It’s an animated outer space adventure from Romania, made in the Cold War era but minus political messages. Old-school cel animation techniques conjure colorful futuristic visions, thanks to beautiful background art and a spacey ’80s synth music score. The Bucharest artists bring a novel point of view, populating alien planets with weird flora and fauna, both carnivorous and amusingly amorous. For love of a slinky blue-green alien named Alma, a giant crystal computer goes rogue and runs amuck. Giant monsters, space battles and rampaging robots are also on the interstellar agenda. One extra is an additional pair of Delta Space Mission adventure short subjects.
Delta Space Mission
Blu-ray
Deaf Crocodile Films
1984 / Color / 1:33 flat / 70 min. / Misiunea spaţialã Delta / Street Date February 1, 2022 / Available from Vinegar Syndrome / 34.98
Starring voices: Mirela Gorea, Marcel Iures, Dan Condurache, Ion Chelaru.
Original Music: Călin Ioachimescu
Written by Victor Antonescu, Mircea Toia
Produced by Animafilm Studio
Directed by Călin Cazan,...
Delta Space Mission
Blu-ray
Deaf Crocodile Films
1984 / Color / 1:33 flat / 70 min. / Misiunea spaţialã Delta / Street Date February 1, 2022 / Available from Vinegar Syndrome / 34.98
Starring voices: Mirela Gorea, Marcel Iures, Dan Condurache, Ion Chelaru.
Original Music: Călin Ioachimescu
Written by Victor Antonescu, Mircea Toia
Produced by Animafilm Studio
Directed by Călin Cazan,...
- 3/1/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
The first project released under his new C/W production company with former agent Paula Wagner, Mission: Impossible was a bonafide hit for star Tom Cruise and Paramount Pictures when it opened at the start of the 1996 summer movie season. Based on the popular TV series created by Bruce Gellar and directed by Brian DePalma, the film was perhaps the actor's first straightforward action adventure after a string of successful dramas and comedies that made him a heartthrob. For many die-hard fans of the series, like myself, something was out of place. Cruise, DePalma and Wagner had put together a good spy thriller, but in no way was this Mission: Impossible. The fact that the star once stated on the red carpet, “This is not your dad's Mission: Impossible” didn't help matters. The premise of a team of spies with specific individual skills working together on an important mission was...
- 11/8/2011
- LRMonline.com
Hello! How are you? is the film that helmer Alexandru Maftei hopes will represent a new era in Romanian cinema: an era of the films for the general public. Maftei sophomore film follows his debut pic, Fii cu ochii pe fericire. A decade has passed since his debut and follow up picture and during all this time, Maftei worked mostly in advertising until he felt the need to come back to his first love: making movies. But he didn’t want to show the same old stories that we got used to see in Romanian films. He wanted to make people laugh. He wanted people to feel good watching a Romanian movie. He wanted that, at least for about an hour and a half, the public would forget about everyday problems from both the past and the present. So he made this film – a romantic comedy, a rarity in Romanian...
- 11/16/2010
- IONCINEMA.com
The cold war has been one of the most prolific themes in film. Up until the last decade, it has been the inspiration behind Hollywood's bad guy of choice, the Soviets (or more specifically, brooding Russians and, in the case of The Peacemaker, their eastern European associates). They've come in all shapes and sizes, and other than their fierce patriotism, the one thing they most have in common is their desire for nuclear weapons.
The 1997 flick The Peacemaker, is no exception to the “villainous Soviets” theme. Recently released on Blu-ray, it features George Clooney and Nicole Kidman teaming up to save New York from a possible terrorist attack. The film starts off quickly in suspense, with a suspicious looking eastern European officer taking us through the events that would become the main emphasis of the film. Interestingly crafted, the opening sequences were so great that it doomed the rest of...
The 1997 flick The Peacemaker, is no exception to the “villainous Soviets” theme. Recently released on Blu-ray, it features George Clooney and Nicole Kidman teaming up to save New York from a possible terrorist attack. The film starts off quickly in suspense, with a suspicious looking eastern European officer taking us through the events that would become the main emphasis of the film. Interestingly crafted, the opening sequences were so great that it doomed the rest of...
