The Double (2011) Online

Boy, how Richard Gere's career has dived since the days of American Gigolo and Internal Affairs. Yes, occasionally he shows up in a fairly good movie like Hachiko or Unfaithful, but then the superior performances are from other actors (Diane Lane, in that particular case).

This movie really shows the one-dimensional acting Gere does when given a poorly written script. Why he even bothers is mystifying.

Anyway, the movie is about Paul Sheperdson, a retired CIA agent played by Richard Gere, that once hunted down and killed 6 assassins of a group of 7. This was back in the 80s. He never got the last guy, and suddenly chose to retire.

Now 20 years later, he's asked to help track down the one who got away by working with a rookie FBI agent.

**Minor Spoiler alert** Early on, the film dispenses with mystery by revealing that Gere the retired CIA agent really is the escaped assassin himself. With that out of the way, the rest of the movie is about the rookie FBI agent getting closer and closer to finding out who the assassin is, and about Gere the assassin / CIA agent killing a few people here and there. **End Spoiler**

Of course, there is another twist towards the end. I won't say, but it feels contrived. Besides, by the time it comes you've long given up connecting to the characters, so who cares?

Problems: The major problems with this movie are: the script is poor, with gaping holes and poorly developed characters. There is absolutely no chance in hell you will ever care for any of the characters. The story is dull - you've seen it a thousand times before, and sometimes a thousand times better. The ex-spy / assassin theme doesn't resonate with anything on anybody's mind in our world, so nobody cares what happens in the movie at any point.

Direction: The film contains a few flashbacks to the 80s, where we get to see Richard Gere play Paul Sheperdson as a young agent. Except they FORGOT to make him look younger! For sure, Gere the actor looks incredible for his age (63, he's born in 1949) with his gray, full hair. But you wouldn't expect the CIA operative he plays to have the same hair color 20 years ago, would you?

The action sequences are not very exciting. Gere wielding his The acting is very bad. Topher Grace as the (supposedly brilliant) rookie FBI Agent is seriously miscast, while Richard Gere needs to ditch the action genre. Martin Sheen is there, and does an OK job I guess. No other characters will make any impression on you.

Conclusion: It doesn't suck completely, it just isn't worth your while and there are more exciting things to do.

Richard Gere plays "Paul Shepherdson," a decorated CIA veteran who is just pulled out of retirement & teamed up with new & upcoming agent, Ben Geary (Topher Grace) to find the truth about the Russian assassin "Cassius," who Shepherdson claimed to have killed years before. The intel says he lives & is now in the US. The movie follows the duo as the real truth of the matter comes closer, and things are not always as they seem, not like we haven't heard that line before in countless intelligence genre films. It just failed to deliver surprise as very early we are bombarded with hints as to who's who. All the elements where there, great actors & production but the script wasn't as brilliant as it could have been. They could have played out an extraordinary cat & mouse game if things in the script were changed. I did enjoy watching this and I give a 7/10 generously as I'm a fan of both Grace & Gere.

Also I would recommend a watch at least on the web, cause the ad campaign failed so horribly in marketing the film, maybe they could at least go VOD or STV cause it really deserves more.

"Plot holes The logic by which Agent Geary "proves" that Shepherdson (Richard Gere) is Cassius is flawed. The "proof" is that Gere is in every crime scene photo, thus proving "Cassius comes back to the crime scene". But as Gere was in fact posing as investigating CIA agent, supposedly chasing Cassius, it was not only normal, but essential for him to go to all the crime scenes of Cassius' murders. "

This film is dumb. It has the budget and the actors but it can't make up for the dumb script. The actors performances were disappointing, probably because they couldn't bring themselves to believe and immerse themselves in such a lame plot.

I do enjoy a good action film with a CIA plot, however this film was filled with far too many disappointing performances. Most noticeably was the irritating musical score which I am sure was intended to keep us in suspense. Rather than keep me in suspense, I found the music's constant rise in volume the movies failed attempt to try and keep the audiences' interest from waning. Unfortunately it didn't work.

I am a big fan of Richard Gere's body of work and again I was very disappointed in his performance. "Richard, what were you thinking?"

