The Brink of War - Movie Review

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And as always, being a VIP member packed with benefits. Saves you up to 50% off daily. Early access and new monthly product launches. VIP only sales and free membership to the Fit app. Go on, click the link below. Look good, feel comfortable in the people's fabric. And now call your dad, your grandfather, and your uncle who's busy building his bunker. We're going back to the Reagan years. What, did my shirt change? That's weird. So The Brink of War is written and directed by Michael Russell Gunn. It stars Jeff Daniels and Jared Harris as Ronald Reagan and Gorbachev. The year was 1986, the United States and Soviet Union. Relations were, well, a bit tumultuous. We were locked into a cold war. We had 70,000 nuclear weapons aimed at each other. It was looking bleak. The doomsday clock was at five minutes to midnight. Dark times. Meanwhile, the 2020s are like five minutes to midnight. Break out that suit of armor around the world. We have hit peace in our time. So Reagan and Gorbachev meet up in Iceland to talk. Talk about nuclear reduction, human rights, you know, to talk it out. And in a world where I love me a good powder cake, boiler room desk situation of tension, Jeff Daniels and Jared Harris, they absolutely sell this film. To be fair, J.K. Simmons is in the movie also. He clocks in, but he's still J.K. Simmons to me. I feel like J.K. Simmons has it in the contract to be like, you hire me, I'm going to talk like J.K. Simmons. You're going to get a variation of that. He's great, and that's why we love him. But for me, Jared Harris was clocking in as Gorbachev. Jeff Daniels clocking in as Ronald Reagan. I thought, I mean, Jeff Daniels could have just walked in like he was on the set of the newsroom or something. I'd have been like, all right, Jeff Daniels is playing Reagan-ish, I guess. Though in the newsroom, I feel like there was 5% Ronald Reagan in there. Yeah, they're working to sell it. Also, Jared Harris sounds Russian. You know, he talks with a Russian accent in here, as opposed to Chernobyl, where he also played a Russian and did not. I mean, creative choices being creative choices, it's kind of funny to me. Jared Harris has now played two characters that were in the miniseries Chernobyl. But yeah, this was absolutely this kind of movie. It's a little formulaic in that sense. You watch the trailer and you know it's going to be like, they're gaining ground. They lost some ground. Are we gaining ground back? You're going to ride that wave to the end credits. But this movie does a great job at selling that premise, at stripping away the leader of the Soviet Union and the leader of the United States. I mean, those are true facts about the characters. The people they're portraying and the situation they're in. But in reality, there are two guys who do genuinely want what's best for their country. And they are of completely different mindsets, ideologies, belief systems, political structures. So it was cool to be there in the room, seeing these two leaders genuinely want to work together to find some common ground. And yeah, what would this situation be without some passive-aggressive jabs going back and forth? And while it was all going down, passive-aggressive, tension or otherwise, couldn't help but see how divided the world is now by comparison. Republicans and Democrats could never what Reagan and Gorbachev were doing here. Listen to that again, but slower. You think this was starting out small? You think we're working up to it, maybe? You think the pitch for this movie was, let's do a movie about the right and the left finding common ground. Maybe it'll inspire the people. Think maybe we should start out with something smaller? Like Reagan and Gorbachev negotiating nuclear reduction in 1986? I actually could have gone for the entire film taking place in this one room, and the two of them talking. Thing is, it's not. Not always. No, there's some side arcs going on that have to do with Gorbachev's wife, whose name I can't think of, Mrs. Gorbachev. The perception that she's there, Nancy Reagan's not. So Nancy Reagan's at the White House, you know, making her phone calls, doing her thing. The press is talking. It's this whole thing I just didn't need. And I feel like the reason was there's a scene where Gorbachev is talking to his wife in the bedroom, and he's really telling her how he feels about this situation. Because you do that, you confide in your significant other your inner turmoil. Hopefully she doesn't become your ex, because then it just becomes ammo for her. Maybe if these side arcs didn't happen, Gorbachev's wife would have felt out of place in this scene, in this moment. I feel like I would have rolled with it, though. You know, it's balancing scales. I felt like this movie did a really good job at illustrating these two strong personalities trying to get there. And they're basically playing mental craps. They're rolling the dice. The negotiations are happening. It's doubling, doubling, doubling. We're really getting there. But at what point are you going to roll sevens and lose it all? At what point do you stop negotiating and go, It shows how necessary and intensely scary a leap of faith can be. We've all played those civilization games. A leap of faith leads to you reloading a previous save because, oops, you trusted. Why would you do that? But in real life, for peace, they're necessary. And it's scary. No one wants to do it first. You feel like you're in the end scene in Reservoir Dogs, only with nukes. And that right there is good stuff. If you saw this trailer and you were like, Yeah, when the teacher rolls the TV out, pops in this disc, I call that nap time. Then that's going to be the movie for you because it is kind of that. Of the movies you will sleep through in history class, this one's pretty good. Please put that on the DVD case. You know, for me. Of the movies you'll sleep through in history class, this one's not too bad. It's not the best piece of anti-nuclear weapon entertainment out there. That's still Metal Gear Solid, let's all be honest. But I had myself a good time with this one. No alcohol required. I was hoping they'd bring it up. They brought up Ronald Reagan's satellite missile, nuclear missile defense system. You remember what that was called? I'll give you a second. If you don't know, Google it and have yourself a laugh. That's right, Star Wars. It was called Star Wars. Once again, it's another thing in this movie, illustrating how different the times are between then and now. The doomsday clock was at five whole minutes to midnight. Socialists and capitalists could come to the table and respectfully negotiate. And Star Wars was made to eliminate bombs, not create them. A different time indeed. All right, so The Brink of War. Have you seen it? What did you think about it? Or what's your favorite Cold War espionage film? A little different, it's not espionage. Still. We're throwing it back to the cinematic Cold War era. Whatever it is, whatever you think. Comment below, let me know. And as always, if you like what you've seen here and you want to see more, click right here to see more. Who said cloak and dagger? Classic.