- 10/15/2010
- by Simone Grant
- JustPressPlay.net
Francis Ford Coppola's Youth Without Youth, the helmer's first feature film effort in 10 years, will have its world premiere at the RomaCinemaFest, sales agent Pathe Pictures International announced Thursday.
Starring Tim Roth as an elderly professor whose apparent immortality makes him a target of the Nazis, the World War II-set tale was filmed in Romania. Coppola also wrote the screenplay, which is adapted from the novella by author Mircea Eliade.
"This film represents a new period in my career, where I intend to make only personal films," Coppola said. "I look forward to showing it at this new festival in Italy, whose great masters such as Rossellini, Fellini, Visconti, Pasolini and Antonioni inspired my early career."
Youth, Coppola's first film since 1997's The Rainmaker, also stars Alexandra Maria Lara, Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Pirici, Marcel Iures and Andre Hennicke.
The second annual RomaCinemaFest runs Oct. 18-27.
Starring Tim Roth as an elderly professor whose apparent immortality makes him a target of the Nazis, the World War II-set tale was filmed in Romania. Coppola also wrote the screenplay, which is adapted from the novella by author Mircea Eliade.
"This film represents a new period in my career, where I intend to make only personal films," Coppola said. "I look forward to showing it at this new festival in Italy, whose great masters such as Rossellini, Fellini, Visconti, Pasolini and Antonioni inspired my early career."
Youth, Coppola's first film since 1997's The Rainmaker, also stars Alexandra Maria Lara, Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Pirici, Marcel Iures and Andre Hennicke.
The second annual RomaCinemaFest runs Oct. 18-27.
- 5/11/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
- We’ve been wondering out loud for a while now who would distrbute Francis Ford Coppola’s newest project. Wonder no more. Today, Sony Pictures Classics that they’ve acquired Youth Without Youth for a Fall 2007 release. Based on the novella by Romanian author and intellectual Mircea Eliade. This stars Tim Roth as Dominic Matei, an elderly professor whose mysterious rejuvenation heightens his intelligence and whose apparent immortality makes him a target for the Nazis in this World War II-era parable. Becoming a fugitive, he is pursued through far-flung locations including Romania, Switzerland, Malta and India. The also stars Alexandra Maria Lara, Bruno Ganz, Andre M. Hennicke, Marcel Iures, and introduces Alexandra Pirici. Son Roman Coppola directed the second unit. The move shows that Spc is flexing a little muscle – slightly more aggressive in finding material for their slate and on Coppola’s part, it announces that the filmmaker
- 3/23/2007
- IONCINEMA.com
Sony Pictures Classics has acquired North American distribution rights to Francis Ford Coppola's Youth Without Youth, the director's first film since 1997's The Rainmaker. A late fall release is planned.
Coppola wrote, directed, and produced the film, adapting the screenplay from a novella by Romanian author Mircea Eliade. A parable set in World War II, the film stars Tim Roth as Dominic Matei, an elderly professor whose mysterious rejuvenation heightens his intelligence and whose apparent immortality makes him a target for the Nazis. "It is a love story wrapped in a mystery," Coppola said.
The film also stars Alexandra Maria Lara, Bruno Ganz, Andre M. Hennicke, Marcel Iures and introduces Alexandra Pirici.
The independently produced project was shot in Romania over 18 months. Walter Murch joined Coppola there to edit the film.
Said Coppola: "The story revolves around the key themes that I most hope to understand better: time, consciousness and the dreamlike basis of reality."
Added SPC co-presidents Michael Barker and Tom Bernard: " 'Youth Without Youth' is what we call a full meal, satisfying in all departments."...
Coppola wrote, directed, and produced the film, adapting the screenplay from a novella by Romanian author Mircea Eliade. A parable set in World War II, the film stars Tim Roth as Dominic Matei, an elderly professor whose mysterious rejuvenation heightens his intelligence and whose apparent immortality makes him a target for the Nazis. "It is a love story wrapped in a mystery," Coppola said.
The film also stars Alexandra Maria Lara, Bruno Ganz, Andre M. Hennicke, Marcel Iures and introduces Alexandra Pirici.
The independently produced project was shot in Romania over 18 months. Walter Murch joined Coppola there to edit the film.
