Spy Game (2001) review

On his very last day of work at the CIA, Case Officer Nathan Muir (Robert Redford) is informed one of this assets, Tom Bishop (Brad Pitt), has been arrested by the Chinese on espionage charges and they're planning on executing him so Muir, while going into detail about their past history together, devises a plan to free Bishop before leaving Langley.  Both leads are magnetic actors - this could be "read" as a passing of the torch from Redford (who's made quite a few political thrillers) to Pitt - but the movie tries doing too much: there are so many flashbacks and it attempts to cover various complex global events (Vietnam! Berlin! Lebanon!) that it almost forgets what's "currently" taking place (Bishop is being tortured).  Screenwriters Michael Frost Beckner and David Arata at least did their homework when it came to the actual "spycraft" elements ... and anything that shows the Agency's bureaucracy in a negative light is fine by me.