REVIEW: All the Old Knives Might of Been Best Left on the Shelf

Based on the 2015 spy novel, of the same name, by Olen Steinhauer, All the Old Knives, Prime Video is gearing up to release its next movie in the spy game, but this one may have been better left on the shelf. The story opens at the CIA station in Vienna as operatives, Henry Pelham (Chris Pine), Celia Harrison (Thandiwe Newton), Bill Compton (Jonathan Pryce) and Station Chief, Vick Wallinger (Laurence Fishburne) are trying to stop terrorists who have hijacked the Royal Jordanian Flight 127. Unsuccessful in their attempt, the team begins to wonder why they were unable to stop the hijacking and the possibility that one of their own knew more about the hijacking then they originally let on? As the years pass, their questions go unanswered until Pelham is told that an agent on their team was working with the terrorists. Now, Pelham must reunite with his coworker, and former lover, Harrison to find out who sold him and his team out on that fateful day.

As someone with no preconceived notions, due to have never reading the book the film is based on, I was very much looking forward to this movie. On the surface, it had everything I would want in a spy movie. A great premise, a little romance, and an A+ cast. However, even with all those ingredients, this movie didn’t deliver. The story is described as a spy thriller, but it plays more as a romance movie than anything else. The movie’s two leads, Pine and Newton, had decent chemistry, but their relationship lacked romantic tension. This may be because there were no scenes highlighting how these two characters became an item or scenes featuring the two-working side by side together in the field. With no kind of development, their relationship wasn’t exactly believable. Steinhauer, who wrote the screenplay, did not do enough to display to the audience why these two cared so much about each other. He also could not find the proper balance between the romance and the espionage needed to make a great spy movie. The espionage portion of the movie was merely a starting off point for the romance story and then fell flat from there.

Pine and Newton are joined in the movie by Fishburne and Pryce, and these are the two characters I wish we had learned more about. Both characters were intriguing and could have been major players in the spy portion of the story. Instead, it felt like the two were just placed in the movie for no other reason than to just have mundane conversations with our two leads. As stated earlier, the acting in the film was decent, but the story did not lend to their talents at all.

All the Old Knives is a movie I would pass on checking out this weekend. If you are deadest on watching a spy movie this weekend, I would check out something else in the genre. If not, maybe check out the book if you are really interested in knowing what happens.

Grade: C