XoWizIama Excellent adaptation.

Ceticultsot Beautiful, moving film.

Spoonatects Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

Aubrey Hackett While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

samkan I'm too tired to think and be insightful, though I've had the energy to read some of the other reviews and I think most USERS got it right. There's enough nice scenery, things to try and figure out (though not that tough) and story here to keep one mildly entertained. Though if you're like me watching via streaming video and are pulled away at mid-point there is no guarantee the film will be finished later. I would bet the makers knew they were putting together a movie for the sake of making a movie, as opposed to being particularly inspired. WARNING: Kilmer has put on much weight. You'd think the makers would be smart enough to eliminate action, chase scenes, etc. Wrong. Val is seen too often outrunning fit men at a pace assuring last place at the local fundraising 5K race. Hey Val, the ambulance is right behind you and they've already closed the finish line reception.

peterquennell Double Identity is being aired almost daily now on Showtime. I give it ten stars (a first?! no matter) for two things I found rang true.First, the mood (1992) is pretty authentic. I was working a lot at that time in Sofia and Prague and Warsaw and Budapest and Berlin. This was just about the time the Berlin Wall came down and there was this strong feeling of underlying chaos and not really any strong sense of a central government. Many things were fluid and up for grabs. Certainly there were some crooks, but they didn't need to be of the gun-toting variety, look at how some of the oil oligarchs made it big in Russia, they merely had to game the system.It was hard to even phone out of the Hiltons at the time (hotels just like that one existed in every capital, in part to suck in people with dollars) and the phone networks absolutely sucked. I would have given a lot for a cell phone! But the roads were indeed often cobbled and the newer buildings often very ugly and street lighting was spasmodic and in some of the countries the gasoline fumes from the cars smelled like cabbage water. I did always like the food. Their tomatoes and fruit were something to die for.I miss those times because there was a lot of idealism pushing its way through (much of it from out of the universities as in Prague) and appreciated the courage and earnestness and hard work of many good people many of whom had been averaging maybe $100 a month in a high level profession. Someone in the forum here said none of the script should have been in Russian but Russian was the lingua franca for all those countries and Bulgarians used it with great ease and Bulgaria (which got a good deal out of Comecon) never hated the Russians as much as say the Poles and Hungarians.Second, I though the Miko character was pretty authentic. I don't recall a lot of blonds in Sofia but in Warsaw there were and are hundreds if not thousands of blonds not too unlike her. In St Petersburg and Moscow too. They typically have a great deal of confidence and that icy lack of fear and no problems in asserting themselves. A few were high class call girls (openly sitting in every hotel) but many were in the public institutions like schools and hospitals and laboratories and hotel management, teaching and organizing and researching.I liked how Miko spoke and carried herself, and her suits and her blond hair, especially when she had it up. Very good eye contact and control. She came across as about age 30 and I liked her in-command and decisive persona a little more in this movie than her personas in some of the others I have just checked out where she plays younger and more dependent. Typically such women (unless they were call girls) were remote and watchful rather than available and the one really inauthentic moment in the movie for me was when she and the Kilmer character lunged at one another the second time they met, in the hotel.Thanks to the makers of the film for getting these things really right, and thanks to Miko for an elegant portrayal. Her early ballet maybe helped her a lot in poise and control of her movement. If she can find other parts like this one, she should keep going for years. I hope she looks. And to me Kilmer played his character just fine. As far as I could see he was meant to be a somewhat bumbling do-good doctor so that the real action figure played by Miko could keep fishing him out.

marcsangster A disappointing film. I actually enjoyed Val Kilmer's the Saint (pacy action, use of gadgets) however corny it may have been, so I hoped for something similar with this, ie a couple of hours of light relief. Sadly this film is unremarkable, a 'me-too' 80's thriller that covers ground that already so familiar from previous Eastern European / spy / cold war movies. The authentic settings catch your interest at the start but there is nothing in the plot to hold this. The girl is beautiful but the men are all clichés. I considered walking out and going for a pizza, several times, but hope kept me in my seat, mistakenly. At the end I walked out muttering about 2 hours of my life wasted.

torrentstorm Val Kilmer, looking nice and swank, heavier... but I still miss the old days when he played roles like the Saint. Then, we saw a much sharper, expressive, and exciting Kilmer. In this movie, Kilmer plays a doctor who becomes mistaken for a secret agent/diamond dealer, with the usual nefarious consequences. The story does try to keep you interested till the very end, but I felt Kilmer was a bit of a letdown.The movie takes place in Bulgaria, not Chechenya, and from there, moves to Prague. Most of the supporting actors seem to be slavic, but they all acted well. I could find no fault there. The girl, Katrine (Izabella Miko) is beautiful and acted well too.The main plot is not about saving anyone mysterious, nor protecting her from assailants. The girl is a secret double agent, working both for a British group seeking to control a diamond cartel, and the Bulgarian/Czech people who also want control of the same. The girl bumps into Kilmer, while running from being captured taking pictures for the Brits, kiss to make believe it was intentional to shake them off, and that begins a love affair, so strong, both were willing to risk their lives for the other. Whether or not you believe this is highly improbable depends on your definition of the word, but that is the plot, in a nutshell.This is not to say that the movie is just a frivolous jamboree of hastily made-up story lines. No, it was OK, considering the story is nothing new, and similar plots have been used many times before. It would be a mistake to compare this movie with older ones of similar ideas, such as 007 Diamonds Are Forever. Such movies were a tour de force. It would be an injustice to make such comparisons, so the best thing to do, I guess, is just to take this one as a standalone, and judge it by its own merit. Doing so, it is not a shining accomplishment, but neither does it fail miserably.So, bottom line: "will I like it?" If you like this kind of plot, it will keep you interested, but you'll have to follow the story carefully to avoid becoming confused. I know I did until I started doing some facial recognition. Despite the blasé storyline, it's not a bad waste of time.