Solid but nothing spectacular

Rating: 8/10 (19 October 2015)

I don't think I can criticize this movie, it's a Spielberg film after all, nearly flawlessly made, Tom Hanks is excellent as usual (but let's face it Tom Hanks has never acted poorly in ANY film EVER), mostly historically accurate as well. In fact if it would have been made by anyone else I may have liked it a lot more than I currently do, but alas Steven Spielberg has become a victim to his own success and ability. So all I can say is that while this movie is solid it's nothing spectacular, there are no great scenes but the story is well done and it's evenly represented, a couple of weeks ago I watched Edward Zwick's Pawn Sacrifice and found it to be very pro American and anti Russian, Spileberg of course is above all this pettiness and delivers a balanced film in which both sides are fairly represented. However, I was expecting the raw power that Spielberg delivered in Munich (last time he tackled the theme of espionage) but that's not what this movie is about, it feels a lot simpler and the stakes never feel high. Bridge of spies is a good movie and can go on the B-Side of Steven Spielberg's greatest hits along with The Terminal, Lincoln, War Horse etc. while the A side continues to have Schindler's List, Saving private Ryan, Raiders of the lost ark etc.