Now let's talk about the plot. There is a Russian assassin known to the CIA by the name "Cassius". Two CIA agents the retired Paul Shepherdson (Richard Gere) who is un-retired by his former boss Tom Highland, (Martin Sheen), and a rookie CIA agent who has never been in the field Ben Geary (Topher Grace). Cassius is suspected to be dead, but when a U.S. senator is murdered the CIA believes the murder was committed by the phantom Russian assassin Cassius as evidenced by his trademark murder style of slashing the neck.

Ben Geary the rookie CIA agent wrote his thesis on Cassius and explains to his veteran partner Shepherdson that he knows everything there is to know about Cassius and the murder trademark of the senator's slashed throat is the work of Cassius, thus the two agents are assigned to find Cassius and eliminate him. Well.... this sounds like a reasonable plot to work with and one would think the next 90 minutes of action and suspense should be interesting. Unfortunately, not.

I watched the movie with Mrs. Shullivan and we both kept looking at each other and questioning the sequence of events and the plausibility of a veteran CIA agent as Shepherdson (Gere) being such a terrible shot with a gun that he cannot shoot to kill a Russian spy who is only 15 to 20 feet in front of him. Also, for a rookie CIA agent Geary (Topher Grace) who wrote his thesis on the Russian spy Cassius, and is supposedly a genius on Cassius's Modus Operandi why he couldn't spot his new partner Shepherdson, in historical pictures of previous murder scenes in not one, not two, not three. but NUMEROUS murder scenes that the CIA investigated previously but were unsolved? Please!!!!

It is just one of those movies that you expect the story line and actors to be a lot more believable, and the musical score not to be the driver trying to entice a sense of urgency and endangerment.

This is not a movie with any value and I would compare it to the feeling you get with buying a knock off product of a name brand product. You get what you pay for, and I am sure Topher Grace's salary in his next feature film will be commensurate with his (lack of) box office draw for The Double. Save your money folks.

This is, at times, a very confusing movie. It can be forgiven for that - because clearly it's intended to be. The opening scenes of the movie (a group of illegal immigrants apparently attempting to cross into the US from Mexico) are a bit disorienting. They don't seem to fit with what you expect the movie to be about (I even questioned briefly to myself whether the video store had accidentally packed the wrong movie into the case!) Once it gets going, though, it's compelling.

Basically, the story revolves around the search for the person who assassinated a US Senator, with the prime suspect being a Soviet agent who everyone believed had been killed years before. So - yes - it was an interesting way of bringing back a sort of Cold War theme to a movie made more than 20 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union. There are two experts on this Russian agent known as Cassius: CIA agent Shepherdson (Richard Gere) and FBI agent Geary (Topher Grace). They get put together as a team to try to piece the puzzle together. The first twist to the story comes about a half hour through the movie, which leaves you wondering a bit what the point of the movie is, but there's a later twist that was (to me, at least) unexpected. It's pretty well done. Gere and Grace worked pretty well together. I haven't really seen much of Topher Grace since he was the star of "That 70's Show." He's matured a great deal as an actor.

There are some pretty good action scenes in this, but to its credit the movie doesn't go overboard on action. It tends to focus mostly on the relationship between Shepherdson and Geary. It's a pretty decent effort. (7/10)

Normally any self respecting actor asks "Why?", not one of the actors in this complete waste of time asked this question once. They took the money and did what they were told, busy trying to look good while at it. This is a perfect example of a production that is about nothing but burning money. Starting with the writing, full of holes and completely unrealistic dialogue, but then good actors could fix that, these guys were in it only to get paid and made no effort whatsoever to raise the value of the production, so many times they just stood there waiting for the "Cut!". No one in this film believes in their character, it's all staged, shallow, unbelievable and stiff. I have many questions after watching this, all of them begin with "Why?" none of them is answered within. It's not enough to put things together by throwing money and names at it, this thing has no vision and doesn't create anything that would resemble a reality to submerse yourself in. Why would you waste your time watching this?

I knew in the first ten minutes that this was a bad movie, bit I tried hard to make it through the end. I was unsuccessful.

