Funeral in Berlin Reviews

To be honest, I wasn't really sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Michael Caine, I thought I might as well check it out. First of all, I have to admit that it had been years since I saw 'The Ipcress File' and I didn't remember it at all. Fortunately, like any James Bond flick, it didn't matter if you couldn't recall what happened during the previous installment and, within 5 mins, I was reminded how brilliant Caine was when he played Harry Palmer. On top of that, I really enjoyed how they approach this genre. Indeed, Palmer was a more realistic version of James Bond without all the fancy gadgets, the colorful villain and their impossible lairs and slightly less sex (all right, Palmer was also a major womaniser like his famous colleague). Anyway, this realistic approach was pretty much irresistible and, as mentioned before, Caine was pitch-perfect in this role. Eventually, the only downside with this approach was that they removed also all kinds of intricate action scenes that you might associate with the genre (the only exception would be the marvelous but still improbable escape attempt at the beginning of the movie). Sure, it was much more realistic this way as spying might not be exciting as the general public might think so the end-result did feel convincing but, basically, it all became slightly tedious at some point. I also had some doubts about the pacing. Finally, as long as they focused on the defection plan, it was all quite spellbinding to behold but, as soon as they started focusing on some mysterious documents instead, they slightly lost my interest though. Anyway, to conclude, even if it wasn't a complete home-run, it was still a really solid vintage spy thriller though and I think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.