Said Coppola: "The story revolves around the key themes that I most hope to understand better: time, consciousness and the dreamlike basis of reality."
Added SPC co-presidents Michael Barker and Tom Bernard: " 'Youth Without Youth' is what we call a full meal, satisfying in all departments."...
- 3/23/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
As monster movies go, "The Cave" is discouragingly routine with the exception of one thing: These monsters live in a cave. Not just any cave, mind you, but an ancient Romanian cave. Which means a sealed-off ecosystem that contains miles of rivers, rapids, a waterfall, huge caverns, a sulfuric thermal bath, an ice cave, archeological remains and, yes, malevolent invertebrate animals. This bad-news theme park makes you tolerate, for a while at least, a dull script by Michael Steinberg and Tegan West that runs through artificial character conflicts and contrived melodrama. Meanwhile, the monsters, when they finally appear, look like something H.R. Giger designed for "Alien" -- then rejected.
Generally speaking, however, audiences don't go to movies to look at sets. So the film's appeal, limited mostly to young males, will be fleeting. Boxoffice looks mediocre at best.
Stories that send characters -- and audiences -- into uncharted territory usually supply a vital reason for such exploration. A prologue set during the Cold War and a present-day sequence rush a group of adventurers into this cave beneath a 13th century abbey without a compelling justification for doing so. There's no pot of gold or Holy Grail or great scientific discovery lurking within. A Romanian scientist simply summons a group of top divers and cave explorers to head into a cave to see if anyone survives.
Leading the team are the mercurial Jack (Cole Hauser) and his easygoing brother Tyler (Eddie Cibrian). A woman named Charlie (Piper Perabo) adds a touch of glamour, and Top Buchanan (Morris Chestnut) makes a steady right-hand man. Biologist Dr. Kathryn Jennings (Lena Headey) joins her Romanian colleague Dr. Nicolai (Marcel Iures) to take care of the science, Alex Kim Daniel Dae Kim) is the photog, and Strode (Kieran Darcy-Smith) supplies tech support.
A cave-in blocks the party from their entry route, and for some reason, despite this being a well-funded exposition, they won't be "missed for 12 days." As they move into the cave seeking a way out, something attacks and kills a team member. Dr. Kathryn peers at cave specimens through her microscope and detects weird organism and parasites. Then something takes a bite out of Jack, and the infection seems to trigger paranoid hallucinations.
Jack insists that everyone take a ride down the rapids, which dumps them into a huge underground pond. It is at this point someone screams, "There's something in the water!" Actually, these creatures swim in water, fly through air and gallop along the ground and ceiling. There are silly, all-purpose monsters that pick off the cast one by one, leaving you to place bets on who will survive.
Characters are poorly established, so when conflicts arise they do so out of thin air. Attacks are preceded by a weird clicking noise, but most of the tension derives from Reinhold Heil and Johnny Klimek's musical score, which huff and puffs and thunders and whines.
Australian commercial director Bruce Hunt, making his feature debut, keeps the camera close and the action furious so you can't always be certain where characters are or what is happening. The film requires athleticism rather than acting from performers. Underwater photography and production design, much taking place at the Media Pro studios complex in Bucharest, is thoroughly professional though wasted on such a lame effort.
THE CAVE
Screen Gems
Lakeshore Entertainment
Credits:
Director: Bruce Hunt
Screenwriters: Michael Steinberg & Tegan West
Producers: Tom Rosenberg
Gary Lucchesi, Andrew Mason, Richard Wright, Michael Ohoven
Executive producers: Marco Mehlitz, Neil Bluhm, Judd Malkin
Director of photography: Ross Emery
Production designer: Pier Luigi Basile
Music: Reinhold Heil, Johnny Klimek
Co-producer: Robert Bernacchi, James McQuaide
Costumes: Wendy Partridge
Editor: Brian Berdan
Cast:
Jack: Cole Hauser
Top Buchanan: Morris Chestnut
Tyler: Eddie Cibrian
Briggs: Rick Ravanello
Dr. Nicolai: Marcel Iures: Strode: Kieran Darcy-Smith
Kim: Daniel Dae Kim
Katherine: Lena Headey
Charlie: Piper Perabo
MPAA rating PG-13
Running time -- 96 minutes...