It tries to be a cool spy flick, but completely fails on nearly every level. It's just done wrong. The dialog is hackneyed and unrealistic, as are the situations that the characters are put into. I just couldn't suspend my disbelief at any point long enough to get into the story.

Topher Grace is terrible in this. He's simply not believable as an FBI agent, even one that's a snotty know-it-all with a masters degree. Richard Gere and Martin Sheen tried their best to work with the material given, but to no avail.

Shame too, because other than Topher Grace, there's a solid cast and a half-decent premise. It's completely let down however by sub-par writing and consistently poor directorial choices.

Not worth watching, even on Netflix. There are plenty of WAY more interesting films in this genre to waste time with this turkey.

"The Double," is a taut spy-thriller with echoes of the Cold War and "The Day of the Jackal." It's not easy to speak about the plot without pooping the film's surprises but let's just say that everything's different from what it appears and no one is who he seems to be (that's where the film's title comes from). I've read reviews describing the film as confusing and too complicated but in my opinion these comments are ungenerous. "The Double" shows an instantaneous reassessment of what the viewer has seen. In that sense there's a mind-twisting satisfaction in the plot. Gere is great as an entertainingly minimal actor but he's always very convincing. Here he gives weariness to a character who had seen and done too much. "The Double" is one of those dark stories where every turn seems to be a turn for the worse. To sum up it's definitely worth a look.

This isn't your thinking man spy movie. Here it relies more on action and some surprises.And some nice surprises I might add. It has a nice pace and it will entertain more than enough. But it could have been so much better. The most essential thing that "The Double" lacks is proper build up.One of the surprises is revealed much too quickly which for me spoiled lot of the fun too early on.It is fair to say that I did lose a little interest.Although I did suspect that the director must have a good reason to do so if he was that confident. And while there were reasons (plot wise) I still think this reveal was a bad idea.In my opinion one should always try to keep the viewer in suspense until it has served it's purpose. And in this case it only would have benefited the story more if it did.Especially with the average action scenes and lack of characterization and drama. One tip though which is something I have learned to accept. Avoid watching trailers,at least when it comes to movies that rely on suspense and twists.Long gone are the days that a trailer is made to tease and draw you to a movie without revealing anything. I don't know what it is with these people making them. But to spoil a movie before someone has watched is always a bad idea.Honestly sometimes you just have to watch a trailer to know exactly what is going to happen.What would be the point to watch the full movie? So as I understand one twist is revealed in the trailer.Which I luckily did not see. Otherwise I might have not even watched this. Overall this is a decent and entertaining production for which you have to keep expectations low on all levels in order to enjoy it.

A retired CIA operative (Richard Gere) is paired with a young FBI agent (Topher Grace) to unravel the mystery of a senator's murder, with all signs pointing to a Soviet assassin.

On top of the great casting of the leads, you also have Martin Sheen being as dignified as ever and Odette Yustman having a smaller, but important role. All around, the casting was just spot on.

What is great about this film is that the words "action star" rarely come up when talking about Grace or Gere, but both have a high level of anger, energy and violence in this flick. I think it marks a great expansion in both of their ranges.

I saw a review that said the film should allow us to "think" more. And yes, one of the key twists is given away far too early in the film. But I think this exposition is warranted, given the bigger twist that comes up later on... and ultimately leads to a chilling ending if you think about what will happen after the credits roll (I am being vague here to not give anything away). I hear (but do not know) that the first twist was even revealed in the trailer. Okay, that was a little too early.

Ebert is surprisingly nice to this movie compared to the average viewer. He says, "Here is a movie constructed from basic parts at the Used Screenplay Store, with a character plugged in whenever one is required." But then he goes and gives the film two stars out of four -- not a terrible rating. He also says the writers had a better film when they wrote "3:10 to Yuma", and that is certainly true.

I want to give this film a second viewing... I did not understand at first about the Russians in Mexico. And now that I do, I want to see the scene again... hmmm. Looks like the film hooked me.

I was hoping for much more from this film Richard Greer usually plays his parts well but I think he isn't cut out as a grizzled retired CIA agents, he just lacks conviction. His character was straight out of any old movie with the same role except he was very bland and almost one dimensional.

His only saving grace was that he appears to have a soft side for his side kick Geary which later becomes clear the reason why.

