Bridge of Spies Review

I'm surprised by the low score as this has been getting rave reviews, I haven't read any yet including this one as I don't want it to influence my thinking when I go to see it
 
I was lucky enough to see a preview showing on Monday and thought it was great! Perhaps it could have been a little shorter but I was engaged throughout.

[teeny, tiny spoiler alert]

Laura, the movie does allude to Abel's heritage without outright narrating it: Donovan tells his son he's "from Northern England" and I am sure Abel explains his parents Russian origin at one point.
 
I saw it on Monday night and I have to agree with Laura, it's well acted, well made and worthy but ultimately a bit boring. I felt the same way about Spielberg's previous film Lincoln, it had great performances and a very worthy story but dear God I was bored.
 
Laura, the movie does allude to Abel's heritage without outright narrating it: Donovan tells his son he's "from Northern England" and I am sure Abel explains his parents Russian origin at one point.
You're right they do mention Abel coming from the north of England but that just leaves you wondering why he's clearly got a Scottish accent.
 
I am an massive fan of Spielberg and while my avatar suggests Jaws is my true love, it was, but as I grow older (while it will always be in my top 5) I have to admit, my favourite Spielberg films have been Schindler’s list, Empire of the Sun and Munich (this one above all others).

So the trailer didn’t do much for me and after reading this review I went in with low expectations.

I have to say, I couldn’t disagree more with this reviews score, the direction, production and cinematography alone deserve 6/10, add on 2 fantastic performances and it’s at least an 8 from me.

After enjoying Wolf Hall at least 3 times, Rylance, I have discovered is one of our finest actors.
He is fascinating to watch and is once again tremendous in this, they mentioned he was from somewhere in north England, but hey to some Americans we are all from England even as a N.Irish man living in Scotland.

Hanks was on top form, great performance, didn’t feel like I was watching Tom Hanks playing someone else.

The photography (Janusz Kaminski) was simply beautiful, especially when we head over to Germany, I sat back in the cinema feeling I was watching a classic for the first time. This is what cinema is all about, the camera movement and lightening, I cannot fault, beautiful.

I didn’t like the score, it was fine, but the military drum rolls just annoyed me.

Am I dying to see this again, no, will I buy the blu, not for a while, but it’s really worth a watch, if you like slow paced cold war drama shot by two of the most skilled men in the business.

Film 8/10
PQ 10/10
 
I saw it on Monday night and I have to agree with Laura, it's well acted, well made and worthy but ultimately a bit boring. I felt the same way about Spielberg's previous film Lincoln, it had great performances and a very worthy story but dear God I was bored.

I was gripped throughout Lincoln so this should be my sort of thing
 
Saw this today and thought it was excellent. A solid 8/10 for me.
Superb acting and cinematography among the many other positives.

I'm surprised by some of the negative comments, I didn't find it boring at any point. It was dialogue heavy and I guess some people were expecting something different. I'm always enthralled by watching Tom Hanks anyway!
 
For me the 'boring' aspect comes through the predictability nature of the film, it was so obvious what occurs scene after scene and there was no element of surprise at all (I had only seen the trailer once and nor had I done background research on the topic).
 
Must admit, Lincoln bored me to tears, to the point that I started doing other things while it was on.
 
6/10? Sounds harsh!
 
"A bit more spying and a lot less talking would have made this 'thriller' more thrilling" ???

Can't help but think the reviewer has got this one massively wrong.

The film is a cold war thriller. Its based on espionage trade-offs at a very sensitive period of time in history. In the heat of political unease it depicts the cool handed methods by using 'off the record' diplomatic negotiations.

6/10 ???

There is nothing written in this review that supports why such a low score and low opinion?

Its an AV Forum official review so would suggest considering re-doing the review into something that reads a bit more sensible.
 
Its an AV Forum official review so would suggest considering re-doing the review into something that reads a bit more sensible.

I've not seen the movie yet but you need to remember that all reviews are just one person's opinion :)
 
I've not seen the movie yet but you need to remember that all reviews are just one person's opinion :)

Not quite so. This is not a 'personal review or opinion' in question.

If it's done on behalf of a forum, periodical, newspaper or otherwise it is generally representative on behalf of that institution.
 
Not quite so. This is not a 'personal review or opinion' in question.

If it's done on behalf of a forum, periodical, newspaper or otherwise it is generally representative on behalf of that institution.

No it isn't. It's the reviewers personal opinion.
It may be done for AVForums, but it doesn't mean everyone involved in AVForums agrees with the score.

That's the best part of AVF's reviews. All reviewers are free to give their own opinion.
 
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No wonder why Spielberg gets a free pass from Critics, the repercussions are lethal.
 
