The Numbers Station (2013)

The Numbers Station: Directed by Kasper Barfoed. With John Cusack, Malin Akerman, Liam Cunningham, Richard Brake. A disgraced black ops agent is dispatched to a remote CIA broadcast station to protect a code operator. Soon, they find themselves in a life-or-death struggle to stop a deadly plot before it’s too late.

“7.6 of 10. Fast moving film that says a lot about intelligence operations and the mental state of the operatives, why they do what they do, and the risks/prices they pay.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIn these, itu0026#39;s easy to get hung up in details of is it real or is this done exactly like that, or is the cryptography accurately handled. For the most part, this successfully portrays the details. Are there actually numbers stations? Thatu0026#39;s not the question to ask. Are there secret communications operations? Yes. Once you get past that, most people already know and accept there are secret killings, so you can simply enjoy the story (except for the product placement, of course).u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAnother problem with these films is they get too caught up in the message, talking, and forget about action, thrills, and the story. This does a surprisingly good job quickly setting up the plot and keeping the pace fast (best of all, without any car chase scenes or similar gimmicks). The soundtrack/score helps too.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSomething like a simplified, but not dumbed down, Bourne Identity film.”