Company Business

Trailer—Company Business

While I realize that others have dis'd this movie, I found it entertaining enough to get the DVD. Géraldine Danon is certainly quite attractive and I appreciated the location work v. some bogus set. If you are looking for Oscar material you will need to pass on this one. On the other hand, if you like the talent (Hackman, et al) then you will probably find it worth your time to enjoy this. I can promise you there has been a great deal worse than this made by many times over.

Nicholas Meyer is a good writer as shown in the many screen plays, and novels, he has given us. As a director, he has had some success and failures, as it's the case of his "Company Business", which he wrote for the screen and directed. The film has a fatal casting problem in Mikhail Barysnikov, who was a great dancer, but alas, as an actor, one would advise him to stick to his day job. As a result, the film never achieves the momentum that is hinted at the start. Gene Hackman, a superb actor, doesn't do as well under Mr. Meyer's direction. As a matter of fact, he appears to be too old for the part and there is no chemistry between him and Mr. Barysnikov, making the film drag. The others in the cast do what they can, but nothing can save this movie. On the plus side, we are taken to interesting locales, but by the time we arrive at those destinations we couldn't care less where we are, or if it's Friday, we must be in taking a tour of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

The Wall was about to fall,and however it seems that this movie was made a long long time ago ,back in the sixties .Gene Hackman is much too old for this kind of part.Michael Caine,Richard Burton and Paul Newman were about 40,when they were fighting against the commies.The story is so far-fetched that after twenty minutes,we do not care anymore about what may happen to the two heroes.But the biggest bomb comes in the last third,when we learn Natacha's real identity.That's so implausible that even the scenes filmed on the Eiffel Tower fail to excite. Word to the wise:as far as Nicholas Meyer is concerned,do prefer "Time after time" (1979) an entertaining unpretentious fantastic movie or Herbert Ross's "the 7% solution" the screenplay of which he wrote.

Decently scripted and well acted, Company Business missed many people's radars. Take a few seconds out to remember that its setting is the time that it was filmed - while the jokes may seem dated now, they were funny at the time for a Europe waking up to the end of the iron curtain. The two leads have decent chemistry and the supporting roles are well done - it's actually nice to enjoy the film for having no unnecessary love interest to distract the story. It will never be an awards contender by any stretch of the imagination and certainly not Gene Hackman's finest hour, it's still worth watching.

Pretty good spy movie more realistic than many other spy flicks. Plausible story with dozens of typical Hollywood digs at America, American institutions in and out of the government and American allies- mostly overt digs but some covert ones too. If you ignore them, or more likely don't even notice them, this is a very watchable bit of entertainment. Good cinematography, sometimes reminiscent of Hitchcock, and action keeps you interested in the story. Hackman and Baryshnikov work and play well together.

Apparently this film bombed at the box office and the director was very disappointed with how the whole thing turned out. However, the film has a certain post cold war charm and the two leads Gene Hackman and Mihail Baryshnikov play nicely opposite each other. True it's not a well finished film and scripting is, at times, nonsensical.