Movie Review: Meteor (1979)

Genre: Disaster Thriller  

Director: Ronald Neame  

Starring: Sean Connery, Natalie Wood, Karl Malden, Henry Fonda, Brian Keith, Martin Landau, Trevor Howard  

Running Time: 107 minutes  

Synopsis: A huge meteor is discovered hurtling towards Earth, with seven days to impact. Head of NASA Harry Sherwood (Karl Malden) recalls retired scientist Dr. Paul Bradley (Sean Connery) to duty, and the US President (Henry Fonda) places Bradley in control of Hercules, a satellite-based nuclear missile system that can target the meteor. Bradley works with his Soviet counterpart Dubov (Brian Keith) to overcome Cold War tensions and add the Soviet Union's equivalent space missiles to the attack on the meteor. Bradley also tests a romance with Dubov's interpreter Tatiana Donskaya (Natalie Wood), while advance fragments of the meteor start to strike Earth.

What Works Well: The special effects (particularly the close-ups of the space-based missile systems) are sometime adequate, and the combined presence of Sean Connery, Karl Malden, Brian Keith, Natalie Wood, and (briefly) Henry Fonda elevates the material. The imperative for the US and the USSR to pause the Cold War and join forces to save Earth is a good subtext.

What Does Not Work As Well: The repetitive scenes of a rock trundling through space are accompanied by a laughable music soundtrack that alternates between bewildering faux triumphalism and befuddling synth horror. Martin Landau as the obstructionist military commander marches into over-the-top territory, and when the special effects are bad, they are really bad: the avalanche in the Alps and the milkshake sewage in New York are particular lowlights. Sean Connery's clumsy attempts to woo Natalie Wood in the midst of an annihilation event are just cringey.

Key Quote:

Bradley (sarcastically trying to impress Tatiana about life in the United States): You'd like it here, you know. We've got everything. Power cuts, strikes, unemployment, race riots, and a terrific crime rate.

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Movie Review: The Russia House (1990)

Genre: Espionage Drama Romance  

Director: Fred Schepisi  

Starring: Sean Connery, Michelle Pfeiffer, Klaus Maria Brandauer, James Fox, Roy Scheider, J.T. Walsh, John Mahoney  

Running Time: 122 minutes  

Synopsis: Go-between widow Katya Orlova (Michelle Pfeiffer) transmits notebooks filled with USSR nuclear weapons secrets to British book publisher "Barley" Scott Blair (Sean Connery), an admirer of Russian culture. As British and American security agencies probe the veracity of the intelligence, Barley suspects the notebooks originated from a literary acquaintance known only as Dante (Klaus Maria Brandauer). MI6 agent Ned (James Fox) presses Barley into service as an amateur spy to connect with Katya and uncover Dante's identity and motives.

What Works Well: Filmed predominantly in Russia, this adaptation of John le Carré's book enjoys lavish institutional scenery and methodical pacing. The absence of overt threats reflects the end of the Cold War era and the impact of glasnost and perestroika. Despite frequent time and location jumps, the plot remains accessible and largely coherent. Michelle Pfeiffer masters a Russian accent, and Sean Connery transitions from inebriated and frumpy to polished and intrepid. Klaus Maria Brandauer adds the soulful notes of a romantic trapped within militarized science.

What Does Not Work As Well: The 28 year difference between Connery and Pfeiffer obliviates any screen chemistry despite the script insisting on a languid romance. An interchangeable army of British and American intelligence officers portrayed by the likes of James Fox, Roy Scheider, J.T. Walsh, and John Mahoney frequently gathers to listen-in on wiretaps and await intelligence updates, but adds precious little in terms of value. The absence of any visible antagonist or potential for jeopardy defangs the drama into grey irrelevance.

Conclusion: Distinguished but stodgy.



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Movie Review: Outland (1981)

Genre: Science Fiction Thriller

Director: Peter Hyams

Starring: Sean Connery, Peter Boyle, Frances Sternhagen, James Sikking

Running Time: 109 minutes

Synopsis: In the future, William O'Niel (Sean Connery) is the new Marshal on Jupiter's moon Io, home to a mining operation managed by Mark Sheppard (Peter Boyle). O'Neil's wife (Kika Markham) is unable to deal with the isolation and leaves him. Along with base doctor Lazarus (Frances Sternhagen), O'Neil investigates an alarming number of miners demonstrating suicidal and irrational behaviour. He uncovers an illegal performance-enhancing drug operation and finds his own life threatened.

What Works Well: The ramshackle industry-in-space aesthetic provides a grounded context and some captivating sets. With Frances Sternhagen contributing acerbic support, Sean Connery is excellent in the few scenes that demand humanity, and the best moments allow reflection on career trajectories crash-landing at remote mining outposts.

What Does Not Work As Well: A startling lack of imagination results in uniforms, haircuts, weapons (shotguns!), and details (corded phones!) that belong in the 1980s rather than the distant future. Without managing to build tension, director Peter Hyams takes his time to establish a High Noon-in-space showdown, and after a mediocre middle act comprehensively botches the climax with non-descript bad guys and lackluster resolutions.

Conclusion: Aims high, but the execution is decidedly underwhelming.

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Movie Review: Medicine Man (1992)

An unconvincing and clunky romance set in the Amazon jungle, Medicine Man plays the most predictable drum beats.

Biochemist Dr. Rae Crane (Lorraine Bracco) journeys deep into the Amazon jungle to check on the progress of eccentric researcher Dr. Robert Campbell (Sean Connery). After the death of his wife, Campbell had pushed his rudimentary research lab into near-inaccessible territory and all but broke off contact with the outside world.

Rae and Robert immediately clash. He does not welcome her intrusion, nor her threats that his funding may be cut off. But he gradually shares his research progress, including the stunning news he may have found a cancer cure using a rare native flower that only grows high up in the Amazon canopy. Rae and Robert start to help each other, including searching for a native healer who may hold the secret to replicating the flower's medicinal properties.

Several structural weaknesses undermine the appeal of Medicine Man. Dangling a possible cure for cancer as a plot point but then consigning it as background to a bland love story is an epic misplacement of priorities. The quarter century age difference between Connery and Bracco makes for a quite awkward attempted romance, and the by-the-Hollywood-numbers evolution of their relationship from resentment to attraction is simply boring. Other than generic members of a native tribe, the film is devoid of any interesting secondary characters, leaving Connery and Bracco to carry the full load.

