Bullet To Beijing (5) (1995) -
It's no wonder that people defect so often in these films when they get treated by their bosses as "Harry" did. These special agent characters get roped in for all the dirty work with apparently very little reward, look at poor old Mert Dayyyrman in the 'Bourne' films, they hunted that poor guy down like a dog and even 'James Bond' doesn't get it much better.
Personally, I thought that Mr. Caine, in the lead role, did look a bit out of place here though. A tad passed it to be playing the action hero. It appeared to me a bit like sending 'Alfred' out to do 'Batman's' work. And it was hard to see him as any kind of sex symbol that a woman might throw herself at.
But I can also only assume that Jason Connery had been better as 'Robin Hood?'*, because he was very wooden in this film and not even that good to look at, despite the attempt to prettify him with a bad blonde dye job. He also didn't exactly scream action hero.
Just like in the previous instalment of Harry's adventures, they all seemed to be working in circles - Robbing Pietr to pay Paulo to pay Harry to rob Pietr and so on. It felt as if they could have cut out the middle man and made it the plot to a half hour episode of some TV show instead, because it didn't really grip me as a feature film.
The whole thing was a bit contrived and once again there were too many factions so that I couldn't tell who was on who's side and none of them could shoot straight either. It was like watching a group of 'Star Wars' (1977) Stormtroopers picking up guns for the first time, because very few of them could hit a target at all.
And it was just generally quite silly, it's daft situations and puns, although they did get the flight with Aeroflot spot on. The last time I flew with them, I cried when we landed, while everyone else clapped or thanked God for the plane stopping before it hit the Airport Terminus.
That was the real life threatening moment in this film.
Overall this film couldn't have done much for Russia's tourism board, because it didn't show it as a pleasant place to visit in any way.
And the production values almost seemed to make it appear as a poor quality 1960's styled European film and not the usual British offering that I would expect from Michael, although I know he only did 'Jaws 4: The Revenge' (1987) so he could buy a new house and never even watched that film.
I did like the first two films featuring the 'Harry Palmer' character, who had been unnamed in the Len Deighton books, but the third and this fifth** attempt have been awful. I can only hope that the last of them - 'Midnight In St Petersburg' (1996), has a bit more effort put in to it.
320.21/1000.
*'Robin Of Sherwood' (1984-6)
**The fourth film 'Spy Story' (1976) was never released on DVD and currently unavailable on any subscription service, let alone shown on terrestrial TV.
It's no wonder that people defect so often in these films when they get treated by their bosses as "Harry" did. These special agent characters get roped in for all the dirty work with apparently very little reward, look at poor old Mert Dayyyrman in the 'Bourne' films, they hunted that poor guy down like a dog and even 'James Bond' doesn't get it much better.
Personally, I thought that Mr. Caine, in the lead role, did look a bit out of place here though. A tad passed it to be playing the action hero. It appeared to me a bit like sending 'Alfred' out to do 'Batman's' work. And it was hard to see him as any kind of sex symbol that a woman might throw herself at.
But I can also only assume that Jason Connery had been better as 'Robin Hood?'*, because he was very wooden in this film and not even that good to look at, despite the attempt to prettify him with a bad blonde dye job. He also didn't exactly scream action hero.
Just like in the previous instalment of Harry's adventures, they all seemed to be working in circles - Robbing Pietr to pay Paulo to pay Harry to rob Pietr and so on. It felt as if they could have cut out the middle man and made it the plot to a half hour episode of some TV show instead, because it didn't really grip me as a feature film.
The whole thing was a bit contrived and once again there were too many factions so that I couldn't tell who was on who's side and none of them could shoot straight either. It was like watching a group of 'Star Wars' (1977) Stormtroopers picking up guns for the first time, because very few of them could hit a target at all.
And it was just generally quite silly, it's daft situations and puns, although they did get the flight with Aeroflot spot on. The last time I flew with them, I cried when we landed, while everyone else clapped or thanked God for the plane stopping before it hit the Airport Terminus.
That was the real life threatening moment in this film.
Overall this film couldn't have done much for Russia's tourism board, because it didn't show it as a pleasant place to visit in any way.
And the production values almost seemed to make it appear as a poor quality 1960's styled European film and not the usual British offering that I would expect from Michael, although I know he only did 'Jaws 4: The Revenge' (1987) so he could buy a new house and never even watched that film.
I did like the first two films featuring the 'Harry Palmer' character, who had been unnamed in the Len Deighton books, but the third and this fifth** attempt have been awful. I can only hope that the last of them - 'Midnight In St Petersburg' (1996), has a bit more effort put in to it.
320.21/1000.
*'Robin Of Sherwood' (1984-6)
**The fourth film 'Spy Story' (1976) was never released on DVD and currently unavailable on any subscription service, let alone shown on terrestrial TV.