Ministry of Vengeance (1989) User Reviews

They ought to rate this movie P.U.

[dinky-4 · 4/10 · 8 September 2002]

As is common in so many straight-to-video efforts, this offers a tired, formulaic script featuring some minor, washed-up actors in a project that's obviously hampered by a low budget. Even if you're simply looking for a 90-minute "time-killer," this will not suffice.

Particularly bad is the big torture scene in which John Schneider, who's fallen into the hands of the ruthless, sadistic bad guys, is tied to a chair so he can be subjected to electroshocks. The bad guys pull open his shirt, but since he's wearing an undershirt, this has little effect. Then they poke him a couple of times in the neck with the electrical wires. Then they give up, figuring that Schneider can't be forced to talk! What torture school did these guys go to? The Jack and Jill Academy of the Big Ouch?

For a much better scene of John Schneider being tortured with electricity, check out "Cocaine Wars." At least the bad guys in that movie have enough sense to strip him to the waist.

Not enough "Vengeance"

[tarbosh22000 · 4/10 · 23 November 2010]

John Schneider, of the legendary Cocaine Wars (1985), here plays David Miller, A Vietnam Vet that became a priest after he left the service. He has plenty of flashbacks about the horrors he saw in 'Nam and, naturally, he is a man of peace and nonviolence. At a Rome airport, a gang of super-evil terrorists open fire on the crowd. The leader of the terrorists is Ali Aboud (Miano). He personally kills Miller's wife Gail (Register) and his young son Kim (Joey Peters). This shakes Miller's faith, and, after consulting with his fellow priest and confidante, Rev. Hughes (Kennedy), he decides to take a break from Priest-ing and goes on an obsessive quest to find Aboud.

He reconnects with his old 'Nam buddy Col. Freeman (Tolkan), now a tough-as-nails drill sergeant. Freeman agrees to help Miller, but first puts him through his paces once again and re-trains him for combat. Now trained and teamed up, Miller discovers Aboud is hiding out in Lebanon, so the two men go there. There, Miller meets Rev. Bloor (Beatty), a kindly Priest in a little church, and Zarah (Apollonia). Now closer to exacting his revenge on Aboud and his men than ever before, will he be able to do it - or will a conspiracy that goes all the way to the top prevent it from happening? One of the best things about Ministry of Vengeance is the top-notch cast. Everyone here puts in a quality performance - First off, we forgot to mention Yaphet Kotto as the bureaucrat Whiteside - whose "special appearance" is a glorified cameo. His talent deserved more. Miano is scummy and evil as Aboud, Beatty is quirky as Bloor, Kennedy is dependable as the kindly priest, Tolkan seems to be having fun as the R. Lee Ermey-style army guy, and Schneider is once again great as Miller. Miller is having a crisis between faith and reality, which seems to be the main crux of the film. What happens in real life - murder, slaughter and terror - somehow seems overpowering and blots out Miller's peace-loving idealism, which is a nice thought but just isn't functional in the real world. Only one type of ministry is real - the Ministry of Vengeance! Now, while philosophically, the movie is on solid, interesting ground, and the cast of players is equally solid, the only problem here is that it can't really sustain its intensity over its entire running time. There really should have been a lot more hard-hitting vengeance in the final stages of the film, but the middle section drags, and it never truly recovered from that slack.

But Ministry of Vengeance is a quality, theatrically-released product. While everything seems in place, it could have used just a bit more edge for our tastes.

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Somtime murder is necessary to maintain credibility

[sol-kay · 4/10 · 6 April 2007]

(There are Spoilers) After getting his fill of killing in Vietnam rough and tumble combat vet David Miller, John Schneider, chose to be a man of the clothe, a Protestants minister, to make amends for his life as a cold blooded and heartless killer in the service of his country. Back in the states David gets married to sweet and beautiful Gail, Meg Register,and has a cute little daughter Kim, Joey Peters,as he tries to forget his violent past. It's not that long when David's past catches up with him when waiting for a flight at the Rome Airport both Gail & Kim are gunned down in a wild shootout by a gang of Arab terrorists lead by a sneering and seedy looking Ali Aboud ,Robert Miano, who David becomes obsessed with in his attempt to find and get revenge, by knocking him off.

