John’s Movie Musings

Back when I was working in Corporate America, I’d be forced to take seminars teaching how to protect against corporate espionage.  They were always filled with badly acted short-films where some hottie approches an engineer at a bar and seduces the company secrets from his pants.  It all sounds Bond-ish and awesome, but I’ve never known anyone getting in situations even close to that.  But hey, it makes great movies, right?  Right?

Duplicity looks at the exciting-because-we-tell-you-it-is world of lotions and creams.  You’ve got two CEOs of megacorps who hate each other and will do anything to get the upper hand.  This includes hiring Julia Roberts and Clive Owen as spies.  Perfect.  When those two are working with a bunch of lotion engineers, no one would ever pay any attention to them.  Completely invisible, I tell ya.

So the movie tries to throw a bunch of different twists to get you all confused.  But the reality is that you’re watching two people try and steal a secret formula from one multi-billion dollar CEO to another.  That’s about exciting as making a movie about stealing the Colonel’s secret blend of herbs, spices, and fortnightly craving additives.  Actually, someone needs to make that.

Duplicity has a few high points, but it is pretty much average in every way.

Grade: C