Generally speaking, however, audiences don't go to movies to look at sets. So the film's appeal, limited mostly to young males, will be fleeting. Boxoffice looks mediocre at best.
Stories that send characters -- and audiences -- into uncharted territory usually supply a vital reason for such exploration. A prologue set during the Cold War and a present-day sequence rush a group of adventurers into this cave beneath a 13th century abbey without a compelling justification for doing so. There's no pot of gold or Holy Grail or great scientific discovery lurking within. A Romanian scientist simply summons a group of top divers and cave explorers to head into a cave to see if anyone survives.
Leading the team are the mercurial Jack (Cole Hauser) and his easygoing brother Tyler (Eddie Cibrian). A woman named Charlie (Piper Perabo) adds a touch of glamour, and Top Buchanan (Morris Chestnut) makes a steady right-hand man. Biologist Dr. Kathryn Jennings (Lena Headey) joins her Romanian colleague Dr. Nicolai (Marcel Iures) to take care of the science, Alex Kim Daniel Dae Kim) is the photog, and Strode (Kieran Darcy-Smith) supplies tech support.
A cave-in blocks the party from their entry route, and for some reason, despite this being a well-funded exposition, they won't be "missed for 12 days." As they move into the cave seeking a way out, something attacks and kills a team member. Dr. Kathryn peers at cave specimens through her microscope and detects weird organism and parasites. Then something takes a bite out of Jack, and the infection seems to trigger paranoid hallucinations.
Jack insists that everyone take a ride down the rapids, which dumps them into a huge underground pond. It is at this point someone screams, "There's something in the water!" Actually, these creatures swim in water, fly through air and gallop along the ground and ceiling. There are silly, all-purpose monsters that pick off the cast one by one, leaving you to place bets on who will survive.
Characters are poorly established, so when conflicts arise they do so out of thin air. Attacks are preceded by a weird clicking noise, but most of the tension derives from Reinhold Heil and Johnny Klimek's musical score, which huff and puffs and thunders and whines.
Australian commercial director Bruce Hunt, making his feature debut, keeps the camera close and the action furious so you can't always be certain where characters are or what is happening. The film requires athleticism rather than acting from performers. Underwater photography and production design, much taking place at the Media Pro studios complex in Bucharest, is thoroughly professional though wasted on such a lame effort.
THE CAVE
Screen Gems
Lakeshore Entertainment
Credits:
Director: Bruce Hunt
Screenwriters: Michael Steinberg & Tegan West
Producers: Tom Rosenberg
Gary Lucchesi, Andrew Mason, Richard Wright, Michael Ohoven
Executive producers: Marco Mehlitz, Neil Bluhm, Judd Malkin
Director of photography: Ross Emery
Production designer: Pier Luigi Basile
Music: Reinhold Heil, Johnny Klimek
Co-producer: Robert Bernacchi, James McQuaide
Costumes: Wendy Partridge
Editor: Brian Berdan
Cast:
Jack: Cole Hauser
Top Buchanan: Morris Chestnut
Tyler: Eddie Cibrian
Briggs: Rick Ravanello
Dr. Nicolai: Marcel Iures: Strode: Kieran Darcy-Smith
Kim: Daniel Dae Kim
Katherine: Lena Headey
Charlie: Piper Perabo
MPAA rating PG-13
Running time -- 96 minutes...
In "Amen.", filmmaker Costa-Gavras plunges again into the arena of political morality to create an angry drama about silence and conspiracy. This one ranks with his best political works -- "Z," "State of Siege", "Missing". The film, a story about the Catholic Church turning a blind eye to Nazi atrocities during World War II, represents a return to form by the European director after years of struggle to make his kind of provocative films in the United States.
Here he works in English with a mostly European cast in a large-scale production, which should help "Amen". gain distribution, especially in North America. But this is also a dialogue-heavy historical drama, which means critical acclaim and awards here at the Berlin festival might be needed to break the film out of the art house ghetto.
The focus of his drama is real-life figure Kurt Gerstein (Ulrich Tukur). By any measure, this is a complicated man. A deeply religious Protestant, Gerstein nevertheless became a top hygiene expert for the SS. In this capacity, he delivered Zyclon B gas to the death camps in the east. Yet it is a matter of historical record that Gerstein spent years trying to bring information about the slaughter of Jews to the attention of the Vatican and other religious figures.
