Bovie Movie

Temporarily shelved after the events of 9/11 because of its subject matter and the public’s supposed decreased appetite for destruction, this film was lucky to eventually see the light of day a mere six months later. Arnold Schwarzenegger plays a vengeful firefighter hunting the Colombian terrorists who’ve blown up an embassy building, killing his wife and child. The film’s start and finish are pure Arnie — with plenty of bang for your buck — but the flabby middle section sees Schwarzenegger’s one-man army collecting a woman and child to protect which muddles both the action and the revenge theme. There are also inconsistencies in the portrayal of the baddies — the film-makers can’t seem to decide whether they are passionate freedom fighters or sadistic torturers. Competently directed by Andrew Davis, but with none of the flair he brought to The Fugitive, this movie is for hardcore Schwarzenegger fans only. 

After a string of routine action thrillers, Steven Seagal hit the jackpot with this slick nautical spin on the Die Hard concept. Portraying possibly the unlikeliest cook in the history of cinema, Seagal is the US Navy’s only hope when a crack squad of terrorists, led by Tommy Lee Jones, hijacks his ship. Seagal may lack natural charisma, but a flamboyant performance from Jones, plus some sterling work from fellow baddies Gary Busey and Colm Meaney, more than compensate for his deficiencies. Former Baywatch babe Erika Eleniak has little to do but pop out of a cake and scream a lot, but provides the requisite slice of glamour. Like Seagal, director Andrew Davis earned his spurs with mainly straight-to-video fodder, but here he never misses a beat and stages some awesome set pieces. 

The original TV series of The Fugitive starring David Janssen ran for 120 episodes in the 1960s and attracted a cult following. This big-screen adaptation bears little resemblance to its source, but for once this is a blessing. Director Andrew Davis takes the bare bones of the TV material and comes up with an unstoppable juggernaut, in which the suspense never lets up and the set pieces (notably the spectacular train crash and Harrison Ford’s daredevil dive into the dam) are truly epic. Ford is fine as the innocent surgeon who is wrongfully convicted of the murder of his wife and sets off to find the real killer. But the movie is stolen from under his nose by Tommy Lee Jones, who gives an Oscar-winning performance as the marshal doggedly pursuing the wanted man. 

Dial M for Murder was not one of Hitchcock’s best movies, but this remake isn’t even in the same league, despite the appeal of its two stars, Michael Douglas and Gwyneth Paltrow. Douglas takes the Ray Milland role here, plotting the demise of his beautiful, wealthy wife, Paltrow (played by Grace Kelly in the original), by getting her lover, Viggo Mortensen, to murder her for a $500,000 fee. So far so good, but things quickly come unglued. So, too, does Andrew Davis’s direction, which sometimes fails to maintain the tension of the first hour, while the script seems more interested in making obvious points about life and art in the late 1990s.