The unfortunate casting of Lorraine Bracco as Dr. Crane dooms any attempts at serious drama or medicine. Not helped by the script (by Tom Schulman and Sally Robinson) nor by director John McTiernan, Bracco never gets a handle on her character, caught between lost-in-the-jungle damsel in distress helplessness, a broad-as-can-be Bronx accent, and a supposedly stellar academic resume. She is never anything other than a vexatious plot contrivance.

The few positives include a crusty Connery performance in his full-of-confidence pony-tailed element, and stunning Amazonian jungle cinematography courtesy of Donald McAlpine. The scenic beauty is often used as a crutch, McTiernan finding reasons for Crane and Campbell to swing high up between the trees as cover for not much going on at ground level. A late-in-the-day confrontation with a road-building crew underlines the lack of coherent ideas.

Medicine Man tantalizes with the potential for a healing breakthrough, but cannot save itself.



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Movie Review: Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade (1989)

A boisterous adventure, the third episode of Indiana Jones' cinematic exploits regains momentum with non-stop, fun-filled, and over-the-top antics.

In a prologue set in 1912, 13-year-old boy scout Indiana Jones (River Phoenix) tangles with artefact thieves raiding Utah caves in search of the coveted Coronado crucifix. In 1938, Jones (Harrison Ford) is an archeology professor and adventurer, and finally retrieves the cross off Portugal's coast. He places it in the care of his friend and museum curator Marcus Brody (Denholm Elliott). 

Jones and Brody are then hired by tycoon Walter Donovan (Julian Glover) to continue the search for the legendary Holy Grail. Indiana's father Henry (Sean Connery), a lifelong researcher of Grail mythology, was leading Donovan's search team but has now gone missing. At a Venice library, Jones and Brody join forces with Dr. Elsa Schneider (Alison Doody) and uncover a crypt with critical clues. But a secret society wants to prevent anyone from locating the Grail, while evil Nazis are eager to find it as part of their quest for world domination and are holding Henry prisoner at an Austrian castle.

After the dark, lacklustre, cult-obsessed, and physically confined Temple Of Doom, director Steven Spielberg and executive producer George Lucas were on a mission to recapture the wild but light-hearted thrill-a-minute spirit of the original. With the help of an energetic and often witty Jeffrey Boam script, they succeed on all fronts. 

The Last Crusade brings back the signature elements of Indiana Jones' universe. Nazis lusting for power, a strong and smart woman capable of holding her own, a worthy central villain, a fabled treasure justifying all the greed, and dependable sidekicks all make a triumphant return. And this is a geographically expansive globe-trotting adventure bouncing from Venice to Austria to İskenderun, and from sea to sky to desert. 

Conceiving a Sean Connery father role is a masterstroke, finally rounding Indiana into a human with a meaningful family background where previously there was only a hero. The spikey father-son dynamic adds immeasurably to the level of enjoyment, Connery bringing a caustic yet good-natured and care-free attitude to Henry. Interested more in books than family, he was never a good father to Indiana, and the clever tension between them is handled with sly mischievousness. Amidst all the madcap excitement, a savior's clumsy quest to reconnect with his dad adds a welcome reminder about what matters.

The highlights are many, all of them over-long and exhilarating. Young Indiana's escape from the cave thieves encompasses a circus train, and contains foundational introductions to the whip, hat, snakes, and the scar on Harrison Ford's chin. The excursion into the Venetian crypt takes forever, with rats and more rats receiving star billing. Plenty of fun is found at the Austrian castle, particularly a rotating wall with fire on one side and Nazis on the other. A James Bond-style power boat chase is followed by a dogfight in the skies then a desert convoy featuring a 1930s tank and a steep cliff drop-off. And the climax is staged in a temple with numerous puzzles to be solved on the way to locating the Grail.

With never a moment to pause, Indiana Jones And The Lost Crusade delivers on the promise of logic-free, breathlessly manic, funny, and star-powered entertainment. 



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Movie Review: Cuba (1979)

A drama and romance with some revolutionary action, Cuba is overstuffed with mostly unfulfilled potential but boasts exotic settings and quality production values.

It's the late 1950s, and Cuba's leftist revolution is close to achieving victory. Retired British Major Robert Dapes (Sean Connery) arrives to help prop-up the right-wing Batista military dictatorship. Hired by General Bello (Martin Balsam), Dapes quickly realizes the corrupt regime is on its last legs.

Also in Havana is a collection of foreigners hustling for a living in the shadow of revolution. American businessman Gutman (Jack Weston) is looking to invest in local industry, and shady entrepreneur Skinner (Denholm Elliott) runs a private airline supplying weapons to the rebels. Exotic stripper Miss Wonderly (Louisa Moritz) is trying to attract crowds to her tacky show, helped by her hustling agent (Dave King).

Meanwhile Alexandra (Alex) Pulido (Brooke Adams) is running the business empire of her father-in-law Don Jose (Walter Gotell). Her husband Juan (Chris Sarandon) is a useless womanizer carrying on an affair with sultry factory worker Therese (Lonette McKee). Alex and Dapes were lovers at the end of World War Two. Now they reconnect and he romantically pursues her, but a lot has changed over 15 years.

Intended as a simmering multi-character sweaty drama set against a tumultuous backdrop, Cuba carries clear wannabe echoes of Casablanca. Director Richard Lester and writer Charles Wood conjure up all the raw material, with on-location filming in Spain creating an appealing, colourful and earthy aesthetic. Lester is thoughtful about his shot selection, and Cuba is a stylish exercise in capturing the dying days of a decaying regime.

The first freewheeling hour introduces the myriad characters and adds tangy local spice in the form of class, wealth, and urban-rural divides, but the film then stumbles. The direction is set but the specific destination goes missing and momentum is squandered. The attempted romance between Dapes and Alex, rendered clunky thanks to the prominently visible 18 year age difference between Connery and Adams, never ignites but is awkwardly allowed to dominate. Some truly awful and emotionally dissonant dialogue exchanges appear conceived on the spot and the second half sags into an underwritten slog.

