As many others have stated, the writing here is abysmal. The single reason this movie gets a "3" instead of a "1" is this tiny plot point: The Republican Senator who is on the take from the Russians, is murdered in the first five minutes. This foreign graft is prescient of the state of the current Congress so embroiled with Russian intrigue. Hopefully, this will remind American voters that the foxes aren't guarding the henhouse-they're in it.

Requires patience, but is worth it. You think you know what will happen, and then you're suspicious of all of the "other" main characters, and then, after great suspense and action, you find out. Excellent if you like mystery and suspense, with action sequences a bonus.

one illogical twist after another. especially the end : Ben Geary (Topher Grace) has been waiting for 10 years to kill Cassius, so why doesn't he kill him when he's right in front of him and has a gun in his hand to do it? And does he think the Russians will allow him (sleeper / Russian agent) to remain with his American family? no way! And why doesn't he tell Tom Highland (Martin Sheen) the truth? That Gere = Cassius and Bozlovski = also an assassin, just a different one. And that Bozlovski (Tamer Hassan) killed Gere's wife and son in 1988. Apparently, it is easy to lie to the head of CIA as well as FBI. You even get a job proposal! By the way, why would a CIA agent have more field-work than an FBI agent? Usually, it is the other way around. Another illogicality. And another thing : why would an assassin (Richard Gere) live out the rest of his life in the same town/vicinity, where the most CIA and FBI agents are around (headquarters)? Maybe I see more crazy issues than there are, blurred by seeing so many crazy issues.

I watched this with a family member the other night and she was bored after 10 minutes. I figured that the pace would pick up and with the screenwriters' previous credits, had much higher hopes for it, but come the 30 minute mark, I was incredibly bored too.Making a decent spy film, to me, seems to hinge on one - or a combination of - three things: great action, intelligent suspense and/or dramatic characters. The problem with this film is that the characters (or actors - take your pick) didn't bring us into their world and the action was clearly held back to play on the suspense, which, unfortunately, was pretty much void.We're expected to believe that with all of today's crime scene nous and technology, nobody can tell the difference between a wire and knife cut, as the film's resident expert, Topher Grace, tells of how the killer doesn't cut from left-to-right, but upwards, and the reveal of Gere's real identity so early in seemed to make watching the remainder kind of pointless.Maybe I missed something? Perhaps this big reveal was part of a mega twist near the end? Unfortunately, with 6 film channels to choose from, something this dull won't see two people in a room together reach the conclusion, and where I may go back later (having recorded it) to see if the film got any better, flicking over to the news on another station did prove vastly superior viewing.