Based on the 1960s play "The Representative" by Rolf Hochhuth, the screenplay by Costa-Gavras and Jean-Claude Grumberg takes the view that Gerstein allows himself to become a participant in the machinery of the death camps to bear witness to their horror. "I'll be spy for God", he declares when others counsel him to resign. At another moment, Gerstein says that rather than leave his country, he chooses to be "a German in Germany" who will someday recount his wartime experiences.
Gerstein fails in all his clandestine endeavors. He is neither able to sabotage the transportation of Zyclon gas nor can he persuade the Vatican to speak out. After being taken prisoner by the Allies, his famous Gerstein Report helps document the Holocaust -- but not before he commits suicide.
Other prominent figures populate the drama, including two fictional ones. A Jesuit priest, Ricardo Fontana (Mathieu Kassovitz), believes Gerstein's stories. Through his contacts at the Vatican, which reach all the way to Pope Pius XII, he brings Gerstein's plea to denounce the genocide only to meet with diplomatic mumbo jumbo and empty religious rhetoric. Another character, a camp doctor (Ulrich Muhe), is a Faust-like character who never wavers in his bargain with the devil. He prides himself in a silenced conscience, which allows him to help the German nation and race prosper.
Then there is the heart of the matter, the pope (Marcel Iures) himself. A figurehead and diplomat more than a spiritual leader, the pope represents a legacy of historical anti-Semitism and political maneuverings that bear little relationship to theology. He personifies religion stripped of ethics.
The actors perform these roles with tremendous subtlety and conviction. Yet none of the key characters emerges as a well-rounded individual. They stand for ideas, so Costa-Gavras and Grumberg refuse to hobble them with doubts or complexity. This leaves the story at times flat by draining away the kind of moral ambivalence that makes for great drama.
The film's subject is history, not emotions. Gerstein is explored as a man only insofar as he acts in history, not as a husband or father or friend. Throughout his career, Costa-Gavras has made character subservient to historical action. Here he displays masterly control over the design, photography and historical realism of his film. But what it lacks, as do most of his films, is the simple beating of a human heart.
AMEN.
Claude Berri presents
a Katharina/Renn Prods. co-production with TF1 Films
in association with KC Medien and Canal Plus
Producer: Claude Berri
Director: Costa-Gavras
Screenwriters: Costa-Gavras, Jean-Claude Grumberg
Based on the play "The Representative" by: Rolf Hochhuth
Executive producer: Michele Ray
Director of photography: Patrick Blossier
Production designer: Ari Hantke
Music: Armand Amar
Costume designer: Edith Vesperini
Editor: Yannick Kergoat
Color/stereo
Cast:
Kurt Gerstein: Ulrich Tukur
Ricardo Fontana: Mathieu Kassovitz
Doctor: Ulrich Muhe
Cardinal: Michel Duchaussoy
Count Fontana: Ion Caramitru
Pope: Marcel Iures
Gerstein's father: Fredrich von Thun
Running time -- 130 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Here he works in English with a mostly European cast in a large-scale production, which should help "Amen". gain distribution, especially in North America. But this is also a dialogue-heavy historical drama, which means critical acclaim and awards here at the Berlin festival might be needed to break the film out of the art house ghetto.
The focus of his drama is real-life figure Kurt Gerstein (Ulrich Tukur). By any measure, this is a complicated man. A deeply religious Protestant, Gerstein nevertheless became a top hygiene expert for the SS. In this capacity, he delivered Zyclon B gas to the death camps in the east. Yet it is a matter of historical record that Gerstein spent years trying to bring information about the slaughter of Jews to the attention of the Vatican and other religious figures.
Based on the 1960s play "The Representative" by Rolf Hochhuth, the screenplay by Costa-Gavras and Jean-Claude Grumberg takes the view that Gerstein allows himself to become a participant in the machinery of the death camps to bear witness to their horror. "I'll be spy for God", he declares when others counsel him to resign. At another moment, Gerstein says that rather than leave his country, he chooses to be "a German in Germany" who will someday recount his wartime experiences.