Some short and sharp action scenes inject jolts of energy. Dapes and a group of incompetent regime soldiers encounter a revolutionary scouting squad; an attack on a swanky dinner party leaves multiple casualties; and a final climax at a gasoline depot is appropriately noisy if disjointed. Meanwhile, a wayward young assassin selects various targets but almost comically hits everything other than what he aims for.

Sean Connery appears unsure how much to import from his Bond persona and Brooke Adams suffers from Lester's penchant to linger on her face for just too long at every opportunity. Cuba works best if the derivative plot and characters are largely ignored, and the collection of vignettes are admired for their soulful recreation of life during a decadent society's death.

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Movie Review: The Wind And the Lion (1975)

A historical adventure, The Wind And The Lion is inspired by real events but never threatens to inspire.

It's 1904 in Tangier, North Africa. Berber raiders under the command of charismatic leader Raisuli (Sean Connery) invade the city, kill a few people and kidnap American Eden Pedecaris (Candice Bergen) and her two children, triggering an international incident. Tangier is a hot bed of intrigue as the European powers of the day vie for influence over inept local rulers. Raisuli's objective is to expose the Sultan as a corrupt puppet and trigger a widescale rebellion.

In the United States, President Theodore Roosevelt (Brian Keith) is running for re-election and with the help of his Secretary of State John Hay (John Huston) goes looking for an issue to galvanize the electorate. He talks tough against Raisuli, and sends in battleships and troops to sort out the situation. In the meantime Raisuli ensures no harm comes to Eden, who starts to grow fond of her captor.

Written and directed by John Milius, The Wind And The Lion strives for epic depth but is a mostly shallow and clumsy effort. The film is inspired by real events but swaps Mr. Ion Perdicaris with Mrs. Eden Pedecaris and adds plenty of artistic license and dollops of imaginative action and violence. The whiff of budget and talent limitations is evidenced in an underpowered cast, unimaginative script, and creaky staging.

Milius does conjure up some impressive desert scenery, and makes good use of sunsets and silhouettes to create the occasional visual highlight. But the modest eye candy is the extent of enjoyment to be found.

Sean Connery insists on a thick Scottish brogue, undermining with finality any inkling his character can be taken seriously. Candice Bergen fares worse, in a plastic performance so devoid of passion and emotion it is doubtful she ever read the script to realize the two kids running around are supposed to be her children.

Between them, Connery and Bergen register zero chemistry, and Milius' amateurish and repetitive prose does not help. Even the ready made platform to meaningfully explore the Stockholm syndrome is ignored.

The scenes with President Roosevelt and his entourage back in the United States talking about bears as representations of the spirit of the United States start as distractions until it becomes clear Milius really wants to tell the barely-there story of the President and the Berber leader, two men who never met. The climax creates villains out of Spaghetti western cast-offs, sweaty and faceless soldiers belonging to other countries, with no explanation as to what all the shooting is about.

The Wind And The Lion is an awkward kitten, stumbling in the breeze.

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Movie Review: Family Business (1989)

A multi-generational crime drama, Family Business is a dour exercise in stretching a simple idea well past its breaking point.

In New York City, Vito McMullen (Dustin Hoffman) works in the meat distribution industry, having distanced himself from his father Jessie (Sean Connery), a life-long thief. Vito has worked hard to ensure that his son Adam (Matthew Broderick), now in his early twenties, gets a good education and never comes close to a life of crime.

But Adam is restless for adventure. He drops out of university and hatches a plan to break into a high-tech company headquarters to steal DNA research vials and log books worth $1 million. Jessie immediately and enthusiastically agrees to help. Vito is unable to talk his son and his father out of the heist, and so joins to try and protect Adam. The theft at first appears to go well, but then things go very wrong.

Directed by Sidney Lumet, Family Business never gets off the ground. The stellar cast features three actors at the top of their fame, Connery enjoying a late career resurrection, Hoffman at his mid-age peak and Broderick the hot young star. The actors do their best but are simply too powerful for the underdeveloped material, and the flimsy Vincent Patrick story sinks under the weight of the talent pushing against it.

Although the stars ensure a base level of watchability and the germs of some good ideas spark the occasional moment of interest, the film is overall slow and boring, the tension and drama never convince, and given the talent involved, the key characters remain surprisingly shallow. The backstories of the three men are sketched in the broadest of strokes through juvenile tales. The supporting characters, in the form of wives and mothers, are next to non-existent.

With the absence of substance embarrassingly obvious, the film is filled with bloat. There are two prolonged family dinner scenes celebrating Jewish heritage, two wakes celebrating the Irish spirit complete with two renditions of Oh Danny Boy, both equally unnecessary. Fathers and sons regularly slap or punch each other between hopelessly trite arguments about parenting methods, what really matters in life, and sons expressing disappointment in their fathers.

Lumet reaches for a theme about the sacrifice of the father not being appreciated by the son. It was the choice of Vito to try and build a respectable life for Adam and he should have known better: Jessie's fun-loving, grab-life-by-the-balls approach was always the way to go. And that's about as far as the message of the film extends, one hour and fifty minutes of tiresome fatherhood pop psychology punctuated by the single action sequence.

An unfortunate waste of talent on both sides of the camera, Family Business is a bust.

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Movie Review: The Man Who Would Be King (1975)

An epic adventure story, The Man Who Would Be King is a romp through British-ruled southeastern Asia with two rogues seeking to define their destiny.

It's 1885, and a bedraggled Peachy Carnehan (Michael Caine) visits the office of author and newspaperman Rudyard Kipling (Christopher Plummer) in India. The rest of the story is told in one long flashback. Peachy, a retired infantryman in the British army, met Kipling three years prior, with Peachy stealing Kipling's pocket watch but conspiring to return it when he realized that Kipling was a fellow Freemason. With Kipling's help Peachy reconnects with his old army buddy Daniel Dravot (Sean Connery), and together the two former soldiers set off on an unlikely adventure to the nether reaches of the British Empire.

