This is a very slow-paced drama about a bored embassy employee on Curacao. Then he finds out his friend, an old captain(George C. Scott), has some secrets. Soon both their lives are in danger. Not really that special, but quite an interesting story and well-acted too. 6/10
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PeterJackson17 September 2000
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"Curacao" is a foreign intrigue drama set on the title Caribbean Island which involves a retired sea captain and bar owner (Scott) and a demoted CIA field operative (Petersen). The film has numerous bad guys, foreign agents and thugs, skulking about the pair of protagonists all coveting something Scott has which they want and are prepared to kill for. A lukewarm low budget tv flick, "Curacao" is spiced up with a couple of babes and use some Carnival street parades as window dressing. Little more than fodder for the bored couch potato. C-
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Steven Guerin is a disgraced fed working a dead-end security job on the beautiful south Caribbean island of Curaçao when suddenly things go a bit crazy. A friend confesses his part in a terrible crime which is now catching up with him, a dangerous South African spy offers him a suspicious job, and a beautiful colleague/lover from his past arrives to complicate matters. What's the right thing to do ?
This glossy and enjoyable made-for-cable film is a stylish modern version of glamorous forties classics like To Have And Have Not or The Glass Key, all sultry dames, put-upon heroes, sneaky plot machinations and idyllic scenery. The Dutch Antilles setting of Curaçao is fabulous, with its lush tropical backdrops, steamy groves, sudden downpours, Venetian stylings and carnival atmosphere - it pretty much has erotic thriller stamped all over it. As too does Petersen, who burns through the Bogart/Cagney lead, smouldering intensity, speaking quietly, piercing the other actors with thoughtful stares. Scott has an interesting part as the cowardly bartender Wettering, the lynch-pin of the story, but is unusually ordinary and lumbers himself with a slightly lame accent. However, there is excellent support from Carmen (In The Mouth Of Madness) as the career-comes-first agent, Sayle (Gorky Park) as the nasty apartheid Boss, and Anglim (Haunted Summer) as the world-weary flatfoot. The whole thing is polished off with pleasing photography by Ellery Ryan and a good clattering spy story revolving around a purloined ship's manifest. A fine cable movie by Schultz, who's made some other interesting stuff (The Seventh Sign, To Walk With Lions). Scripted by James D. Buchanan, from his book The Prince Of Malta. The UK TV print has the rather insipid alternative title, Deadly Currents. -
CAPTAIN INDIFFERENT23 July 2000Seen this video on the shelves often enough so decided to give it a watch. Peterson who I don't mind from Michael Mann's Manhunter does a good job with the stereotypical hero character he's given. He's a disgraced American intelligence agent who has been exiled to a small embassy on just as small an island for killing a fellow (supposedly corrupt) agent.
His only comrade is bar owner Scott, who seems to be the only other laid back dude on the island and content with exile. But of course Scott has a secret past, that has South Africa's intelligence agency and the powerful Hsung brothers looking to scorch his ass over his secret past involving a sunken boat with 20 + dead sailors and a hidden log book.
Peterson is unwillingly sucked into the dilemma by all parties and even his own agency who promise a welcome back into the fold (by an ex-partner and sexy love interest from his past of course). Won't give away the outcome, or any twists but I will say it is a fair example of it's genre (in my opinion only). The gunplay is a little poor (but hey it was 1993), Peterson's character is also a little self righteous when criticising the South Africans and their policies, especially considering he's an American agent who don't always have a history of being all that upright or incorruptable (morally speaking). The visuals would have been greater with a wider view of the island settings and its karnival scenes however some places in the movie, (hostage and bar scenes) looked like sets regardless of how well the actors tried to, well... act. But I still enjoyed the movie since it's hero was less of a James Bond and more of a Len Deighton or John Le Carre character. -
Theo Robertson21 September 2005What is wrong with CURACAO ( Also known as DEADLY CURRENTS though what the reasonn for the name change is I have no idea ) can probably be summed up where a woman says to her lover :
" Keep it down baby , I'm trying to sleep "
It's not the dialogue that's the problem or the way it's delivered , it's the fact the actress has has a Central European accent . Nothing wrong with that until it's revealed her character is from Philidelphia in the United States ! This what struck me about this thriller while watching it - The way accents don't match their characters . Apart from the Philly woman with a German accent we see a South African with an English accent , a local police chief who sounds like he's an Irishman impersonating a Gestapo officer and worst of all George C Scott playing someone who's either Dutch or British with an accent that sounds like it might be American tinged with South African . You soon give up following what's on screen and end up concentrating on what nationality a character might be due to the strange way they speak . It's interesting to note that this site hasn't given this movie a country of origin . With so many different actors from different countries you do feel that this was produced by the United Nations
