The Coldest Game

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Matthew D @OceanSage Feb 2 I actually fell asleep trying to watch this total bore of a Cold War thriller! Director Łukasz Kośmicki’s espionage thriller The Coldest Game (2019) is really terrible. A dull mixture of poor chess playing and nonsense spy killing. It is impossible to follow all these generic characters and overly complicated espionage dealings between America and Russia in Poland. Writers Marcel Sawicki and Łukasz Kośmicki really messed this up. I actually fell asleep watching this and had to go back to try and figure out what I missed. It’s horribly slow. Taking an alcoholic former chess champion into Poland to help spy on the Russians is a horrid premise and plays out in the most comatose manner possible. It is directed like a cheap show and just randomly cuts to different characters who I could not even place their names with dozens of people who are all forgettable. Bill Pullman is basically just drunk the entire time as supposed genius Joshua Mansky in a really boring performance that fails to charm. Pullman is asleep at the wheel and just told where to go and what to do by everyone with no agency to his character. He looks embarrassed to be in this honestly. Lotte Verbeek is so gorgeous as the redhead spy Agent Stone, but she barely gets a character before they write her out. James Bloor is over the top as the American spy Agent White in a ludicrous performance. Robert Więckiewicz tries to be funny as the director of the Palace of Culture and Science, but he’s ultimately pointless. The endless slog of Russians are all interchangeable. Editors Wolfgang Weigl, Robert Gryka, and Krzysztof Arszennik just slap scenes together and keep switching perspectives, so there’s no tension or coherent plot. Cinematographer Paweł Edelman shoots every scene flatly with few risks. Composer Łukasz Targosz’s lethargic film score is so generic with a few string arrangements and everything is too quiet. Sound designer Michał Fojcik mixes all the voices so quietly and it’s already a fairly mute movie. In short, The Coldest Game is 104 minutes, but feels like 401 minutes with its slow pace and boring characters. See more Steven K 12/04/2024 Like chess? Like Soviet spies? watch it. See more Annabel W 02/21/2024 Bill Pullman was late joining this film as he replaced an injured William Hurt just before production began. Another stellar performance by Pullman who always thrives in underdog roles & holds the film together whenever he appears. This murky Cold War thriller has several moments of tension & twists & an interesting mix of sinister looking Polish actors who blend to fuel the intrigue! Yes, it could be grittier & faster paced in parts & Chess isn't the most exciting game but non the less still an enjoyable flick See more Anjum K 10/10/2023 It was just a bad incoherent mangle of a movie, out of which Pullman just comes clean in the end. I mean just about. See more Michael W @mawilps 09/10/2023 This espionage movie was pretty good. Bill Pullman, Lotte Verbeek, Corey Johnson, James Bloor, Aleksey Serebryakov, and the rest of the cast did a pretty good job in this movie. The plot of the movie was dramatic, thrilling and suspenseful. It's about winning the Cold War and taking down the Soviets. If you haven't seen this movie yet, you may enjoy it. It wasn't very good, but it was worth it. See more Chris P 06/19/2023 While fictional it was an interesting movie. See more Read all reviews

The Coldest Game

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