Milling over what to do David decides to take a leave of absence from his church telling his boss Rev. Hughes, George Kenndey, that he has to have some time to think things over. What David really wants to do is get his groove, killer instinct, back. Going to see his former army buddy and fellow Vietnam vet the hard as nails Col. Freeman, James Tolkan, David wants him to whip him into shape and get him ready to do combat with the bad guys in battle torn Lebanon where David found out Ali's operating out of.

A lot of shooting and explosions in the film with David also getting captured by the Ali Gang and tortured unmercifully to get out of him the reason why he's in Lebanon and who exactly, in the US government, he works for. It later turns out that Ali****SPOILERS**** himself is a CIA operative who's controlled, together with Col. Freeman, by this shady looking character who's cover is that of a State Department paper pusher the mysterious and shifty eyed Mr. Whiteside, Yephet Kotto. Ali trying to put on a happy, or terrorist, face has trouble controlling those under his command like the very horny Al-Hassen, Daniel Radell. Al-Hassen screws everything up by instead of guarding one of David's fellow freedom fighter the sexy daughter of Rev. Bloor (Ned Beatty), also a CIA operative, Zareh (Apollonia Kotero) he attempts to rape her! This causes Al-Hassen to end up with his pants pulled down and Zareh escaping; after she whacked the overly eager, to get himself laid, Al-Hassan over the head with his own gun.

David having trouble pulling the trigger, he still didn't get over his experiences in the Vietnam War, almost lets the hated Ali Aboud get away until Col. Freeman suddenly pops up, literally from the dead, to save Ali from getting shot only to have Ali shoot him instead! Col. Freeman messed up when he wouldn't shoot, as he was ordered by Mr. Whiteside, David which in effect cost him his life. The entire screen now lights up with Ali, now completely out of his head, setting off a cave full of explosives blowing up the entire set and finally putting an end to this, the movie, insanity.

In the end David again decides to leave the church, didn't he leave it already?, to go on a journey of awakening and self-discovery in order for him to find out just why he was foolish enough to get himself involved with a movie like "Ministry or Vengeance"; and if it was really the Devil that made him do it in the first place.

Unintentionally Funny

[jimcarter1959 · 1/10 · 7 January 2020]

It's so bad, you have to laugh. It reminds me of George Carlin's observation about the U. S. always being at war with countries of brown people.

A dull rip-off

[Wizard-8 · 28 November 2000]

I don't really have a problem with a movie that's a rip-off as long as it is competently done. In this case, the movie being ripped off is "The Amateur". While that movie had some problems, it wasn't boring and at least kept moving. "Ministry Of Vengeance", on the other hand, takes forever to get going, was obviously shot on a low budget, and isn't the least bit exciting. Too bad, because it gets off to a promising start with its showing us the grief and rage the protagonist feels (though soon he turns bland.) You could do worse, but you could do better by renting "The Amateur" instead.

I would have done the same

[chrismulkeyisgod · 4/10 · 26 December 2010]

I watched this movie with a couple of my children after we opened our Christmas presents. I was not in Vietnam myself, but I have certainly felt an empathy for these types of people in the past (Apocolypse Now REDUX, Platoon, The Deer Hunter, Full Metal Jacket, Ministry of Vengeance, etc...). When his family *(SPOILER ALERT)* dies inside of an airport a Vietnam vet who had renounced violence to become a minister, David Miller regains his killer instinct through intense training after a terrorist slaughters his wife and daughter in an airport massacre. In Lebanon, it turns out that those who he though were his greatest friends are actually his greatest enemies, and in trying to untangle what is real and what is not real, the protagonist learns a little bit about himself--and a little bit about his faith. I was a little confused at the end when everyone in his church slowly applauded his wavering faith...as a cross worshiper, I'm not sure that would be my immediate reaction if I were there. My children seemed to think that Yaphet Kotto was much better in this role than other roles they had previously seen him in...I'll take their word for that one (LOL).