Packing a cache of rifles, the pair travel to the remote and backward territory of Kafiristan (in modern day Afghanistan) where foreigners are not welcome but where Peachy and Daniel anyway hope to become kings. They traverse harsh terrain, survive unforgiving weather, and after connecting with fellow ex-soldier Billy Fish (Saeed Jaffrey), use their military training to help a local warlord. Soon the two Brits are leading a large army across the land with a combination of strategy, audacity and hogwash. When news of their military exploits spreads, the locals start to believe that Daniel is a long-promised returning conqueror, and the seemingly ridiculous goal of attaining a kingdom suddenly seems real.

Perhaps the last truly great film from legendary director John Huston, The Man Who Would Be King winds back the years and delivers an old-fashioned adventure story for the ages. Based on a Kipling novella, the movie is an engrossing two hours driven by two memorable characters with nothing to lose, who set their sights on a remarkable prize and find a way to actually get within reach of the impossible.

The film is a visual feast courtesy of magnificent Oswald Morris cinematography and an evocative recreation of India and neighbouring untamed territories of the late 1800s. The prevailing aesthetics are the yellows and browns of a hot dusty desert protected by impossible mountain passes, where civilization lags, locals wage wars for centuries and outsiders are summarily dealt with.

But at the heart of the grand spectacle is a story of two men, and the film works because despite the bazaars, the battles and the bastions, Huston (who co-wrote the script with Gladys Hill) keeps the focus on his two main characters. Peachy and Daniel carry the British Imperial attitude of subjugate with charm or die trying, married to an indefatigable belief in their ability to get out of trouble by fair means or foul as needed. They are rascals on the loose with unexplored terrain as their playground, and their dream big philosophy is infectious.

The story explores themes of absolute power corrupting absolutely, and hubris as a force even more powerful than adventurism. When Peachy and Daniel do come face to face with their destiny, it is more intoxicating than they ever believed possible. What could have been a get-rich-quick opportunity instead becomes the fulfillment of ancient mythology in a world awaiting saviors. Two quick thinking British soldiers can get out of many jams, but resisting the intoxicating sensation of being worshipped is an altogether different challenge.

Michael Caine and Sean Connery make for an appealing pair, Caine as Peachy more scrappy and cerebral, Connery as Daniel perhaps not as sharp but capable of conveying impressive gravitas. The two carry the movie with ease, sharing exploits and prodding each other on when the going gets tough, which is often.

The Man Who Would Be King is filmmaking at its most expansive, an unconstrained scope unfolding in parallel with the unlimited ambition of two tenacious adventurers.

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Movie Review: The Hunt For Red October (1990)

A Cold War submarine thriller, The Hunt For Red October is a classy action movie centred on a Soviet commander gone rogue and the consequent high stakes cat-and-mouse game between the superpowers in the depths of the Atlantic Ocean.

The Soviet navy launches its latest submarine, a gigantic typhoon-class vessel named Red October capable of running in near total silence. At the helm of the maiden voyage is Captain Marko Ramius (Sean Connery), the most respected Soviet naval commander, with Captain Vasily Borodin (Sam Neill) as his second in command. American CIA analyst Jack Ryan (Alec Baldwin) is alerted to the Red October's launch, and CIA Vice Admiral James Greer (James Earl Jones) and National Security Adviser Jeffrey Pelt (Richard Jordan) take a great interest when the entire Soviet fleet also sets sail, potentially in preparation for a war-like mission.

It is then apparent that Captain Ramius has gone rogue, and is charting his own course across the Atlantic to execute an authorized mission. Ryan is convinced that Ramius and his officers want to defect, and Pelt gives him three days to try and make contact with Red October and confirm its intention. The USS Dallas submarine commanded by Commander Bart Mancuso (Scott Glenn) is closest to Red October, and attempts to keep track of the Soviet sub. With both the Soviet and American fleets giving chase while guarding against each other, Ryan has to take risks and anticipate Ramius' next move to avoid a potential international catastrophe.

An adaptation of the Tom Clancy novel directed by John McTiernan, The Hunt For Red October is an effective underwater chase movie, filled with sleek and stealthy submarine machinery. McTiernan generates and maintains a pleasing level of tension by exploiting the tilt in global security that can be caused by a technical advantage, and provides the necessary pauses to explain the military and submarine jargon as necessary. Without any of it being profound, the film contains a good balance between character interaction, moments of sharp action, and underwater scenery (courtesy of cinematographer Jan de Bont) of subs manoeuvring around obstacles and hunting each other down.

A good half of the film takes place on-board the various submarines, and McTiernan avoids any traps of claustrophobia. The subs are portrayed as places of work, decision-making and action, and in which the trained men of both superpowers function efficiently and without complaint. But regardless of the film's fast pace, at 135 minutes The Hunt For Red October does sail on for longer than needed. This is a story that could have been told in two hours, and some of the padding is less than useless. Ryan, for example, witnesses a completely inconsequential crash on board an aircraft carrier that adds nothing to the film.

The plot is engaging without being too believable. The lure of a carefully planned defection is persuasive as Ramius' hidden agenda, and Sean Connery gives the role enough gravitas to propel the story forward. Nevertheless, there are quite a few holes in the logic of the script, and often the narrative drops down to a juvenile level where supposedly responsible adults play games, take risks, and trust hunches with ridiculously expensive machinery and nuclear weaponry at stake. The climax is particularly pretentious, with an on-board gunfight and a submarine torpedo duel proceeding simultaneously, finally registering as preposterous on the silly scale.

Alec Baldwin, Scott Glenn, Sam Neill and James Earl Jones provide strong support to Connery without ever fully rising above the fairly stock behaviour of tense military men. And in accordance with a super macho world, the film is completely devoid of any women characters of consequence.

Driven by near-viable technology and the deep-seated suspicions that fuelled a decades-long cold conflict, The Hunt For Red October is a worthwhile expedition.

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Movie Review: Rising Sun (1993)

A disorganized murder thriller, Rising Sun attempts to inject cross-cultural corporate commentary into the story of a sordid death that occurs during a boardroom sex session. The result is a high quality but rather convoluted mess.

