This isn't your thinking man spy movie. Here it relies more on action and some surprises.And some nice surprises I might add. It has a nice pace and it will entertain more than enough. But it could have been so much better. The most essential thing that "The Double" lacks is proper build up.One of the surprises is revealed much too quickly which for me spoiled lot of the fun too early on.It is fair to say that I did lose a little interest.Although I did suspect that the director must have a good reason to do so if he was that confident. And while there were reasons (plot wise) I still think this reveal was a bad idea.In my opinion one should always try to keep the viewer in suspense until it has served it's purpose. And in this case it only would have benefited the story more if it did.Especially with the average action scenes and lack of characterization and drama. One tip though which is something I have learned to accept. Avoid watching trailers,at least when it comes to movies that rely on suspense and twists.Long gone are the days that a trailer is made to tease and draw you to a movie without revealing anything. I don't know what it is with these people making them. But to spoil a movie before someone has watched is always a bad idea.Honestly sometimes you just have to watch a trailer to know exactly what is going to happen.What would be the point to watch the full movie? So as I understand one twist is revealed in the trailer.Which I luckily did not see. Otherwise I might have not even watched this. Overall this is a decent and entertaining production for which you have to keep expectations low on all levels in order to enjoy it.

The Double, well isn't that a title that speaks volumes has Richard Gere playing a retired CIA operative Sheperdson who killed six of seven Soviet assassins. Now he has been brought back from retirement and teamed up with a rookie agent Geary (Topher Grace) to track down the one who got away, Cassius after he is believed to have killed a US senator.

It turns out that Sheperdson was all along Cassius, a Soviet plant who went rogue. Geary becomes suspicious of Cassius and starts his own parallel investigation but he also turns out to be a sleeper agent.

The film has spirited performances from Gere and Grace and a cameo from Martin Sheen. There are a few nice scenes such as the prison/hospital escape from Stephen Moyer but its a silly and flawed plot. Some of its nonsense and I could never figure why we had the opening scenes of people being smuggled in from Mexico.

If you want to see a superior thriller then go and watch No Way Out from 1987 which is head and shoulders above this.