Marathon Man - 3/5

This movie is a capable thriller, but some of the tense scenes have cheap, underwhelming reversals. The setup is great and much of the runtime is devoted to dwelling in the uncertainty of the protagonist’s position. There’s a torture scene that seemed mostly pointless to dwell on in retrospect, and the ending is downright out of character. But for a tense, paranoid conspiracy thriller you could do a lot worse.

Closest comparison: It’s like Enemy of the State by way of Three Days of the Condor.

Setting: Espionage
Plot: Espionage
Tone: Thriller

The Jigsaw Man (1983) - 2/5

This is a cold war thriller whose primary sin is being boring, which is a death knell to the genre. The plot is basically fine, a standard cold war espionage story, and the acting is fine, standard British fare of the era. There isn’t anything special about it, and I may have been unfortunate to recently review Funeral in Berlin but there’s nothing here that Funeral in Berlin didn’t do better.

Closest comparison: It’s like Face/Off made by the BBC.

Setting: Political Thriller
Plot: Political Thriller
Tone: Drama