gavinp9

'Black Bag' is a tight, mostly psychological spy thriller. We have George (Fassbender) & Kathryn (Blanchett) who are married, but both work for MI6 of some British Intelligence agency. We start with a seemingly benign dinner party where we meet the other key characters and their co-workers - Freddie (Burke), James (Page), Zoe (Harris) and Clarissa (Abela). All are on the same "side", but each have their own secrets and agendas.

Fassbender plays a similar, semi-emotionless character to 'The Killer' - but he doesn't have to do any assassin work here. Overall, there's not much action, or 'Mission: Impossible' style spy tropes - has more in common with 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy', as it's all about who's manipulating who and why. We eventually get to a potential stolen weapon, with Arthur (Brosnan) making a small appearance.

The film's score is mostly a catchy synth number and keeps things semi-light, as the stakes seem medium, but never quite end-of-the world. Things move pretty quickly - all done in 90min - and we get to the end of a week at another dinner party, where everything is resolved. Nothing revolutionary, but engaging performances from the 6 lead actors, great London/English scenery and a little twist.

'Captain America: Brave New World' is the 4th Captain America film, and the first one post 'Endgame' and post 'Falcon & the Winter Soldier' (and the first Cap film in 9 years!) meaning it's Sam Wilson (Mackie)'s first film outing as Captain America and not the Falcon. Giving him Torres (Ramirez) as the new Falcon/his sidekick is a nice touch. Think this is MCU film #35, and surprisingly has a lot of links back to MCU film #2, 'The Incredible Hulk' (the 2008 version with Edward Norton), as well as 'Eternals', finally dealing with the giant Celestial in the middle of the ocean.

Just as Norton was replaced by Ruffalo, this time General Thaddeus Ross is played by Harrison Ford, as William Hurt has now passed. The main villain is also returning from that film - Sterns (Blake Nelson), who I believe is "The Leader", even though I'm not sure that's ever mentioned. We also have Sidewinder (Esposito), as he's been typecast and has to be a bad-guy in everything! The screentime is almost shared equally between Mackie and Ford, as you can tell Ford is having fun playing the new President and being in a big popcorn movie again. The plot is not bad, more of a political/conspiracy thriller (in-line with 'Falcon & the Winter Soldier') and less of a super-hero film, with Sam still having no powers - even though he does have upgraded wings/suit.

While no 'The Winter Soldier' or 'Civil War', this is certainly not one of the MCU's worst - it's <110min before credits (no mid-credits scene for some reason), has some great action/fights, some good ariel combat, a strong cast and some little jokes here and there, all while keeping the pacing up. Ford is good to watch and only turns into the red Hulk in the final 25min or so, therefore it doesn't turn into a drawn-out CGI slugfest. While not progressing the overall MCU narrative too much, it does help set-up what's going to happen over the next 2 years.