Even if you're not curious about accents or dialects you'll probably have to give up following the action anyway because CURACAO is plot less . Things happen like a boat exploding , and a hostage situation and the hero being recruited as an agent for South African intelligence but you're left scratching your head wondering what the heck this is all leading to . I was lost -
OK modest budget (made-for-TV) mystery/suspense movie (with alternate title: "CIA: Exiled" -- NYT review under that name) maintains interest mostly due to another good performance by William Peterson as complex (flawed) 'good guy'. George C. Scott merely strolls through role as sort-of buddy and linchpin of mystery to be solved; other cast members entirely forgettable. well-written with OK direction but seems to have had ending altered from original to make movie more satisfying to mass TV audience looking for 'happy ending'. How surmise this-SPOILER!: a. Movie opens with George C. Scott cold-bloodily shooting young bank robber in back (after sweet-talking gun away from him) as boy walking away; b. Peterson back-story is as experienced CIA field-man who killed double-crossing CIA colleague and then 'exiled' by CIA to 'non-job' in Curacao; c. at end, Scott fakes death, escapes to small nearby island and asks Peterson (who leaving area) to drop by -- Scott tells Peterson that Peterson is only one who knows Scott still alive. OBVIOUSLY (only reason for a-b-c above) the original concept was to have sweet-talking Scott try to shoot Peterson in back as Peterson walking away -- but Peterson cunningly turns and shoots Scott (his 'colleague') instead and then tells him (in effect), "...don't confuse me with a scared kid in a bank." apart from (obviously) altered ending, movie is an OK hour-and-half (if popcorn at hand). Stock footage of Curacao pleasant enough; probably shot whole movie at Paramount lot and Santa Monica pier. BTW, perhaps Trish Van Devere's real role (as Rose?) was to play George C. Scott's main squeeze when they weren't actually on the set.
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Leofwine_draca6 November 2018CIA: EXILED is a cheap television movie and one of the last in the long-running career of George C. Scott. He has a minor role here, playing second fiddle to MANHUNTER star William Petersen. The pair play fugitives who find themselves living in isolation on the island of Curacao, where history has a nasty habit of catching up with those who thought they left it behind. This is mundane stuff indeed, a talky film that flirts with various genres (the erotic thriller, the spy film, etc.) but never succeeds at any of them.
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gleong-16 August 2006It is is very sad to see someone of the calibre of George C Scott in a low budget thriller which would have been better if the original novel was written by Graham Greene and directed by someone somewhat more experienced in the genre. NOT TO MENTION A BETTER CINEMATOGRAPHER. There are so many missed opportunities with the scenery and carnival merely glossed over, rather than captured to locate the movie solidly in the exotic setting of the novel.
Elsewhere in the viewer comments on this site, one very astute observer complained about the variety of diabolically bad accents in this film. Ever since I saw George C Scott as Rochester in Jane Eyre, I have prayed for him NEVER to ever accept again a role which required him to assume a British accent. Just every now and then, he could just possibly pass for British or a very British sounding South African played obviously by an American actor. I can stomach Meryl Streep's extraordinarily laboured accents (both British and Australian) - at least she gets it right even though with every utterance, she demands that we marvel at her skill. Well, I am sorry that Mr. Scott is no Meryl Streep, and it just destroys the illusion - like having Michele Yeoh speak excruciating Mandarin with a strong Singaporean accent in Crouching Tiger etc.
Peterson acts no differently than what we see on CSI. Except he is still very handsome and more or less slim in this movie. He is the Harrison Ford of TV. Same old expressions for every emotion, every situation. No on second thought, Ford has two - perplexed/pained and happy. I have never seen a smile on Mr. CSI! -
planktonrules27 May 2023As the title would suggest, this film was made on the Caribbean island of Curacao. However, though this is a beautiful location and the film is about spies, it's a surprisingly uninvolving tale...one that never really piqued my interest.
The story focuses on two men. Stephen (William Peterson) is ex-CIA and apparently he ticked off his bosses...so they banished him to this island and took away his passport. The other is an older man, Cornelius (George C. Scott). He was involved in some insurance scam and was also pretty much banished to this island. None of it is very exciting...and sorting it all out by the end of the film is a chore.
I think one of the worst things about this mediocre film is how often instead of really SHOWING things, they talk about them. There is some action at the end...but otherwise, it's a curiously uninvolving story. I think they actors tried...but the script felt like it was riddled with plot holes and was re-written one time too many. -
dantony-12 September 2005I have just watched "Curacao"on cable and I found it quite reasonable for late night watching. It has nice exotic locations and quite a number of really mysterious characters. The storyline was at least as good as most of the crime investigation stories that William Peterson is in now that he is older. In some way which I can not really explain it reminded me of a Humphrey Bogart film, maybe with Alexei Sayle in the Sydney Greenstreet role. Re the character named Rose, played by Trish van Devere, I think that Stephen Geurin (William Petersen) called the secretary "Rose" when he went in to his office in the embassy near the beginning of the film.
