Does not come close to the greatness of the book
Added 1/26/2010
I think the book by Frederick Forsyth is a marvelous story... so well thought out and presented. I have read probably a 1000 mystery/adventure books in the last 20 years (I threw out my television about that time) and I would rate this book amongst the top 5 books I have read.
However, this review is about the movie and while the movie may be mildly entertaining it does not encompass one quarter of the greatness of the characters or the complexity of the book.
My advice would be if you want to watch the movie, do so BEFORE you read the book. But, by all means, read the book.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
Sam Elliott - The Avenger
Added 10/1/2009
I absolutely love Sam Elliott; his acting, his voice and his eyes. I usually watch movies while doing other things but not this one; I never looked away and I enjoyed it immensely.
1 out of 2 people found this helpful.
|
Good (if abbreviated) adaptation
Added 5/22/2009
This is a decent adaptation of Frederick Forsythe's 340 pg novel into a 92 minute made-for-TV film. Given the relative brevity of the movie, several plot elements have been simplified or left out, and locale altered. On the whole it works well, will certainly satisfy viewers less familiar with the novel - and not greatly annoy those more familiar with the original work. Elliot's performance is excellent, although he doesn't match my mental picture of Cal Dexter - again a problem of great familiarity with the original work.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
|
Avenger DVD
Added 12/2/2008
This is a great movie, am a big fan of Sam Elliott's. DVD in great condition.
1 out of 2 people found this helpful.
|
Good for this kind of movie.
Added 12/31/2007
I enjoyed this action-adventure movie. Sam Elliott is a kind of cowboy version of Steven Seagal and that works for me. Karma gets passed about and returned at a relatively slow pace in the movie, but the production values are high and the locations are great--or at least, which is important--believable. I sometime check to see where a movie is filmed, but in this case the various places are believeable enough and are not places that I've been so what-the-hey. What was supposed to be Capetown, South Africa, looked like I thought it ought to and I don't want more from this sort of movie.
I'm not sure why this movie doesn't deserve five stars in my mind--there is kind of an agregate of not-quite-up-snuff-details such as the scripting which has peaks and valleys in unexpected places. The Timothy Hutton role was wasted, though he plays an interesting character. Stereotypes abound and cliched dialogue is never far away. But, that's the kind of movie it is. Despite having such good credentials on the production end (goodness, Wolfgang Peterson produced it based on a novel by Frederick Forsyth) I guess not everyone was at the top of their game. Still, its a keeper for me and I'll enjoy it again some day.
4 out of 4 people found this helpful.
|