The plot lacks pace especially cutting back and forth with flash backs that don't make sense, and to be honest I didn't think added anything to the telling of the story in fact I felt spoilt it to the point I predicted the ending with the exception of one twist.

The ending is surprising but doesn't really explain Geary's theory about Cassius. There are a lot of holes in the plot and the identity of Cassius is revealed early on, the question then is do you carry on to find out why he does what he does, or turn it off. I opted to carry on watching but only halfheartedly.

Shame I like Richard Greer but not convinced he's cut out play this particular role.

for a lower budget, almost straight to DVD movie i can't really complain. I avoid a lot of straight to DVD titles, but with richard and topher on the cover at my local redbox, i thought i would give it a chance. The movie is actually put together pretty well, and looks like it could have been released in theaters fully. about 1/4 through the movie, i couldn't believe they would give the story away, but surprisingly there are a few twists that i completely did not see coming. The cast was pretty good, and the acting was not bad at all. I definitely recommend this movie if you need to kill 90 mins Story - 7.5 Acting -8 look and feel of the movie - 7.5-8 Ending - 7.5-8

Best unintentional comedy of last year goes to this poorly scripted shambles. Richard Gere is brought out of retirement and partnered with Topher Grace to track down a Russian assassin that has been missing for years, but has finally resurfaced. First of all, let's deal with the twist that was given away in the trailer. It is revealed in the first 30 minutes that Gere is in fact the assassin he is hunting. The hilarity comes from none of the other characters realising this. It verged on spoof at times. Gere gets angry and starts shouting as he tries to convince colleagues that Hassan is the assassin. Grace seems unsure, then after Gere is pretty much crossing his fingers and yelling "I hope he falls for this", Grace agrees and then Gere looks relieved. For an undercover assassin he has the worst poker face. I'd love to edit out the reveal, and see how quickly people guess. Alarm bells should be ringing at the stupidity of this script from the very beginning. Gere is at a children's baseball game and starts chatting with a young mother "Which kid is yours?" she asks. "Oh no, I live close by and just come and watch every now and again." Brief pause, how is she going to react? "Oh, that's so sweet." No it isn't. It's creepy and sinister. As it goes on I got many a great chuckle and even considered applying for the FBI or CIA as they'll clearly recruit anyone. The final twist is just pathetic. A final attempt to try and surprise us, but instead it just confuses. It was needless and forced, and the ending had no real resolution especially in terms of morality.

Requires patience, but is worth it. You think you know what will happen, and then you're suspicious of all of the "other" main characters, and then, after great suspense and action, you find out. Excellent if you like mystery and suspense, with action sequences a bonus.

The plot of this movie has room for a decent spy thriller, but it fell short. Uninspired acting and a script not worthy of inspiration leaves the characters flat and unrelatable. The two leads spend very little time actually on screen together, and there is no chemistry when they are. At one point, some information comes to light which seems like a game changer, but it is quickly swept under the rug and ignored, as it has no impact on what happens next, while it could have been actually interesting. In the end, you won't care about the characters at all, and so anything that happens won't interest you. I advise you to look elsewhere and to not come back.

I am a Richard Gere fan and have high hopes for Topher Grace, but this film did neither of them justice.

The movie has a promising premise. Cold War Soviet spy on the move. Soon, however the staged scenarios and attempts at surprise fall so short they become comical. I had to laugh when Martin Sheen is buying coffee and is standing conspicuously to the left as if, yes, Richard Gere pops in the space on the right to a "startled" Martin Sheen. The whole movie was done the same way. You knew what was going to happen before it happened.

Without continuing to bash this film, I would ask Hollywood to give their viewers a little credit. Make the plot and sequence surprises actual surprises, not ones that are contrived and unbelievable. Remember, we want to believe.

It amazes me how valueless films like this get made. There is virtually no aspect of this movie that is not an overused, tired and hackneyed device that we have all seen a gazillion times. Grizzled vet reluctantly pulled out of retirement teamed with eager but green rookie who thinks he knows it all with initially awkward relationship giving way to appreciation and respect. Long thought dead nemesis with signature kill pattern again on the loose. Even small stuff like authorities at crime scene arguing over jurisdiction until heavy appear and flashes badge. Even little pieces of dialogue, short come-backs, etc., are pulled from the bin, cookie cutter, etc. Don't even bother.