In Los Angeles, a large Japanese corporation is negotiating the takeover of a US tech company. The deal has political ramifications and Senator John Morton (Ray Wise) comes out strongly in opposition. During a lavish corporate reception hosted by the Japanese, escort girl Cheryl Austin (Tatjana Patitz) ends us dead after having kinky sex with an unidentified man on the boardroom table. Cheryl was the girlfriend-of-sorts of Eddie Sakamura (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa), the son of one of the senior Japanese tycoons involved in the negotiations.

Lieutenant Web Smith (Wesley Snipes), a police liaison for foreign dignitaries, and Captain John Connor (Sean Connery), an expert in Japanese culture, are called in to help Lieutenant Tom Graham (Harvey Keitel) investigate the death. Web and John soon obtain a surveillance disc recording of Cheryl's death, and the visual evidence appears to implicate Eddie. But John senses a greater conspiracy, and recruits tech geek Jingo Asakuma (Tia Carrere) to prove that the disc has been altered. Eddie anyway finds himself on the run, while John and Web uncover a dense plot involving an internal power struggle and an attempt to influence the high-stakes negotiations.

An adaptation of the Michael Crichton book directed by Philip Kaufman, Rising Sun looks good and features watchable stars delivering smooth performances. Sean Connery as a detective who marches to his own drum with a deep appreciation for all things Japanese immediately elevates the proceedings, while Wesley Snipes, Harvey Keitel and Tia Carrere are never less than dependable. Plenty of rain and a glistening nighttime Los Angeles add an attractive aesthetic.

But as a plot, the film unravel rather quickly, and thanks to a flabby script it loses focus with remarkable ease. A lot of what may have worked as a book does not connect on the screen, and Kaufman is never able to find a human hook to any of the sprawling plot elements. Overlong at 125 minutes, the film starts turning in circles and as more of the conspiracy is revealed, less of it makes sense. Entire sub-plots are unnecessarily introduced and abandoned, including Steve Buscemi showing up late as a reporter delving into Web's past, and disappearing just as abruptly. By the end, minor characters come to the fore with no explanation, most of the loose threads are left dangling, a few Yakuza types show up to settle scores, and everyone goes back to work.

There are a few most unconvincing attempts to give Web a family life, while very little is known about John Connor. Kaufman inserts plenty of dialogue about the differences between Japanese and US culture, often intercut with scenes of misery on LA streets. While there is thoughtful material about the various forms of racism and observations on east meeting west, it's only the Americans who provide commentary. In a film purportedly about two cultures, all the Japanese remain poorly defined as stock characters.

Part buddy movie, part us-versus-them, part murder mystery laced with titillating sex, part corporate intrigue, and part Yakuza action thriller, Rising Sun throws everything at the well. Some of it sticks, but not much of it rises.

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Movie Review: Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves (1991)

Another retelling of the legend, Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves rides the charisma of star Kevin Costner but is an otherwise overlong and unnecessary rehash of a familiar story.

Robin Of Locksley (Costner) is part of King Richard The Lionheart's latest Crusade. Things are not going well and Robin is imprisoned in Jerusalem. He makes his escape along with a Moor named Azeem (Morgan Freeman). As Robin sails back to England, the evil Sheriff of Nottingham (Alan Rickman) assisted by his cousin Guy of Gisborne (Michael Wincott) and the evil witch Mortianna (Geraldine McEwan) takes advantage of the vacuum created by the King's absence to make a grab for power. Robin's father Lord Locksley (Brian Blessed) refuses to join the Sheriff and is killed.

Robin and Azeem arrive in England to find the Locksley estate destroyed. Robin connects with his childhood friend Marian Dubois (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), a cousin of the King, but she is playing a cagey game of staying on good terms with the Sheriff to protect her estate. The Sheriff identifies Robin as a threat to his plans, prompting Robin and Azeem to escape into Sherwood Forest where they join forces with a band of farmers and misfits hiding from the Sheriff's brutality and high taxes. Robin organizes the group, which includes Little John (Nick Brimble), Will Scarlet (Christian Slater) and eventually Friar Tuck (Mike McShane), into a band of thieves, and they start to gather wealth by hijacking gold shipments while Robin plots a course to stop the Sheriff and avenge his father.

Directed by Kevin Reynolds, Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves is an amiable enough romp through the legend. The film ticks all the boxes from action to romance, but cannot avoid a sense of paint by numbers, an assembly of elements lacking a soul. The settings are grand, the early scenes in Jerusalem are welcome, and when the swords clash and the arrows fly, the battles scenes achieve the requisite level of excitement and drama.

But the film carries an uneven tone, sometimes dipping into slapstick, occasionally trying for commentary about social justice, dabbling with tension among the ranks of the thieves, sprinkling some supernatural dust, deploying the requisite swashbuckling, playing with the theme of avenge thy father, and injecting romance here and there. It sometimes works in individual patches, but Reynolds is never able to create a unifying theme, and the severely bloated running time of 155 minutes does not help.

Star Kevin Costner coasts through the film with a "look how handsome I am!" posture, not really even trying to do much more than wow the camera with star power. Morgan Freeman is much better, and appears to be the only member of the cast with the necessary solemnity matched with wit to rise above the silliness. The bad guys lack venom and undermine the more dramatic aspects of the movie. Alan Rickman is mostly goofy as the Sheriff, and Michael Wincott is wasted as a less than fearsome Guy of Gisborne. Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio tries hard but is never quite able to generate the required passion.

The film bursts into life in the final 30 minutes and offers a rollicking climax, the people rising up to bring down the Sheriff and his cronies as Robin claims his love and saves the day. The pivotal sword battle between Robin and the Sheriff raises an enjoyable bit of sweat. But when the dust settles and Sean Connery strides in for his cameo and Bryan Adams sings his smash hit "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You", it becomes apparent that Connery in two minutes is better than Costner in two hours, the song is better than the romance, and this version of Robin Hood recycles that which need not be recycled.

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Movie Review: The Rock (1996)

A simplistic action film, The Rock piles on the thrills in a story of rogue soldiers threatening San Francisco with chemical weapons, but despite a good cast the film lacks soul and sophistication.

Highly respected and battle hardened General Frank Hummel (Ed Harris) is disgruntled at the lack of proper recognition afforded to Marines who die while on covert missions. He recruits a group of soldiers to break into a military facility and steal several rockets equipped with deadly VX gas. Hummel and his men then storm and occupy Alcatraz, formerly a top security federal prison and now a tourist attraction. They hold tourists as hostages, point the rockets at San Francisco, and Hummel demands a $100 million ransom.