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converse75125 January 2008This is an intelligent and complex espionage thriller about "human assets"--not gadgetry. It's a story with grit and character--something we could use more of these days. It has more of an English worldly flavor than a slick and empty American one. The plot is timely, even though (or perhaps because) it's a 1993 movie. Greed, corruption at the government level, the little people who wind up paying. The main character is a jaundiced spy in the mold of Len Deighton's Harry Palmer. I watched it on NetFlix, who are using the inane title "CIA: Exiled." The production values are good, about B+ level. But these days I'd gladly give up some zillion dollar tripe for something that reminds me of life outside Hollywood.
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Woodyanders23 October 2015Disgraced former CIA operative Stephen Guerin (an excellent and convincing performance by William Peterson) lives in exile on the lush tropical island of Curacao. Guerin finds himself mixed up in a deadly insurance scam involving fellow expatriate and lone best friend Cornelius Wettering (robustly played by George C. Scott).
While the basic story sounds intriguing and the picturesque island scenery sure looks nice, this film alas never cooks the way that it ought to because of pedestrian direction by Carl Schultz, an often plodding pace, James D. Buchanan's overly convoluted script, a crippling dearth of tension, and a narrative that gets bogged down in too much rather tedious talk without nearly enough exciting action to offset it. Fortunately, the good cast keeps this movie watchable: Julie Carmen as Guerin's hard-nosed old flame Julia, Alexei Sayle as the shifty Seamuller, Maria Elligsen as the spunky Diana, Dennis Lipscomb as stuffy superior Henry Rawlings, Philip Anglim as pesky detective Van Vlaanderen, and George Cheung as the slippery Worthy Hsung. Trish Van Devere is wasted in a minor nothing role as a secretary. Ellery Ryan's slick cinematography and the spare moody score by Colin Towns are both up to speed. A decent diversion. -
donnazzass22 January 2004I just saw this movie on TV. I watched it because I am a great fan of William Peterson and I thought he was appropriately moody and mysterious in it. I liked the story and the way it was told and the bits of "colour locale" of Curacao, i.e. "Karnaval", which lasts about half a year now, I have been told. George C. Scott was, well, George C. Scott. He was never a favorite of mine, but he did the usual job.
What puzzled me is this: Trish vandeVere, Scott's last wife (how he ever could have picked this mediocre actress over the formidable COLLEEN DEWHURST will forever be a riddle to me, but then aging men do silly things) ... where was I ... Oh, ok, Ole Trish was billed as a major part, in the role of Rose.
Did anyone who saw this movie ever see Trish, or a person named Rose? I did not. Perhaps she was cut out of the TV version, but it was already a made for TV movie... so what was up with that. Just billing and bucks? -
bilborough6411 May 2009I liked this movie. It wasn't an Oscar winner, but it was interesting. I was surprised that it wasn't predictable. William Petersen plays an exiled CIA agent called Steven Guerin. Geurin is exiled to the American Consulate in Curacao. He is constantly being watched by his own people due to his discontent. He is also being sought out by the enemy to become a double agent. Guerin gets entangled in a web of intrigue when his friend Cornelius(George C. Scott) gets him involved in an insurance scam. Cornelius has a record of his own involvement in the sinking of a cargo ship and the deaths of his crew for money in an act of insurance fraud. Cornelius leaves the evidence in Guerin's lap. Guerin is then caught between mobsters from South Africa and China.
Petersen is wonderful as Guerin. The viewer can "taste" the character's discontent. I can't see any trace of what would become CSI's Gil Grissom. I have seen several of his early works and usually rent the movie before buying it if I liked it.. I would recommend all of them, especially "Gunshy". George C. Scott is wonderful as Cornelius. This is a role I wouldn't have expected him in. He is wonderful. Just enough to make the viewer pity him and just enough for the audience to loath him.
This movie is a keeper and I have already purchased it. -
In the time of "CORONAVIRUS WORLD WAR - 3" in 2020 when your own life is at the hands of a invisible pandemic it's cinema that breaks all barriers and provides solace and entertainment in the confines of home.George Scott is best remembered for his role as General Patton and also the first actor to refuse a Oscar which he won for that film. This movie "CURACAO(C.I.A : EXILED)" is watchable because of his acting as also exposing the murky world of "SHIP INSURANCE FRAUDS".The "Apartheid Era" of South Africa trade boycott makes the story realistic of that era in history as also the total junk ship "Prince of Malta" , a true replica of a sinking waiting to happen. As a ex "Marine Engineer" sailor with 23 years On/Off sea sailing under my belt could identify with the working conditions on ships like the "Prince of Gibraltar".A well researched film although i feel it didn't set the cash box office rolling. Ahoy !