Just perfect...

Better Late Then Never

Ok... 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

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

What a welcome return to television for this genre, cold war spy thriller, so popular back in the 1980's and for many years criminally absent. The Game was an awesome five part series, incredibly written and scripted, it was dark, pacey, loaded with intrigue and thoroughly engaging.Superbly acted, I've been a little critical of Tom Hughes in the past, a guy that looks like a model I found a little one dimensional, but he silenced me in this, he was outstanding. Brian Cox, Paul Ritter, Judy Parfitt etc all fantastic, but Victoria Hamilton was on another level, always been a fan but here she was unbelievable, an awesome actress.Part 4 was without a doubt one of the best hours of television I have ever watched, outstanding.Utterly devastating that a second series wasn't commissioned, the BBC missed a golden opportunity with both this and Banished. Nevertheless The Game was a magnificent piece of drama, 10/10

Pro: stylish, atmospheric, characters not bad, intriguing premises.Con: too many ridiculous gaffes I don't ask for realism, only that the gaps be not insultingly obvious while you watch. There are many films that while objectively silly at least maintain a kind of internal believability, but The Game fails even simple threshold tests. The huge strains on logic range from the everyday work of spies to the most fundamental twists of the plot. And it's too bad, because if you like Cold War drama, this one seemed so promising, a sort of Tinker Tailor with better looking actors.SPOILERS AHEAD! For example, why does MI5 use agents clearly already known to the KGB to do not-at-all-subtle surveillance? And haven't these people even heard of disguises? My god, they don't even bother to change their clothes! Joe Lamb is always wearing that same overcoat! And just how did a bunch of Soviet sleeper agents get to be in multiple British government positions without apparently ever going through even the most rudimentary of background checks? Seriously, we're asked to believe that none of these functionaries was vetted? That no one noticed they didn't exist until they were 20 or so? Okay, obviously British security has had some major lapses of the Kim Philby variety, but I think even your basic personnel office would catch on to this situation!

A good old-fashioned Cold-war thriller that resembles Len Deighton more than John LeCarre (especially as one of Deighton's books was entitled Berlin Game.) It certainly has the slow pace of the masters in order to facilitate character development as the personalities of the people that play the game are intrinsic to the plot. It's beautifully shot and the scenery is very 1970, although there are far too few cars in shot for it to resemble central London. Still, can't complain as these things cost the cash that the Beeb is usually strapped for.A few anomalies in the script could have been avoided, though. Why did the KGB pretend to kill Julia instead of making Joe do their wicked will by pressing a gun to her head? Why wasn't Joe chief suspect from the start? But these pale into insignificance beside the scene in the last part where Sarah meets her husband in the safe-house without thinking that the room is certain to be bugged. Beans spilled all over the show after 25 years of great care to ensure against such mishaps. In the annals of great TV dramas, this rates as a schoolboy-howler.Still an enjoyable, pleasingly-retro, thriller. Those of us who enjoyed LeCarre and Deighton will have a nice glow of nostalgia whilst watching this one and the youngsters can learn how TV drama should be done.

The BBC continues to embarrass the American "entertainment" industry with serious actors who are not rap stars, TV hosts or wrestlers. The difference in quality is apparent from the start. That said, The Game is one of the best. I remember those times and especially the awful 1970's when it seemed that a USSR victory was almost inevitable. I remember being amazed that anyone in a liberal democracy would choose to betray their country for a backward, despotic nation that didn't even pretend to care about human rights.The cinematography editors are to be congratulated for their portrayal of a London caught up in spies, the IRA and militant unions. The moody, dark atmosphere is near perfection as are the characters. Paul Ritter as the grown gay male smothered by a domineering mother is brilliant. Each episode solves a new problem that only raises the stakes. The question of what is real and what is fake and in the end, what is the Game, is slowly explored and finally answered.