Gerstein fails in all his clandestine endeavors. He is neither able to sabotage the transportation of Zyclon gas nor can he persuade the Vatican to speak out. After being taken prisoner by the Allies, his famous Gerstein Report helps document the Holocaust -- but not before he commits suicide.
Other prominent figures populate the drama, including two fictional ones. A Jesuit priest, Ricardo Fontana (Mathieu Kassovitz), believes Gerstein's stories. Through his contacts at the Vatican, which reach all the way to Pope Pius XII, he brings Gerstein's plea to denounce the genocide only to meet with diplomatic mumbo jumbo and empty religious rhetoric. Another character, a camp doctor (Ulrich Muhe), is a Faust-like character who never wavers in his bargain with the devil. He prides himself in a silenced conscience, which allows him to help the German nation and race prosper.
Then there is the heart of the matter, the pope (Marcel Iures) himself. A figurehead and diplomat more than a spiritual leader, the pope represents a legacy of historical anti-Semitism and political maneuverings that bear little relationship to theology. He personifies religion stripped of ethics.
The actors perform these roles with tremendous subtlety and conviction. Yet none of the key characters emerges as a well-rounded individual. They stand for ideas, so Costa-Gavras and Grumberg refuse to hobble them with doubts or complexity. This leaves the story at times flat by draining away the kind of moral ambivalence that makes for great drama.
The film's subject is history, not emotions. Gerstein is explored as a man only insofar as he acts in history, not as a husband or father or friend. Throughout his career, Costa-Gavras has made character subservient to historical action. Here he displays masterly control over the design, photography and historical realism of his film. But what it lacks, as do most of his films, is the simple beating of a human heart.
AMEN.
Claude Berri presents
a Katharina/Renn Prods. co-production with TF1 Films
in association with KC Medien and Canal Plus
Producer: Claude Berri
Director: Costa-Gavras
Screenwriters: Costa-Gavras, Jean-Claude Grumberg
Based on the play "The Representative" by: Rolf Hochhuth
Executive producer: Michele Ray
Director of photography: Patrick Blossier
Production designer: Ari Hantke
Music: Armand Amar
Costume designer: Edith Vesperini
Editor: Yannick Kergoat
Color/stereo
Cast:
Kurt Gerstein: Ulrich Tukur
Ricardo Fontana: Mathieu Kassovitz
Doctor: Ulrich Muhe
Cardinal: Michel Duchaussoy
Count Fontana: Ion Caramitru
Pope: Marcel Iures
Gerstein's father: Fredrich von Thun
Running time -- 130 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 2/15/2002
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The wait has been worth it. DreamWorks Pictures has finally launched its first movie, and it's a smartly calibrated, mainstream entertainment.
Starring George Clooney and Nicole Kidman as a perfectly mismatched duo fighting world terrorism, "The Peacemaker" will certainly be a big moneymaker this fall on the domestic front, and down the line it should score winning international numbers and counter this country's sorry trade deficits.
Wired around the current, post-Cold War hot plot -- renegade terrorists hijack nuclear missiles within a dysfunctional Russia -- "The Peacemaker" is the cineplex equivalent of the airport paperback novel, Robert Ludlum's side of the rack. It's a crafty pasting of front-page reality, including the horrors in Bosnia, on top of well-proven story formulas. And it's torqued by the battling banter between Clooney and Kidman.
In screenwriter Michael Schiffer's complex but tightly compacted scenario, Clooney and Kidman step out in a variation of the battling-buddy movie. Except for the fact that they aren't exactly buddies: she's Dr. Julia Kelly, a straight-laced nuclear scientist and acting head of the White House Nuclear Smuggling Group, and he's Lt. Col. Thomas Devoe, an Army Special Intelligence officer. When a trainload of nuclear warheads is hijacked by terrorists in the Russian boonies, they're paired up to track down the terrorists before they can, say, deliver the nukes to Iran or, for instance, blow up the U.N. building. And, the clock is not just ticking, it's going fast-forward.
Although it may not beat out "L.A. Confidential" for the most subplots in a movie award, "The Peacemaker" is crammed with a heavy story-load, from geopolitics to the psychology of blue-collar women who have risen to the top of a male-dominated profession. Fortunately, Schiffer and director Mimi Leder don't allow the story to jam up, or for that matter, even slow down. Unfortunately, this full-throttle surge is somewhat akin to the traveler who doesn't stop to smell the roses along the way.