As the negotiations bog down, a Navy Seal team is recruited to infiltrate Alcatraz through the sewer system and end the threat. FBI chemical weapons expert Dr. Stanley Goodspeed (Nicolas Cage) is added to the team, as is the mysterious John Mason (Sean Connery), a prisoner in his 60s held by the US government for more than 30 years and the only man to have successfully escaped from Alcatraz. With Commander Anderson (Michael Biehn) in charge the Navy Seals run into a lot of trouble, and it is left up to Goodspeed and Mason to rescue the situation. Goodspeed, who has no combat experience, soon comes to learn that there is a lot more to Mason than initially meets the eye.

Director Michael Bay's second feature film after Bad Boys (1995), The Rock is a routine high-concept action thriller in a big rush to find the next noisy set-piece at the expense of logic, plot, and characters. While the firefights and explosions are handled proficiently and with reasonably good tension, the film is a missed opportunity to do so much more with an excellent cast.

The script takes itself far too seriously and is not up to the task of developing rounded people. Instead Connery, Cage and Harris are reduced to pre-packaged and empty characters. Connery does come off best and tries to hold the film together, and occasionally the glint in his eye is enough to overcome the rather juvenile events unfolding around him. A lame attempt to give Cage a pregnant girlfriend (Vanessa Marcil) to worry about is almost forgotten amidst all the mayhem. Most often The Rock resembles a routine video game adaptation where the heroes have to run, jump, hide, crawl, shoot and overcome ridiculous odds to achieve the next objective, and then repeat.

As far as action thrillers that demand minimal mental engagement go, it's all professionally executed and Bay puts the $75 million budget to good use. The three lead actors are always watchable despite the material, and dutifully execute their assigned roles of hero-gone-rogue (Harris), technician-thrust-into-combat (Cage) and resourceful-prisoner-with-dark-past (Connery). They dodge all the necessary projectiles until the grand finale approaches, complete with an incinerate-everything countdown threat. The Rock is solid entertainment, but as mindlessly dense on the inside as it is spectacular on the surface.

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Movie Review: Never Say Never Again (1983)

An independently produced but big-budget James Bond adventure, Never Say Never Again has Sean Connery returning for the last time to the role of Bond after a 12 year absence. He enjoys poking gentle fun at his image in an otherwise unnecessary remake of Thunderball.

While at a health clinic to get back into shape, Bond (Connery) notices a nervous patient called Jack Petachi (Gavan O'Herlihy), an airforce pilot, undergoing a retinal procedure and being tended to by the luscious Fatima Blush (Barbara Carrera), a SPECTRE agent pretending to be a nurse. Bond survives an assassination attempt, then Petachi uses his fake eye to help SPECTRE steal two nuclear warheads from NATO before being killed by Blush. The plot is the brainchild of Maximillian Largo (Klaus Maria Brandauer), a senior SPECTRE operative who now wants to blackmail the world.

Bond tracks down Largo to a yacht in the Bahamas, where he meets Domino Petachi (Kim Basinger), held by Largo as a combination hostage and lover, and as a lever to control her brother Jack. Bond and Largo duel over an elaborate video game, then Bond attempts to turn Domino into an ally by informing her of her brother's death. After a stop in Nice where Bond tangles with Blush, Bond has to try and rescue Domino while stopping Largo from proceeding with plans to bury one of the warheads below the oilfields of the Middle East.

Co-produced by Kevin McClory as part of his long-running claim to elements of Ian Fleming's Thunderball story, Never Say Never Again enjoys a reasonably brisk opening 45 minutes. Connery quickly gets back into the groove, not shying away from plenty of comments about his age, and criticisms about his abilities from M (Edward Fox). At 53 years old Connery looks passably fit and reasonably believable as a secret agent, and he brings enough intensity and his trademark confidence to generate satisfactory dynamism.

The scenes at the health clinic, the video duel with Largo, and the tango dance with Domino are sharply executed and classy, and carry enough of a dangerous edge to build up adequate momentum. But the film then stalls quite noticeably, with the second half drifting into slow moving non-event. Largo's yacht seems to take forever to reach its final destination. A detour to an encounter with Arab slave traders proves to be a perfunctory excuse to tie a half-dressed Domino to the stake and surround her with medieval tribesmen foaming at the mouth, as a hackneyed set-up for an unconvincing rescue. Rowan Atkinson does not help matters with a comic relief appearance as a Foreign Office representative in the Bahamas, neither do ridiculous remote-controlled live sharks.

A motorcycle chase between Bond and Fatima Blush livens things up, the maniacal assassin proving to be a colourful and demented adversary. Barbara Carrera has plenty of fun in the role, her wild costumes and supreme self-confidence creating a combustible combination. In contrast, Basinger is given next to nothing to do, her early dance with Connery the only highlight as she gradually disappears into a passive non-entity. Her late commitment to avenge her brother's death is unconvincing. Brandauer gets plenty of screentime but is nevertheless one of the less memorable Bond villains, while Max Von Sydow appears briefly as a Blofeld.

Director Irvin Kershner sleepily steers the action towards a limp climax, a shoot-out in an underwater cave where Largo's men are clumsily attempting to place the warhead just so, giving Bond and the CIA's Felix Leiter (Bernie Casey) plenty of time to mount an offensive. Never Say Never Again uncovers just enough of the old Connery magic to justify the effort, but although never is a long time, even he can now say enough is enough.

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Movie Review: The Longest Day (1962)

An epic recreation of the Allied invasion of the Normandy beaches on June 6 1944, The Longest Day is a remarkable achievement. With an emphasis on historical accuracy and storytelling from all vantage points, the film is a worthy salute to one of history's pivotal days.

Allied troops are massed in England, awaiting a break in the weather and orders to launch the largest seaborne invasion in human history. When General Eisenhower is finally advised of a limited break in the stormy weather, he green lights D-Day.

Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin Vandervoort (John Wayne) leads a parachute battalion dropped behind enemy lines to capture the strategic town of Sainte-Mère-Église. Brigadier General Norman Cota (Robert Mitchum) is part of the assault on the heavily defended Omaha beach. Army Rangers are tasked with scaling the imposing cliffs at Pointe du Hoc to silence German artillery guns, while the French Resistance swings into action disrupting rail and communication lines. A British glider unit commanded by Major Howard (Richard Todd) is entrusted with seizing and holding the Pegasus Bridge over the river Orne. French Free Forces attack the town of Ouistreham. Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (Henry Fonda), son of the former President, goes to extraordinary lengths to join the first wave of his men as they land on Utah beach.

The Germans are caught by surprise. With Hitler sleeping and many officers occupied with a war games exercise, the remaining commanders are unsure whether the Normandy action is a distraction from the real assault anticipated at Calais. Panzer tank reinforcements, on standby specifically to repel an Allied invasion, are under Hitler's personal command and therefore not mobilized in time. A grand total of two fighter planes are mustered to strafe the beaches. Other than Omaha, where the defenders put up stout resistance, the initial German defence is fragmented and uncoordinated, allowing the Allies to establish crucial beachheads and push inland.

Producer Darryl F. Zanuck acquired the rights to the 1959 book by Cornelius Ryan and proceeded to assemble a grand, docudrama-style movie to capture the events of the day. From the lowliest foot soldiers to the most senior generals on both sides of the English Channel, The Longest Day enjoys an impressive scope. The English, Americans, Germans, Free French and French Resistance are all given their due, and with the nationals of each country speaking their native language, the invasion unfolds with equal intensity and realism from multiple perspectives. And despite the strategic scope, enough time is invested in humanizing several characters, as a reminder of the real men who fought on that fateful day.

Soldiers itch for the battle to commence then die on the beaches, commanders agonize over battle outcomes, the fog of war obscures the facts, decisions are made based on fragments of information, leaders emerge, and the course of history is forever altered. Throughout, The Longest Day emphasizes the chaos that disrupts the best laid plans. The paratroopers assaulting Sainte-Mère-Église are scattered all over the countryside, resulting in a messy liberation. The Rangers risking everything in the brutal climb under enemy fire at Pointe du Hoc find a nasty surprise at the top. The landing at Omaha beach is a blood bath, the Allied barrage to soften the German defences proving hopelessly ineffective. And the first wave at Utah find themselves on the wrong beach.

And the chaos of indecision and uncertainty also grips the Germans, who seem to reach every wrong conclusion, flummoxed by surprise enemy action at an unexpected location in adverse weather, the Allied war of misinformation also helping to cause confusion in the German ranks.

The first of the movie's three hours is dedicated to battle preparations, introducing the state of readiness, key characters, and the emotions and apprehension on both sides. Once the shooting starts, The Longest Day delivers two hours of gripping war action, switching between the various intense battles while checking in frequently with the strategists on both sides as they try to monitor and control the events of the day.

Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton, and Bernhard Wicki shared directing duties, filming in black and white and capturing several intense battle scenes. The editing maintains coherence despite the frenzy of combat, and Annakin delivers an absolute master stroke in recreating the Ouistreham battle: the sweeping opening aerial shot of the Free French advance, a long, continuous take of the attackers swarming the waterfront under fire and crossing a bridge towards German lines, is a masterpiece of choreography and a profoundly elegant view of the horrors of war.

Almost every role is occupied by a star or a well-known name, or names soon to be well known, the likes of Robert Ryan, Sean Connery, Richard Burton, Robert Wagner, George Segal, Rod Steiger, Gert Frobe, Curd Jurgens and Wolfgang Preiss bringing the battle to life. John Wayne gets the most prominent role, but Robert Mitchum is the most memorable, his leadership and calmness under pressure at Omaha beach finally pulling the soldiers together to break through the German defences.

June 6, 1944 deserved the grandest of film treatments, and The Longest Day is a graciously monumental chronicle of a historical milestone.

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Movie Review: The Anderson Tapes (1971)

More weird than good, The Anderson Tapes mixes under-cooked caper with poorly defined conspiracy and yet the result is oddly pleasing.

Safe cracker John "Duke" Anderson (Sean Connery) is released from prison and immediately makes his way to New York City and into the arms of Ingrid (Dyan Cannon), his former mistress. She now lives in a swanky apartment building, and the gears in Duke's head start to turn: all the units in the relatively quiet building look rich and relatively easy to break into. Oblivious to the watchful lenses of a multitude of surveillance cameras belonging to various government and private agencies scattered throughout the city, Anderson starts assembling a team.

The Kid (Christopher Walken) is an electronics expert who was in prison with Duke; Tommy Haskins (Martin Balsam) is an antique dealer who can help identify and then sell the valuable items in each apartment; and Jimmy (Paul Benjamin) is the driver. Finally, the tottering "Pop" (Stan Gottlieb) will impersonate the doorman to keep watch in the lobby. The plan will be financed by mobster Pat Angelo (Alan King), but he insists on an unexpected twist that causes disarray: tough guy "Socks" Parelli (Val Avery) has to be part of the team.

The Anderson Tapes introduces an undercurrent of unease due to all-pervasive surveillance running amok in modern society, and as Anderson and his crew plan the robbery, their every move is surreptitiously tracked by various unnamed government agencies using audio and film recordings. None of the G-men appear to be talking to each other and the Frank Pierson script makes the point that capturing volumes of information and putting it to good use are two different things. None of the dots are connected, the robbery plan isn't disrupted, and the in-progress police response is triggered by a paraplegic boy using a ham radio connected through Hawaii. 

The central robbery as conceived by Duke Anderson is such a sure-fire disaster that some moments start to unintentionally descend to Pink Panther farcical territory. The robbery unfolds at a pace slow enough to make the tortoise look good, and the bungling burglars wear masks yet call each other by name in front of witnesses while shuttling up and down the building bundled into a slow moving elevator. With half of the New York police force assembled in the street waiting for Anderson and his crew to conclude their plodding work, the robbery becomes a predictably calamitous train-wreck unfolding in slow motion.