Well, at least The Double fulfilled my need for wanting to watch an international spy/suspense/thriller last night. Too bad it wasn't really that good of a one.

It's one of those movies that screams: "Wait for it…wait for it…waaaaait….BAM! There's our surprise! Not satisfied? We're gonna throw in another shocker…wait for it…" Mercifully, the most obvious revelation is revealed 20 minutes in, because nothing tips my chair like knowing what's coming in the first five minutes (like this movie) and having to wade through almost two hours of "twists/turns" to get to what we knew all along.

Believe it or not, this wasn't a direct to video release. Someone had enough faith in this film to release it to theatres in 2011, albeit limited, and someone further believed in it enough to market it hard on DVD. But, here's the problem: it's trying hard to be similar to Red Dragon. Only, that's not a movie I would like to imitate.

Let's see if the synopsis sounds vaguely familiar: Yet another EX-CIA agent – why is it always "This is my last job before retirement" or "You know I quit, I can't go back, I won't go back, well okay, here I come"? – is called back into the line of duty once a Senator gets killed with the same MO as a previously-thought-dead Soviet Super-Assassin Spy. Yet another pairing has to take place between that Ex-CIA agent and a yet another younger book-smart unwanted partner. Together, the yet another good-cop/bad-cop pair track the assassin known as "Cassius" when he could be closer than they think.

In all seriousness, it wasn't a downright terrible film. It was well shot, the acting wasn't great, but not atrocious and if you leave your brain at the door and forget about the 30+ movies this mimics, you might have a good time.

I went to see The Double with neutral expectations, but it ended up being a pleasant surprise, because of a solid screenplay in the purest tradition of B cinema, two competent performances and good direction.

The veteran who returns for one last job; the rookie who has to get trained in the "battlefield"; the expert murderer with a pending case...it's obvious that The Double was prepared with the same ingredients of an uncountable number of thrillers; but the astute screenplay incorporates some unexpected twists which kept me in suspense till the end. There's one big twist during the first half hour of The Double, and for a moment, I was worried about the fact that co-screenwriters Michael Brandt (who was also the director) and Derek Haas had ruined the film; but it fortunately happened the opposite, because the early revelation of a certain detail changes the dynamic between the main characters, and puts their motivations in doubt until the end itself, when we have new surprises which perfectly tie the loose ends, and we realize that everything was precisely planned from the beginning.

Richard Gere and Topher Grace bring credible and enthusiastic performances in the leading roles. On the opposite, Martin Sheen seems to have participated only in order to charge a paycheck. Another negative element is that some details in the "Cassius" investigation feel a bit forced. Nevertheless, I can recommend The Double as an exciting and very entertaining film with various positive elements.

we cannot call a thriller as thriller if all the ingredients of the recipe is exposed right in front of your eyes within 5 minutes running. we cannot call a mystery a mystery if the 'whodoneit' is already so obviously shown from the early stage of a story. using often with the flash-backs to explain what happened years ago also won't help a transition of the plot but only shows the limit of a screenplay and its director. one of the worse thing is a so-called movie thriller is implementing the constant non-stop sound track to support the tension of a suppose-to-be-suspenseful movie, by the annoying endless non-stop drumming dong, dong, dong to set the tempo but in the meantime blocking the clearance of all the dialog is another stupid arrangement of this movie. no matter how you tried your best to make sudden twists later in the plot or the scenario, it's just rubbish and crap, only horror movies or brain-dead farces that claimed themselves as 'COMEDY' do not need logic. i've also found out that recently more and more lousy screenplays been proved into production (not just Hollywood) and this one in particular, is a living proof of what i'm saying here. i just don't understand why nobody in the production of this movie, including the director never pointed out the absolutely unacceptable flaws and holes of this shitty screenplay. richard gere should have used his influence to point out to the production people what would not work, what should be more logic of this screenplay, otherwise, the movie would also damage his own image. if i were him, i would not and could not perform well if the screenplay so obviously stupidly ridiculous. but maybe it explains why he could be an actor and i not.

this is a horrible movie. avoid as best as you can.