The best stuff is off the beaten plot: It's the human stuff, not the braininess of the narrative or the gadgetry of the effects, that's the highlight. In short, the movie's most refreshing and memorable moments involve the interplay between the loosey-goosey intelligence officer and the by-the-book nuclear scientist.
To be sure, even a movie as professionally scoped and intricately blueprinted as this one would fall flat if the chemistry between the leads wasn't there. And, Clooney, with his salt-and-pepper flair and seat-of-his-pants daring, is a believable and wonderfully appealing action hero.
Studio executives who are familiar with films before 1985 might recall a chap named Cary Grant who outwitted and outscrambled the bad guys in such winners as "North by Northwest" and didn't need a membership at Gold's Gym to do it.
Although his constant head tilting has become somewhat of a distraction, Clooney's suave edginess brings a welcome verve to a genre in need of tone rather than bulk. Similarly, Kidman's intelligent and appealing performance as, essentially, Clooney's brainy straightwoman, is refreshingly strong-spirited. She has the presence and confidence that makes one recall the best of strong-woman performers -- Rosalind Russell types who could dish it out and take it, no punches pulled.
Overall, Clooney and Kidman make an excellent pairing and could generate a franchise for DreamWorks, particularly if their battling banter is not shackled by overly busy plotting. Think William Powell and Myrna Loy.
Supporting players are well-selected and generally personalize some standard-issue roles. Armin Mueller-Stahl is particularly outstanding as an old-school Cold Warrior, and Marcel Iures remarkably manages to convey his terrorist character's psychology not in simplistic black-and-white tones but rather in the cracks of credible human frailties.
Technically, the film's Byzantine plotting is complemented by an appropriately murky look; credit cinematographer Dietrich Lohmann for the threatening tones. Editor David Rosenbloom's kinetic cuts bring thrust to the loaded story, while Hans Zimmer's stentorian music is a terrific blast in the great full-horned tradition of "The Guns of Navarone".
THE PEACEMAKER
DreamWorks Pictures
A Mimi Leder film
Producers:Walter Parkes, Branko Lustig
Director:Mimi Leder
Screenwriter:Michael Schiffer
Executive producers:Michael Grillo, Laurie MacDonald
Director of photography:Dietrich Lohmann
Production designer:Leslie Dilley
Editor:David Rosenbloom
Co-executive producer:John Wells
Costume designer:Shelley Komarov
Music:Hans Zimmer
Co-producers :Pat Kehoe, Leslie Cockburn, Andrew Cockburn
Casting:Risa Bramon Garcia, Randi Hiller
Visual effects supervisor:Michael Backes
Second unit director:Conrad E. Palmisano
Color/stereo
Cast:
Thomas Devoe:George Clooney
Julia Kelly:Nicole Kidman
Dusan Gavrich:Marcel Iures
Alexander Kodoroff:Alexander Baluev
Vlado Mirich:Rene Medvesek
Hamilton:Gary Werntz
Ken:Randall Batinkoff
General Garnett:Jim Haynie
Shummaker:Alexander Strobele
Appleton:Holt McCallany
CPN Beach:Michael Boatman
Senator Bevens:Joan Copeland
Santiago:Carlos Gomez
Dimitri Vertikoff:Armin Mueller-Stahl
Running time -- 122 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
Starring George Clooney and Nicole Kidman as a perfectly mismatched duo fighting world terrorism, "The Peacemaker" will certainly be a big moneymaker this fall on the domestic front, and down the line it should score winning international numbers and counter this country's sorry trade deficits.
Wired around the current, post-Cold War hot plot -- renegade terrorists hijack nuclear missiles within a dysfunctional Russia -- "The Peacemaker" is the cineplex equivalent of the airport paperback novel, Robert Ludlum's side of the rack. It's a crafty pasting of front-page reality, including the horrors in Bosnia, on top of well-proven story formulas. And it's torqued by the battling banter between Clooney and Kidman.