No it isn't. It's the reviewers personal opinion.
It may be done for AVForums, but it doesn't mean everyone involved in AVForums agrees with the score.

That's the best part of AVF's reviews. All reviewers are free to give their own opinion.

I'm afraid it's a hard job to convince it isn't the 'Bridge of Spies Review' associated to AVF. Once the AVF moniker goes on it, it does become the AVF review. The editorial team would in any case surely have rubber stamped it before it went live?

I am of course not suggesting everyone involved at AVF by defacto would agree with it.

I'm happy to agree to disagree if that is all not the case.

As for this review and score I am sure in the fullness of time it's worth will be measured amongst the wider consensus of reviews.
 
I'm afraid it's a hard job to convince it isn't the 'Bridge of Spies Review' associated to AVF. Once the AVF moniker goes on it, it does become the AVF review. The editorial team would in any case surely have rubber stamped it before it went live?

I am of course not suggesting everyone involved at AVF by defacto would agree with it.

I'm happy to agree to disagree if that is all not the case.

As for this review and score I am sure in the fullness of time it's worth will be measured amongst the wider consensus of reviews.

Of course it is the AVF review but it is still the reviewers personal opinion.

The editorial team of course proof a review, but what they don't do is ask you to change it because they disagree with your opinion. The editors do not ask you to rewrite your review to match their opinion.
 
Of course it is the AVF review but it is still the reviewers personal opinion.

The editorial team of course proof a review, but what they don't do is ask you to change it because they disagree with your opinion. The editors do not ask you to rewrite your review to match their opinion.

The AVF review ethos as stated below:

'Reviews featured at AVForums.com are written by a small team of professional enthusiasts who have been trained to high industry standards.

Our ethos is to provide independent and unbiased reviews which are as objective as possible.'

So are you suggesting personal opinion is allowed to override that ethos as that would be highly subjective?

At the moment this film appears to be highly/critically reviewed elsewhere averaging 80-90%. AVF has slapped a 60% on it? That in itself would be fine if you can warrant or argue such a low score.

The AVF tagline appears to be 'A bit more spying and a lot less talking would have made this 'thriller' more thrilling'.......Ultimately that then begs the question, does one realise it was actually a cold war spy-swap movie ?
 
Who really cares this AVF reviewer didn't rate it to highly. You don't have to agree it with it, the world won't stop turning. The wider consensus is that this is a very good film, but I'd rather someone was honest about what they thought, instead of just adhering to popular opinion.
 
The AVF review ethos as stated below:

'Reviews featured at AVForums.com are written by a small team of professional enthusiasts who have been trained to high industry standards.

Our ethos is to provide independent and unbiased reviews which are as objective as possible.'

So are you suggesting personal opinion is allowed to override that ethos as that would be highly subjective?

At the moment this film appears to be highly/critically reviewed elsewhere averaging 80-90%. AVF has slapped a 60% on it? That in itself would be fine if you can warrant or argue such a low score.

The AVF tagline appears to be 'A bit more spying and a lot less talking would have made this 'thriller' more thrilling'.......Ultimately that then begs the question, does one realise it was actually a cold war spy-swap movie ?

You don't need to quote the AVF review ethos to me. Look under my name. :)

That part of the ethos you quote more relates to the hardware reviews such as the TVs where the reviewers are trained to industry standards and the results of those tests are objective. A movie review can never be objective. By its very nature it must be subjective and it is.

Funnily enough as someone who enjoyed this film I think the review was very harsh, but we aren't all meant to agree else it would get very boring.
 
A movie review can never be objective. By its very nature it must be subjective and it is.

Funnily enough as someone who enjoyed this film I think the review was very harsh, but we aren't all meant to agree else it would get very boring.

No, that's not exactly true. Acting, production values, cinematography, direction, editing etc can be objectively judged to a large degree.

The subjective element however is whether the viewer/reviewer enjoyed it all.

The point I am making is there becomes a real issue where the subjective elements override or influence the objectives.

It would not make much sense a reviewer who does not/enjoy or like certain types of movies to review them as subjectively it would skew the scores. In this case the reviewer was looking for more 'spying' to make it more thrilling...No other critical reviews are citing that as a case in point.

It's very clear this is not what this movie is or was meant to be about as all the thrills are in the diplomacy of the dialogue/negotiations of a true story in the back drop of a cold war.

It kind of leaves this AVF review as being rather obscure and left field.
 
Since when were movie reviews ever objective! That's impossible...
 
I guess when objectivity is meaningfully applied the closer the consensus and grouping of reviews and scoring across differing sources. Critically reviewing movies does in fact have an underlying commonality.

The obscurely marked reviews tend to be the ones influenced overly by subjective thoughts.
 

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