Rewatching this in 2020 (last viewing was probably mid-90s!) I must say I enjoyed this mild mannered "spy games" light comic thriller. Showing its age now with references to Princess Diana and protagonists smoking on an aeroplane. Has shades of better movies like MIDNIGHT RUN and 48 HOURS but with its own unique charm. I like the twisty turny espionage plot (like an early dry run of Jason Bourne films) and the Michael Kamen score sounds very DIE HARD esque, which adds to some of the more tense scenes (especially the spy trade gone wrong scene about halfway through the film). Lots of good strong supporting actors chewing scenery, and I'll watch Hackman in anything! Some of the dialogue makes me laugh too ("He's so rich he could ski uphill"),and I thought the cinematography was good on my modern 60 inch television. It also serves as a great travelogue of Berlin and Paris. Loses a few points for a totally abrupt ending, almost like they ran out of budget! I would have loved another 10-15 minutes to see how the characters ended up, and if they made it to the Seychelles.

It's 1991 in Berlin. The wall has come down, the Cold War ended, and everything is in a state of flux. Two out-dated spies are chased by all sides.

Below average in almost all respects. Exceptions are some nice touristy views of the Berlin underground and the Eiffel Tower. Oh, and Gene Hackman's performance, which isn't among his best but which doesn't reach the lower depths of some of the others. I guess Oleg Rudnik, as the chief Russian heavy is respectable too -- and he LOOKS great. What a face, mournful and lugubrious but distinguished too, except for his cadaverous, mismatched pale yellow teeth. They seem to grow at random angles out of his gums, but he so rarely smiles that it's hard to get a good look at them. Kurtwood Smith does his Kurtwood Smith number capably. And the musical score is disarming, a plucked balalaika backed by a base fiddle.

The story is something about a double-cross by the CIA ("the company") and some remnant of the KGB, during an attempt to deliver Michael Baryshnikov to his homeland. Baryshnikov and Hackman find themselves pursued through Germany and France by both sides. They trade wisecracks, but the wisecracks aren't funny. Well, there was one I enjoyed. The duo approach a cheap-looking car they are considering stealing and Baryshnikov pronounces it "Eastern." "Is it alarmed?", asks Hackman. "Only when you frighten it."

There isn't much action either, for those looking for temerarious propulsion, and what there is of it is sometimes confusing.

The chief problem, I think, is with the disjointed script. It doesn't seem to know for certain where it's going or why. Hackman was in a similar movie -- "Target" -- which was more successful, given the limits of the genre. You may find your attention wandering during this one.

Sam Boyd (Gene Hackman) is a retired CIA agent. He's recalled by Elliot Jaffe (Kurtwood Smith) to do an off-the-books prisoner exchange with the Soviets. He escorts Pyotr Ivanovich Grushenko (Mikhail Baryshnikov) as well as $2 million in exchange for captured U2 pilot Benjamin Sobel in the newly united Berlin. At the meeting, Sam recognizes Sobel as somebody he saw at Dulles Airport. They escape in a shootout. Colonel Pierce Grissom (Terry O'Quinn) tells Jaffe to take them out before they are both exposed for the drug money. Boyd uses his old contacts to stay alive. Grushenko tells him that it was indeed Sobel but he's been turned by the KGB and worked undercover in America as a professor. Grissom and KGB Colonel Grigori Golitsin are still trying to exchange for Sobel. In Paris, Grushenko reconnects with Natasha Grimaud.

This is a familiar and easy role for Hackman. Baryshnikov is doing the acting without the dancing. Writer/director Nicholas Meyer has done plenty of good stuff especially the even numbered Star Treks. This should be a lot better than it actually turns out to be. There is a lack of tension despite the action. There are comedic turns which feel out of place. The main limitation is the plot which tries to be a tightly written spy storycraft. However, it doesn't always makes sense motivationally. It may be wound too tightly. The movie should let the characters be human beings rather than plot devices. Gene keeps this movie working and it functions without excelling.