Film Review: Agent Game

STUDIO: Saban/Lionsgate | DIRECTOR: Grant S. Johnson | CAST: Dermot Mulroney, Adan Canto, Katie Cassidy, Annie Ilonzeh, Rhys Coiro, Barkhad Abdi, Jason Isaacs, Mel Gibson
THEATRICAL/DIGITAL/ON DEMAND RELEASE DATE: April 8, 2022
SPECS: R | 90 min. | Horror thriller

RATINGS (out of 5 dishes): Movie 

In the spy suspenser Agent Game, CIA agent Harris (Dermot Mulroney, The Courier) is fingered by his agency for playing a part in killing his superior officer (Jason Isaacs, Skyfire) as well as a detainee (Barkhad Abdi, Captain Phillips). A senior intelligence officer (Mel Gibson, Dragged Across Concrete) unleashes a group of shadowy operatives to track down Harris, who has been made a scapegoat for the incidents.

Dermot Mulroney in Agent Game

The title Agent Game harkens back to Tony Scott’s solid 2001 espionage opus Spy Game, which starred Robert Redford and Brad Pitt. This outing pales in comparison to that one, jumbling a confused plot, annoyingly dark lighting and mostly brief appearances from its advertised stars.

In fact, Gibson, Isaacs and Mulroney take a back seat to the real featured performers here: Adan Canto (The Devil Below), the main person tracking down Mulroney’s renegade agent who has Katie Cassidy (Wolves at the Door) and Rhys Coiro (Hustlers) helping him out. There’s also a double agent (Annie Ilonzeh, Peppermint) in the mix for not-so-good measure.

Agent Game touches on some potentially absorbing  points about international terrorism and the use of mysterious private firms to handle the government’s covert business, but the film doesn’t delve deep enough into the subjects. The potential is here for a passable thriller with some thought-provoking elements to add to the action sequences, but Agent Game ultimately falls short of its potential.