Avenger

I liked it. Sure it was kinda silly and certainly flawed but it entertained me for 2 hours. Mostly this is due to Sam Elliot; always a compelling screen presence. The first half of the movie pulled me in and seemed somewhat believable. Then there was the second half. Like the part with the pilot and how carelessly Dexter endangers her. That was a total amateur move and at odds with his previously established professionalism. This is when the movie started going off the rails for me. That and the cartoonishly evil senator willingly to do whatever it takes to complete Project Whatchamacallit. Then the ending, again Dexter displays amateurism and was lucky, ridiculously lucky, to get away with what he did. But, then again, stuff blew up real good. Hey, it was an entertaining enough flick and if it ever turns into a TV series I'll watch it, but then again I used to watch MacGuyver.

The film is based on the novel by Frederick Forsyth, who coincidentally also penned "The Kill List, "The Day of The Jackal" and "The Odessa File", all which became films. His craftmanship is nothing short of cat/mouse routine. The film turned out to be rather well done. A TNT made for TV movie with Sam Elliot ( Roadhouse, The Mask) at the helm as a former Vietnam Special Forces cleaner. There is great character drive in this film and Timothy Hutton plays a CIA operative sent to stop his character. The plot is very good as Elliot's character is out to right a few wrongs. Strong delivery, great pace of the film and well worth a look at. I give this 6 out of 10

I read the book twice. It is very well written as are most of Frederick Forsyth's books. When I heard the movie was out, I made a special effort to watch it. What a disappointment. This made-for-TV movie deviates in many details from the book. Of course it is not unusual for a screen play to deviate from the book it is based upon. However, in my opinion, there was no need to have this screenplay deviate from Forsyth's book. The location and description of the "home" of the bad guy is gutted in the movie. The scenes where the bad guy is brought to task are a sad parody of the book. The "secret" that is revealed at the end of the book was omitted in the movie, which means the whole use of the "secret" becomes a disconnect. And, as much as I like Sam Elliot as an actor, in this case the part of Cal Dexter was seriously miscast. I will not bother to watch this movie again. My recommendation: read the book and skip this movie.

Being a big Forsyth fan, I lapped this one up. The names, James Cromwell, Timothy Hutton and Sam Elliott sounded good and I knew the book. But, I'm afraid something happened in the scripting of Forsyth's book because this film goes from the precision, step by step thriller that is the book to a plodding, happenstance event that disappoints rather than satisfies. The premise of the book is based on the gutsy exploits of the tunnel rats in Viet Nam who went into the tunnels after the enemy. The movie builds on that but loses it in the wrap-up. The ending works on too many circumstantial contingencies and loses the planning and excitement of Forsyth's style. In short, in comes off not bad but rather mediocre. Too bad, as this film had a lot of talent to work with and an exciting thriller. Too bad the script writer didn't know how to put together a workable ending.

This is a story we would all like to live, if not then you do not live in the "real world". We all want to get even with the person that did us wrong, the only problem is we would never get away with this. We would all like too but we can not. We all have dreamed of getting back at a friend/neighbor or ex and we try and think about the ultimate revenge but this is the best that it can be. I guess we can dream. Maybe some day we can all try and make a statement that this film makes until then have a great life and think about how you all treat people, cause if you treat someone wrong you maybe be avenged, then maybe Sam Elliot may visit you.