'nuff said in my summary! Although,I'd like to add something:Richard Gere-what were you thinking when you signed on to do this mess of a movie??? Stupid movie for people who were born yesterday and had never seen a Hollywood movie!I felt as if I were retarded watching this awful s...of a movie! Conclusion: please,don't waste your time and intelligence by watching this...1 hour and 38 minutes it can seem as 20 hours and 30 f... minutes!

I always had an admiration for Gere as an actor...just last night I saw 'Primal Fear' and was drawn into his performance...only to watch this mess the next day. I actually had confidence in this famous name,knowing about his past work.

When I first read the review on here i almost didn't bother watching the film also. but i was bored an thought what the hell

Was a really good film and kept me interested the whole way through right to the end with the twists in it.

I ain't gonna spoil it for anyone but all i will say is its a decent film and well worth the time i spent watching it, had a little of everything.

I'd say it was more a thriller with action in it ? but also makes you think and for once I didn't predict the outcome at the end fully, makes a change.

Loved it and deserved better previous reviews. I would recommend it myself.

When a senator is murdered, CIA agent Paul Shepherdson (Richard Gere) that is near retirement is summoned by his chief Tom Highland (Martin Sheen) to investigate the murder of a senator. Paul has joined CIA twenty-five years ago and has been unsuccessfully hunting down the Russian assassin Cassius 7. The senator was murdered with the same "modus operandi" of Cassius 7, but Paul insists that it is a copycat.

They go to a meeting with the FBI and Paul is introduced to the young FBI agent Ben (Topher Grace), who has prepared his Harvard thesis based on the killer. Tom asks the reluctant Paul to work with Ben to find Cassius 7 whereabouts. But the problem is Paul Shepherdson is Cassius 7 and Ben knows too much about the assassin.

"The Double" is old-fashioned thriller about Russian assassins that are unexpectedly awakened to accomplish an assignment. The idea is not original and unfortunately the identity of Cassius 7 is known since the beginning. However, the plot keeps the tension along the story until the last surprising plot point. The viewer has to pay attention to several details that are not easy to be followed. With similar theme, 1962 "The Manchurian Candidate" and "No Way Out" are better and better. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Codinome Cassius 7" ("Codiname Cassius 7")

Note: On 22 October 2016, I saw this film again.

I had some expectations but this far fetched thriller was boring. After thirty minutes my wife and me felt asleep. Why? The story is too slow paced and there is no speed or suspense. Some shooting and bullets waked me up. The Russian villain has been played very disappointing. Even Richard Gere couldn't save this disaster. I don't understand why he accepted this role in this bad screenplay. It remembers a film from the late 70ies or 80ies. The sceneries and places looked very poor and the picture was very cheap. Yes, it's a low budget but also a low rating wanna be thriller. Sorry, but don't believe all these positive reviews here, you won't regret. See instead the much more better and brutal THE FLOCK with Richard Gere. Double two and you get the final vote of 4 out 10.

I watched this with a family member the other night and she was bored after 10 minutes. I figured that the pace would pick up and with the screenwriters' previous credits, had much higher hopes for it, but come the 30 minute mark, I was incredibly bored too.

Making a decent spy film, to me, seems to hinge on one - or a combination of - three things: great action, intelligent suspense and/or dramatic characters. The problem with this film is that the characters (or actors - take your pick) didn't bring us into their world and the action was clearly held back to play on the suspense, which, unfortunately, was pretty much void.

We're expected to believe that with all of today's crime scene nous and technology, nobody can tell the difference between a wire and knife cut, as the film's resident expert, Topher Grace, tells of how the killer doesn't cut from left-to-right, but upwards, and the reveal of Gere's real identity so early in seemed to make watching the remainder kind of pointless.

Maybe I missed something? Perhaps this big reveal was part of a mega twist near the end? Unfortunately, with 6 film channels to choose from, something this dull won't see two people in a room together reach the conclusion, and where I may go back later (having recorded it) to see if the film got any better, flicking over to the news on another station did prove vastly superior viewing.