Review of The Numbers Station (2013) by Hotelcentral — 02 Feb 2020

Here's the thing: The Num8bers Station isn't a James Bond gimmick-fest. It's not a Wick action-murder fantasy. It's not Tom Cruise flying helicopters into railway tunnels or going for a jog on the 80th floor windows of a skyscraper. It's a spy flick. The plot involves someone, apparently the Russians, using our own intelligence infrastructure against us in an attempt to decapitate the US intelligence services. Because in the world of this film assassinations are commonplace and the ends justify the means, any means, any time, anywhere, and never mind how savage the means might be.

Well, there's at least one guy with a conscience who decides that wholesale slaughter isn't quite what he signed up for.

So the film delivers no glamorous super agents. There are no fist fights or gun battles lasting half an hour. No car chases with people driving off the roofs of buildings. No Cigarette boats jumping from one canal to another. No helicopters flying upside down inside aquariums full of molten lava. No Plenty O'Tooles in bikinis.

It's mostly about this one spook in a bunker. His job: protect the numbers, the codes, the computers, and the woman who runs them. If that's not enough then go look for some guy in a jetsuit. Just follow the trail of centerfold models.