With Quincy Jones providing a jazzy music score, director Sidney Lumet makes good use of the acting talent at his disposal. Sean Connery puts in a good shift trying to distance himself from the Bond persona, and notably makes no attempt to hide the thinning hair. Anderson is a jailed criminal when the movie opens and confirms himself as a failed criminal, his unsophisticated methods as far as imaginable from suave assuredness.

In support, Dyan Cannon provides Anderson with a professionally opportunistic bed partner, Christopher Walken makes his studio film debut as the mop-haired electronics expert (and, in a further example of a bad plan going awry, somehow becomes a safe-cracker during the course of the robbery), and Martin Balsam plays the gay antique trader with a barely concealed smile. But the real over-the-top performances come from Val Avery as the always-about-to-boil-over henchman Socks and Ralph Meeker arriving late as puff-chested police Captain Delaney.

By the time Meeker starts issuing bizarre orders to his men and Avery starts punching victims up and down the building in a perfect example of how to cause an unnecessary ruckus at the worst of times, The Anderson Tapes concludes that criminals can and will find ways to shoot themselves in the foot, regardless how many cameras and microphones are recording their every dense move.

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Movie Review: A Bridge Too Far (1977)

A refreshingly accurate World War Two all-star epic, A Bridge Too Far recounts the story of Operation Market Garden. Director Richard Attenborough keeps tight control in recreating a complex military engagement, and brings home the brutality of a massive conflict.

It's September 1944, and the Allies are eager to press home the advantage of the D-Day landings. With the Germans apparently in retreat, British Lieutenant General Browning (Dirk Bogarde) puts into action an ambitious three-pronged paratrooper-led assault, conceived by British Field Marshall Montgomery and approved by Supreme Allied Commander Eisenhower. 35,000 men will be air-dropped at three strategic locations near Eindhoven, Nijmegen and Arnhem, up to 64 miles behind enemy lines, to seize and hold key bridges in the Netherlands.

Meanwhile, armoured divisions of XXX Corps under the leadership of Lieutenant General Horrocks (Edward Fox) will battle northwards up Highway 69, the single road that connects the three cities, hoping to arrive at Arnhem no later than three days after the paratroopers. If successful, the capture of the Arnhem Bridge over the Rhine opens up the German industrial heartland to Allied assault, conceivably ending the war in Europe by Christmas 1944.

Brigadier General Gavin (Ryan O'Neal) leads the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division assault on Nijmegen, while Major General Urquhart (Sean Connery) of the 1st British Airborne Division takes charge of the Arnhem drop, supported by the Polish Independent Parachute Brigade of Major General Sosabowski (Gene Hackman). The US 101st Airborne Division will take control of the Eindhoven bridges, and among its troops are Staff Sergeant Dohun (James Caan) and Colonel Stout (Elliot Gould). Lieutenant Colonel Vandeleur (Michael Caine) of the Irish Guards is tasked with spearheading the charge of XXX Corps up Highway 69.

The operation is only partially successful. Complications due to weather, faulty communications equipment, and poor intelligence about the strength of German forces, added to some questionable tactical decisions, result in slow progress by XXX Corps and leave the 1st British Airborne fragmented and stranded in Arnhem. A small group of Urquhart's men, led by Lieutenant Colonel Frost (Anthony Hopkins), does make it to one side of the Arnhem bridge, but they are stopped by unexpectedly strong German opposition. Both Frost and Urquhart are pinned down and have to defend two separate pockets against ever increasing German strength. Sosabowski's men arrive in Arnhem late and weakened. Meanwhile the Nijmegen Bridge is finally captured four days late after a daring daytime river crossing led by Major Julian Cook (Robert Redford) of the 82nd Airborne.

With the final outcome of the battle revealed in the title, Attenborough's objective in adapting the book by Cornelius Ryan (with a screenplay by William Goldman) is to remain faithful to the key events and the spirit of the operation from all sides, and from this perspective the film is a spectacular success.

With the Germans and Dutch speaking their own language, the sense of authenticity is enhanced, and over the three hours of running time Attenborough is able to keep events on the expansive battlefield comprehensible with remarkable ease. The cameras of cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth zoom in to the front lines for some painfully bloody combat scenes, particularly at Arnhem, where casualties mount, the fighting is at close quarters, entire city blocks are destroyed and scores of men are killed and wounded from both sides. The construction of the Bailey bridge at Son and the heart-stopping under-fire daylight crossing of the Waal river and subsequent battle to capture the Nijmegen Bridge are other front-line highlights.

Attenborough also occasionally pulls back to the strategic level through key conversations to provide an update on the overall progress of the battle from both sides. And when it's time for grand shots to capture the breadth of the largest air drop in history, A Bridge Too Far delivers in breathtaking fashion, scenes of the sky filled with aircraft and parachuting men composed with elegant majesty. The music score by John Addison enhances the drama without being intrusive or unnecessarily jaunty.

With almost every role played by a recognizable face, Sean Connery and Anthony Hopkins emerge as the most memorable soldiers, stoically rallying their lightly-armed paratroopers holed up in Arnhem and holding out under intense fire for nine days instead of the planned-for two or three. Michael Caine brings a laconically realistic attitude to the optimistic timeline afforded to the ground troops. Among the Americans, James Caan and Elliott Gould are effective with more personal stories, while Robert Redford is mis-cast and Ryan O'Neal is less than convincing compared to even his low standards.

Laurence Olivier (as a local doctor) and Liv Ullman (as Kate ter Horst, who converted her house to a field hospital and personally tended to the wounded of the 1st British Airborne) lend their considerable talents to represent the local Dutch side of the story. The Dutch resistance, portrayed by a family observing German troop and armour movements and concentrations and passing on intelligence to the Allies, is also featured. To the detriment of Operation Market Garden, not all of this information was believed.

The Germans are portrayed as neither evil nor foolish, and their mistakes, successes and internal arguments are highlighted, not to the same degree as the Allies but more so than in most World War Two movies. Hardy Kruger, Maximilian Schell, Wolfgang Preiss and Walter Kohut take on the roles of the German leaders, including SS Panzer Commander Bittrich and Field Marshall Model, initially caught flat-footed, but rallying to mount a spirited defence along the entire front.

A Bridge Too Far is war film-making at its best, honest, bleak, human and full of the impressive spectacle of armies on the move and the despairing agony of men being destroyed.

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