Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.5

MI-5 Blu-ray Movie Review

Harry's game.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 6, 2016

If there’s one thing that recent films like Sicario and now MI-5 should have taught security and/or police types, it’s don’t transport prisoners if there’s even a miniscule threat of a traffic jam. In a scene that plays surprisingly similarly to one in the Denis Villeneuve drug trafficking drama, MI-5 posits a team attempting to get a high value prisoner from Point A to Point B, only to find their plans stymied by that most mundane of contemporary urban problems, traffic that is at a dead stop. In a hyperbolic and frankly maddeningly contrived and therefore frustrating sequence, the security team quickly find themselves overrun by operatives on motorcycles, bad guys who pretty easily are able to free the supposed captive, a nefarious terrorist named Adem Qasim (Elyes Gabel). This escape then sends a somewhat convoluted series of plot machinations into motion. MI-5 is a feature film based on the long running series Spooks (which airs as MI- 5 in some markets), and in fact the film itself was released under the title Spooks: The Greater Good, a title which perhaps better represents the supposedly salient emotional content of the film, whereby long suffering Harry Pearce (Peter Firth) finds his history in the intelligence service colored by the many hard choices he’s had to make, some of which wallowed in moral shades of gray.

After the loss of Qasim, Pearce is shown supposedly contemplating suicide on a bridge abutment, staring disconsolately at the roiling water of the Thames River beneath him. When a former acolyte of Pearce named Will Holloway (Kit Harrington, Game of Thrones: Seasons 1-4 Collection Bundle ) is picked up in Moscow and transported back to MI-5 headquarters to examine some “before” and “after” photos supposedly catching Pearce’s leap courtesy of London’s ubiquitous CCTV cameras, Holloway quickly points out what he is certain the MI-5 already knows: the “after” photo is obviously doctored, and therefore the assumption must be made that Pearce is still among the living (the fact that Firth is first billed in the film might also have served as a salient clue for some discerning viewers).

In a somewhat confusing vignette, Harry is then shown making actual contact with Qasim at an initially undisclosed location, and in a viscerally disturbing scene is forced to make the first of those “shades of gray” decisions that inform the character throughout the film. Not only is Harry obligated to negotiate with Qasim himself, when Harry’s contact to get to Qasim is revealed, a horrifying scene unfolds (which will not be spoiled here). The bottom line is that Harry knows the original operation to transport Qasim must have been undermined from within, and that Qasim can lead him to the MI-5 mole. Harry’s bargaining chip is that he knows where Qasim’s wife is. With a “deal” in place (one which requires that aforementioned interstitial horrifying moment), the first part of MI-5’s interlocking mindgames is set up, allowing for the expected contact between Harry and Will.

Meanwhile those left behind at MI-5 after Pearce’s “departure” enlist Holloway to try to track down Pearce and, assumedly, therefore Qasim as well. When Holloway and Pearce do meet, Pearce lets Holloway know that there’s a “spy” in the spy agency (surprise!), and argues that Holloway should “secretly” help Pearce uncover the truth (while ostensibly still working for the MI-5 power players). This of course plops Holloway directly down in the middle of a rather labyrinthine conspiracy, one where the viewer is never quite sure who’s telling the truth. The screenplay by Jonathan Brackley and Sam Vincent quite smartly divvies up suspicion between three potential MI-5 traitors, Oliver Mace (Tim McInnerny), Geraldine Maltby (Jennifer Ehle), and Francis Warrender (David Harewood). “Twist guessers” who might initially suspect the friendliest of the trio may have a significant surprise at a key moment in the film when a really unexpected act of violence unfolds.

The probably already overstuffed plot gets more fodder in the wake of this horror, as Holloway and Pearce continue to try to figure out who the mole is while Qasim threatens to go ahead with a large terrorist attack on London, creating two simultaneously unfolding “countdown to disaster” clocks. The film tends to go off on a number of tangents (all admittedly related to the central plot conceits), while offering a decently straightforward narrative that tends to shy away from huge set pieces in favor of building carefully deliberate character beats for Harry.

That said, MI-5 doesn’t hesitate to exploit the breathless, car chase and hand to hand battle milieu that is part and parcel of most spy thrillers. Director Bharat Nalluri paces things well, offering excellent use of lots of great London locations (with occasional detours to other ostensible settings) while propelling the twisting and winding plot forward with consistent momentum. The film may never achieve the emotional resonance of, say, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, but it manages to work up more of a “human interest” angle than these slam, bang adventure outings typically do. While Firth is the emotional anchor of the film, Harrington’s wounded puppy dog demeanor, which I assume may set female hearts aflutter, may augur the establishment of a new franchise.

MI-5 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

MI-5 is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. This is a nicely sharp and extremely well detailed presentation, one which offers abundant fine detail in close-ups. While there are occasional forays into rather aggressive color grading at times (often to the expected blue end of the spectrum), detail levels are generally excellent throughout, even in some of the darkest sequences. A couple of CGI sequences, including a massive explosion, tend to look slightly softer when compared to the bulk of the presentation. Contrast and black levels are both solid throughout, and there are no issues with image instability.

MI-5 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

MI-5's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track is excellent realized, with great panning effects in the opening moments as a helicopter flies over a busy traffic jam in London, and then moving on to a number of other well done, and often quite boisterous, effects, including expected elements like gunfire and explosions. Even some relatively "calm" interior sequences are rife with surround activity documenting the busy sonic environment of MI-5 headquarters. Dialogue is also cleanly presented and is well prioritized on this problem free track.

MI-5 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• The Making of MI-5 (1080p; 11:16) comes with a "helpful" explanatory card letting folks know about the film's original title so that they won't be confused when it's referenced throughout this otherwise standard EPK.


• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 5:33)

MI-5 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

MI-5 is at times unavoidably derivative, but it does manage to craft a rather interesting story involving various competing interests within the intelligence community. Harry Pearce is a great character, and Firth is able to invest him with a dogged, "been there, seen that" ambience that is rumpled and lived in feeling. Harrington makes "the next generation" just as appealing in a different way, and the supporting cast does uniformly excellent work. Well paced if not quite as dependent on huge set pieces as some espionage thrillers tend to be, MI-5 sports generally superior technical merits and comes Recommended.