent". 

Same director as The Hunger Games 9apart from the first film), as it happens...

And Jennifer is now having a year off from acting....

 

In reply to Phantom Disliker:

Currently getting into book 3 - I'm quite enjoying them. I don't see how they would translate well into film. As someone above said - the baddies are nasty and the goodies are just special, so there isn't a whole lot of subtlety but it is a fun read. With little recipes at the end of each chapter which are rather engaging.