Fortunes of War (1994)

User Rating:

5.2/10   

Director:

Thierry Notz

Writer (WGA):

Mark Lee (written by)

Release Date:

9 September 2003 (Finland)

Genre:

Action | Thriller

Plot:

When Canadian diplomat Carl Pimmler (Michael Ironside) sends his friend Peter Kernan (Matt Salinger)...

Plot Keywords:

Elvis | Elvis Presley | Independent Film

Cast

Matt Salinger	...	Peter Kernan
Sam Jenkins	...	Johanna Pimmler
Haing S. Ngor	...	Khoy Thuon
Martin Sheen	...	Francis Labeck
Michael Ironside	...	Carl Pimmler
Michael Nouri	...	Father Aran
Frankie J. Holden	...	Rodger Crawley
Vic Diaz	...	Colonel Shan
John Getz	...	Franklin Hewitt
Louie Katana	...	Corporal
Joonee Gamboa	...	Sifu (Witch)
Ronnie Francisco	...	Pakong Hotel Manager
Ronnie Lazaro	...	Border Patrol Lieutenant
Adriana Agcaoili	...	Young Thai Nun
Miguel Toledo	...	Eric

Runtime:

107 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Ultra Stereo

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Finland:K-18 | USA:R | Australia:M

Filming Locations:

Klosterneuburg, Lower Austria, Austria

Company:

New Moon Productions

what's the point?

I don't disagree with much of what the previous commenter said but sure do disagree with the "interpretation." This film is basically worthless. It's stupid, amateurishly made, and mediocrely scripted. The little love story element makes no sense, isn't really built up to, yet that is one of the MINOR matters of this film. It must have been very low budget, too. They don't even bother to show a plane crash, instead simply showing it angled downward (by tilting the camera in a close-up) and then having it referred to afterwards as having crashed.

Films compress time; I get that. But the lead actor repeatedly picking up the rocket-propelled-grenade launcher, which he had stolen from a bad-guy but without grabbing any accompanying supplies, without reloading it but magically new rockets kept appearing for him to shoot, one-at-a-time, until the last time he picks it up, it that time has not been reloaded, so he then says something like, "Darn, out of ammo," is jarring. He pushes a jeep over a cliff with his truck but the bad guys don't bother to shoot at him until he's down the road, out of range.

This resembles an elementary school play, written by kids themselves, with no goal other than to just get through it, not worrying about logic or entertainment along the way. A typical prairie fire has as much action as this flick, and watching the park service burn one off would be as entertaining as sitting through this, as at least then you know there's a future pay-off. The above no doubt sound like gags but I'm afraid they're true. Why do people who have so little film-making talent and so little interest in making something good go into this business? I agree exactly with the other comment about Haing Ngor but then say that we viewers should not consider stuff like this even simply acceptable time-killing material. This just plain stinks. The one thing I will say for the flick is that part of the ending was OK but those few seconds sure didn't make the rest of the viewing experience worthwhile. For that matter, another part of the ending was meant to be clever but it's something I'd seen and read as the "twist" in a bunch of other gold stories so had even predicted it.

What's more, UPN repeatedly promoted this as "starring Martin Sheen," only ever mentioning him at all, yet he's only in one per cent of it. They wouldn't have been much less truthful if they'd claimed it starred Charlie Chaplin or George Washington.