The Catcher Was a Spy

6/9/2020

Click here for a video version of this review: https://youtu.be/zt13FFkDD1w Moe Berg was a professional baseball player who played for a number of teams as a backup catcher over his 16 year career. He also had a knack for languages and this led him to working for the Office of Strategic Services during the second world war. One of his missions during the war is the subject of the 2018 movie _The Catcher Was a Spy_. Paul Rudd plays Berg, and as the movie starts, we meet him during his baseball career. With the war unfolding the US begins working on The Manhattan Project and they suspect that there are some scientists in Germany who are also close to completing a nuclear bomb of some sort. Berg is despatched to Switzerland to look into one of the lead scientists and determine how close

7/11/2023

This should have been a better movie. There are complex characters, especially the titular spy that I am interested in learning more about, and an intriguing story set around World War 2. However, it fails to really deliver. The movie opens and closes with blocks of text giving an introduction and conclusion to the story, which sums up the disappointment; this should be part of the movie… The movie is filled with an amazing cast; Paul Rudd, Mark Strong, Sienna Miller, Tom Wilkinson, Hiroyuki Sanada, Paul Giamatti, Guy Pearce and Jeff Daniels, although only a few are used to any potential. Paul Rudd carries the movie, with his portrayal of an intelligent baseball player turned out-of-his-depth spy, but never seems phased by his task. The screenplay tackles interesting ethical dilemmas