Could've Been So Much More

[nammage · 2/10 · 16 July 2017]

You know it's downhill when you see soldiers walking through the jungles of Vietnam looking as if they're in their mid thirties to forties not wearing helmets, and just being carefree in their stance. Apparently the Vietnamese soldiers also didn't wear helmets but they did wear ninja looking outfits or just day clothes. Or maybe they were villagers without a village. Oh but then it was just all a dream a priest was having.

Then some terrorists shoot up an airport and makes a speech about the plane isn't taking off and all hostages will die...except the priest. He lives but his wife and daughter die... what's a priest doing with a wife and daughter? Not much of a priest, huh? Oh, he's a reverend. Dressed like a priest. Oh but then he calls himself a priest. What is he a reverend or priest? No! He's a "Minister of Vengeance!" and talks about the injustice that happened to his wife and daughter. Um, what about all the other people in the airport. He never talks about them. The bad guys killed everyone but him. Not a very caring priest...um...reverend...um...minister...um...whatever...when he only thinks of himself and his family. Kind of selfish of him, no?

First time seeing George Kennedy act where I felt maybe he should've stopped acting in the film prior to this one. It was awful. He's also called "Father", "Reverend" etc., Talk about being in conflict. Oh but he quits the church but still goes around being a priest.

The more the film goes on it's like the message seemed to be from a side point-of-view: Christians are the good guys evading Muslim countries and converting them to Christianity. But the film seems to paint them off as Protestants doing it but reeking of Catholism. When "good" is being done it's by a "reverend" when bad is being done it's by a "Father" or a "priest". So, when Schneider's character is going after vengeance he's a priest but in the in between he's a reverend or minister or what not.

Maybe I'm seeing more into it than what it actually is but I studied theology for many years so I could properly debate religious peoples (of all faiths) and while my grasp on Catholicism is not as strong on Protestantism, I think here I can see pretty clearly. The center of the film rests in Lebanon. Lebanon was in a Civil War from 1975-1990. In the early 1980s (1981-2, I believe) Israel invaded Lebanon where Syrian forces occupied Lebanon (which actually didn't end until around 2005). Christianity did have a strong influence in Lebanon during that time, especially in the government so when I watch this film a lot of what is stated politically and religiously doesn't make sense. The lack of mention of the Sunnis fighting against the Shi'ites in this is also baffling. I mean it's mentioned that Muslims are fighting against Christians and Jews etc., which, yes, was true but Muslims were also fighting against other Muslims.

This film could have touched on all these issues instead of just making it a Christian clergyman seeking vengeance for his wife and daughter. It also seemed as if a year for the story wasn't really mentioned, not that I remember. If it was 1988, the history seems off. If the early 1980s the US was there from 1981-1984 (I think); a lot of countries occupied Lebanon during that time period.

It seems they chose the destination of Lebanon to capitalise on the conflicts happening there by taking a Christian priest/reverend/minister whatever to avenge his Christian wife and daughter over the evil Muslims of Lebanon who kill and murder good Christians who just want to save their souls. I may be stretching that a bit but otherwise it's just a movie about capitalising on a war torn nation with no other point but money. While both are pretty bad, at least the former has a plot.

This film is ridiculous. Speaking as a lifelong atheist: this film insults all religions involved, and insults the country Lebanon, the Civil War they went through, the countries that invaded and occupied it, and anything else dealing with the conflict. It also insults those who fought in Vietnam on either side making it seem as if they were incompetent at being soldiers.

This film is an insult to everyone, including those who viewed it, like me, the other reviewers, those who rated it and especially those who helped make it. It was a made-for-money film, in my opinion. I hope it didn't make a dime.

Usually I would give this film a 1/10 but it did show something films of this accord rarely show: the US government in a bad light, and in 1989 when this film was made, that's saying something. But it doesn't excuse putting everyone and everything else in a bad light, except Christianity. That's the only thing in this film they seemed to care anything about except of course having a gun-toting priest/reverend going around killing people but then again...I mean look at the hypocritical speech Schneider's character makes at the end and the cheers he gets from the people in the church.

Enough said.

2/10