Live Wire

This is fun bad. Too many laughs to enjoy.

There's a forensic lab robot that grabs Bronson's ass, and it looks like a reject from the old Dr. Who.

They seem to avoid ever telling you why these people are being killed - just hash it up to beltway politics.

And they never hint at just how this amazing new explosive could ever possibly work. That's why Jurassic Park gave us the maple-covered mosquitoes. Just give us some kind of something to hang our hat on, even if it does strain disbelief.

And not only is our hero recovering from a deep personal tragedy, but his wife is also sleeping with the villain. And there's a recurring panty-less victim who keeps getting rigged to blow.

The best thing you can say about movies like this is that they never took themselves seriously. Well, for the most part that is.

Check out Roy Scheider in Chain of Command, or Lou Diamond Phillips in Alien Express for similar projects. Even harder to swallow then their plots, believing they were ever sold in the first place.

Long before his stint as James Bond, Pierce Brosnan did make some darn good movies. One of them is 'Live Wire'. Director Christian Duguay (The Hitchhiker series) has done a brilliant job in making Brosnan's entry into the world of action as smooth as possible. Brosnan plays Danny O' Neill, an Irish bomb defusion specialist working for the FBI's anti-terrorist division. The movie is a cat and mouse game between Brosnan's old adversary from the IRA and Brosnan himself. The IRA terrorist is out to make his millions from corrupt politicians and their wrongful ways. Ron Silver plays a Senator under threat and Brosnan is called in to protect him. The movie also intertwines Danny O' Neill's separation from his wife due to her alleged affair with the Senator (Ron Silver). All these make for very intriguing drama and fast paced yet "intelligent" action. Worth a rental definitely.

If you are a Pierce Brosnan fan, you must see this. This movie allows you to see Pierce Brosnan play a character that is not so James Bondian. The cast is great, and the story is the typical "hero saves the day" type. Unlike most terrorist type movies, the writers cleverly chose a weapon of destruction that is atypical and unique. I highly recommend this movie for action, good story, good characters, and entertainment in general. Not your run-of-the-mill action movie.

This is the best pre-bond Brosnan movie (ok so that's not saying much) but this is relly enjoyable if you leave your brain at the door and get used to brosnan's dodgy american accent.

a must see for all Brosnan & tounge in cheek action fans.

rating 8/10 for originality 9/10 for action 6/10 for script and direction (could have been better)

STAR RATING:*****Unmissable****Very Good***Okay**You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead*Avoid At All Costs

Danny O'Neill (Pierce Brosnan) is a bomb disposal expert.He's your typical cynical,hard-bitten good guy type,chewing on a cigar and uttering hard-edged one liners.Not only that,he's got the typical good guy set up.His young daughter's been killed in a tragic swimming pool accident,he's getting stick from his superiors for his unorthodox approach to his job and his wife Terry (Lisa Eilbacher) has left him and has started seeing smarmy senator Frank Traveres (Ron Silver).His life is about to get a whole lot worse,though,when a nasty piece of work by the name of Mikhail Rashid (Ben Cross) and his sidekick Al-red (Tony Plana) start putting explosive devices in the drinking water of politicians and eventually get plans to start targeting the rest of society as well.

In an action role he was to take on a few years before his debut as Bond,Brosnan manages the tough,swaggering good guy role reasonably well,as effective and convincing as he needed to be.Cross can always be relied on to deliver the goods in terms of presence as a good guy or bad guy respectively,but here his part is very poorly written and not given much meat to chew on at all.It's with the action that the film comes alive though,with one or two rollicking good sequences that you will have to see to believe.It certainly ain't with said performances or even the story which,by the end,is stewing so deeply in it's own preposterousness you can practically hear it gurgling.

But,hey,if it wasn't so silly,maybe it wouldn't have been such fun.That,and a surprisingly and ultimately pleasantly compact running time make Live Wire a genuine piece of no-brainer entertainment to savour.

Sit back,switch your brain off and enjoy.****