the audience applauded
Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.
View MoreThe acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.
View MoreOk... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies
View MoreJuan Pujol garcia, s Spaniard, aka Garbo, was a double agent, feeding information to Nazi handlers, who thought he was their agent based in England. He gave the Nazis, who thought he was their spy, information the British gave him to relay and thus was instrumental in misleading the Nazis so they thought the D-Day invasion was to take place in Pas de Calais rather than on the Normandy coast. The true story was interesting, told through interviews, snippets of movies and what appeared to be newsreel footage but the film jumped all over the place, back-and-forth in time and place, and too-loud music drowned out some parts. Fortunately subtitles were available and readable
View MoreHaving learned about Juan Pujol Garcia quite some time ago, I was fascinated to find out that somebody had made a movie about him. Granted, this was not what I would expect (somebody else can surely make a true dramatic version of his incredible story), but I found this to be very entertaining. I admit I like quirky styles, so the offbeat interviewers identities hidden until halfway through the film, the odd music selections (which grew more likable as the movie progressed) and the numerous film clips interspersed with the rest of the story made for just my flavor. The humor is palpable and the movie is memorable on many levels. It would be great if more people knew of the incredible heroics of the secretive man from Catalan and his brave deeds.
View MoreGarbo was a Spanish secret agent during World War II who sold his independent services to the Nazis, while really working for the allies. His brilliantly imaginative approach to espionage was to invent dozens of fictional subordinate spies, then make up false information to feed to the Germans. This potentially interesting subject was spoiled by an odd attempt at a documentary that appears to have been intended to be artistic and funny, rather than informational. The film bounces back and forth between talking heads who remain unidentified until halfway through, and clips from old B movies. All this is accompanied by irrelevant, anachronistic music and silly science fiction sound effects. The overall result is unfocused, annoying, and almost unwatchable.
View MoreGarbo: The Spy hit me like Fire in the Heartland. Again, here's a topic that I feel I am familiar with. i have seen movies about World War II, read books about the Invasion of Normandy. So, why have I never heard about this guy? Why don't I know how critical he apparently was to the whole Allied effort? If you've seen Alias or the Bournes, you know that a good spy has handlers. Garbo is the codename he received from his British handlers, because he took on various roles so well. In reality, he grew up in the Catalan region of Spain, the child of well-to-do parents, in the days before Franco. He wants to get involved. And, I will tell you we don't get to know much about his actual motivations or personality. The guy's a ghost, really. But, we get to find out what he did, offering his services to the Third Reich and to the Allies. Garbo set up an elaborate ruse that may have turned the tide of the war. He must have had iron clad insides to pull off some of these capers. I don't want to give too much away, but it's just an incredible story. And, to get it on the screen, since we don't have anything but talking heads and documents to illustrate the story, Director Edmon Roach intersperses scenes from spy films and movies about World War II that mirror real life events. It's a beautiful device and a remarkable piece of storytelling. I give Garbo: The Spy an 9 out of 10.
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