Sometimes, in my quest for action films/thrillers I have not yet seen, I dive deep into the IMDB archives. Which is how I came up with Cypher, a 2002 spy film starring Jeremy Northam and Lucy Liu. Of course with that cast I had to watch it, and it obtained a not-negligible 6.9 rating on IMDB, so I thought, how bad could it be?

Alas…it was awful. I’ll spare you the details, except to say that the entire film was shot in muted sepia tones, as if attempting to give some noir-ish credence to a very silly plot that draws heavily on post-Cold-War paranoia in a story about brainwashing, double agents, and corporate espionage. Morgan Sullivan leads a very dull suburban life until he’s recruited to act as a corporate spy…and then recruited by that company’s competition. Morgan quickly adapts to his new identity, taking up smoking and switching his alcohol to “Scotch…single malt…on the rocks” like any good Bond-pretender. However, not all is as it seems…

And it wasn’t even so bad it’s good, it was just ludicrous and boring, an odd catch-all of Bond films, noir spy conventions, and Walter-Mitty surrealism. However. The cast is stunningly good-looking (I would positively kill to see them paired in some other film), so have some screenshots to please your eyes.

Tagged: Bond, corporate espionage, corporate espionage film, Cypher 2002 film, Cypher film, film, Jeremy Northam, Jeremy Northam Cypher, Jeremy Northam pictures, Lucy Liu, movie review, movies, neo-noir, noir, pretty film is pretty, single malt on the rocks, spy film, thriller