In screenwriter Michael Schiffer's complex but tightly compacted scenario, Clooney and Kidman step out in a variation of the battling-buddy movie. Except for the fact that they aren't exactly buddies: she's Dr. Julia Kelly, a straight-laced nuclear scientist and acting head of the White House Nuclear Smuggling Group, and he's Lt. Col. Thomas Devoe, an Army Special Intelligence officer. When a trainload of nuclear warheads is hijacked by terrorists in the Russian boonies, they're paired up to track down the terrorists before they can, say, deliver the nukes to Iran or, for instance, blow up the U.N. building. And, the clock is not just ticking, it's going fast-forward.
Although it may not beat out "L.A. Confidential" for the most subplots in a movie award, "The Peacemaker" is crammed with a heavy story-load, from geopolitics to the psychology of blue-collar women who have risen to the top of a male-dominated profession. Fortunately, Schiffer and director Mimi Leder don't allow the story to jam up, or for that matter, even slow down. Unfortunately, this full-throttle surge is somewhat akin to the traveler who doesn't stop to smell the roses along the way.
The best stuff is off the beaten plot: It's the human stuff, not the braininess of the narrative or the gadgetry of the effects, that's the highlight. In short, the movie's most refreshing and memorable moments involve the interplay between the loosey-goosey intelligence officer and the by-the-book nuclear scientist.
To be sure, even a movie as professionally scoped and intricately blueprinted as this one would fall flat if the chemistry between the leads wasn't there. And, Clooney, with his salt-and-pepper flair and seat-of-his-pants daring, is a believable and wonderfully appealing action hero.
Studio executives who are familiar with films before 1985 might recall a chap named Cary Grant who outwitted and outscrambled the bad guys in such winners as "North by Northwest" and didn't need a membership at Gold's Gym to do it.
Although his constant head tilting has become somewhat of a distraction, Clooney's suave edginess brings a welcome verve to a genre in need of tone rather than bulk. Similarly, Kidman's intelligent and appealing performance as, essentially, Clooney's brainy straightwoman, is refreshingly strong-spirited. She has the presence and confidence that makes one recall the best of strong-woman performers -- Rosalind Russell types who could dish it out and take it, no punches pulled.
Overall, Clooney and Kidman make an excellent pairing and could generate a franchise for DreamWorks, particularly if their battling banter is not shackled by overly busy plotting. Think William Powell and Myrna Loy.
Supporting players are well-selected and generally personalize some standard-issue roles. Armin Mueller-Stahl is particularly outstanding as an old-school Cold Warrior, and Marcel Iures remarkably manages to convey his terrorist character's psychology not in simplistic black-and-white tones but rather in the cracks of credible human frailties.
Technically, the film's Byzantine plotting is complemented by an appropriately murky look; credit cinematographer Dietrich Lohmann for the threatening tones. Editor David Rosenbloom's kinetic cuts bring thrust to the loaded story, while Hans Zimmer's stentorian music is a terrific blast in the great full-horned tradition of "The Guns of Navarone".
THE PEACEMAKER
DreamWorks Pictures
A Mimi Leder film
Producers:Walter Parkes, Branko Lustig
Director:Mimi Leder
Screenwriter:Michael Schiffer
Executive producers:Michael Grillo, Laurie MacDonald
Director of photography:Dietrich Lohmann
Production designer:Leslie Dilley
Editor:David Rosenbloom
Co-executive producer:John Wells
Costume designer:Shelley Komarov
Music:Hans Zimmer
Co-producers :Pat Kehoe, Leslie Cockburn, Andrew Cockburn
Casting:Risa Bramon Garcia, Randi Hiller
Visual effects supervisor:Michael Backes
Second unit director:Conrad E. Palmisano
Color/stereo
Cast:
Thomas Devoe:George Clooney
Julia Kelly:Nicole Kidman
Dusan Gavrich:Marcel Iures
Alexander Kodoroff:Alexander Baluev
Vlado Mirich:Rene Medvesek
Hamilton:Gary Werntz
Ken:Randall Batinkoff
General Garnett:Jim Haynie
Shummaker:Alexander Strobele
Appleton:Holt McCallany
CPN Beach:Michael Boatman
Senator Bevens:Joan Copeland
Santiago:Carlos Gomez
Dimitri Vertikoff:Armin Mueller-Stahl
Running time -- 122 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 9/22/1997
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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