Top Espionage Movies, Part 5

The Incredibles (2004) / Director: Brad Bird / Stars: Craig T. Nelson, Samuel L. Jackson, Holly Hunter, Jason Lee

This animated film is a work of art for its stylish tribute to 1960s spy flicks and for its witty send-up of the superhero genre, as a family with extraordinary gifts is forced out of hiding to save the world.

Burn After Reading (2008) / Director: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen / Stars: Brad Pitt, Frances McDormand, George Clooney, John Malkovich

Everyone is an idiot in this hilarious send-up of the spy genre as a couple of goofy gym employees try to extort a CIA agent.

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965) / Director: Martin Ritt / Stars: Richard Burton, Oskar Werner, Claire Bloom, Sam Wanamaker

In this adaption of the famous John Le Carre novel, burned-out British agent Alec Leamas (Burton) decides to do another treacherous mission before retiring from the field. Will it be his final one?

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011) / Director: Tomas Alfredson / Stars: Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, Mark Strong

George Smiley (Oldman), the phlegmatic spymaster and novelist Le Carre’s greatest creation, is forced from retirement to find a Soviet mole hiding in the upper reaches of the British secret service, MI6.

Army of Shadows (1969) / Director: Jean-Pierre Melville / Stars: Lino Ventura, Paul Meurisse, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Simone Signoret

Not widely seen, or even known, this French film offers a realistic depiction of the bleak, paranoid, and not always competent world of espionage in occupied France during World War II WII.