Thursday Movie Picks: Secret Agents and Spies

Oh Thursday Movie Picks, how I’ve missed you! I shied away from the whole of October due to being a wimp for horrors, but I’m back now! 

Anyway, if you’re new to this, Thursday Movie Picks is a fantastic series hosted by Wanderer at Wandering Through the Shelves, where each week she picks a theme and we all choose 3 movies that we feel fit. This week’s theme is Secret Agents and Spies.

2015 has been a great year for the topic actually, with the release of Kingsman: The Secret Service, Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation and Spectre, so I’m loving this week! Here are my picks:

Kicking off with something a little silly here, but you can’t deny that Penguins of Madagascar (2014) is a great fit this week. Those 4 loveable penguins are great secret agents themselves, but now that they have a movie of their own, they get to team up with another secret organisation, North Wind, led by a wolf whose name is Classified. Or it’s secret. I’m not sure! Together, they take down the evil Dr Octavius Brine, or, Dave, as he attempts to take over the world. So much more fun than I expected it to be!

One of my ultimate guilty pleasures, my go-to ‘I’m not feeling well’ movie is This Means War (2012). Chris Pine and Tom Hardy play CIA Agents who wind up realising they are both pursuing the same girl. Putting bros before hoes, they agree to let her decide which of them she would rather be with, but that doesn’t stop either of them using their secret agent skills to spy on each other, and ultimately, sabotage each other's’ dates.

Without a doubt, my favourite spy character is Austin Powers (International Man of Mystery, The Spy Who Shagged Me & Goldmember), played by Mike Myers. The first movie was one of the first grown-up comedies I ever watched, and I remember my Dad getting into trouble for letting me watch it when I was 11. Anyone only needs to utter the words ‘number one’ for my Dad and I to respond with ‘Hello Number One, I’m Number Two’! 

Review: Penguins of Madagascar (2014)

You know those movies you watch for the sole reason that one of your favourite actors or actresses is in it? I’m not the only one who does this, right? Jenna I know you do this too! I might have gone a step too far this time. We’re all a little fed up of Madagascar by now, are we not? I don’t think I could take any more of King Julien, and if I hear that song (I don’t even want to name it) one more time I might just cry, but the other night I watched Penguins of Madagascar.

Because Benedict Cumberbatch voices a wolf. Bonus, Benedict Cumberbatch doesn’t know how to say penguins! Sigh. Even I know I did a terrible thing. But do you know what? I really enjoyed it! The film, too. Ha.

I guess you could say that Pengwings (sorry) of Madagascar follows the same principle as Minions. It takes a bunch of cute, loveable, but minor characters from a major movie and gives them the limelight for an hour and a half. The penguins were actually my favourite characters in Madagascar, in my defence. And boy, Madagascar takes some effort to type! I’ll be a pro by the end of this review.

The film itself starts with an origin story of sorts of how Skipper (Tom McGrath), Kowalski (Chris Miller), Rico (Conrad Vernon) and Private (Christopher Knights) joined forces, and rapidly moves into the main storyline of their lifelong, but unbeknown nemesis, Dr. Octavius Brine, AKA Dave (John Malkovich). Dave might just be my favourite villain ever, I was actually crying with laughter at some of his lines. His little octopus henchmen all have very human names, but each time Dave shouts out a command, it ends up being an actual actor or actress’ name. Such as!

“Nicholas, Cage them!”

“Drew! Barry! More power!”

“Hugh! Jack! Man the battlestations!”

You get the gist. They might eek out a cringe from most, but puns and dad jokes are my favourites. I might even have to dedicate a blog post to some lines like these I’ve thought up myself. Can anyone start me off?

The penguins are supported by an organisation known as North Wind (yes, there’s a fart joke in there) which is headed by a wolf known as Classified (Benedict Cumberbatch). That’s not his name apparently, it’s Classified. Team North Wind try to take over the operation with their fancy gadgets, but I’m sure you can guess how that ends.

Honestly, I was really glad I watched this in the end. It was an entertaining hour and half and much better than I thought it would be. Give it a go!