The Peacemaker

When nuclear warheads get stolen during decommissioning in Russia, American military agents Thomas Devoe and Julia Kelly start to try and track their movements before they get into the wrong hands. Julia's intelligence background and Thomas' more direct approach don't gel too well, but they must recover the weapons before they are used in a terrorist strike against the US.

This starts well – with the detonation of a nuke in rural Russia, and indeed it goes on quite well from there. The story is the basic 'terrorist with stolen nuke' story but it has sufficient ability to rise above the norm to be quite enjoyable. The odd-couple of Devoe and Kelly isn't made too much of and it avoids that pitfall. The action scenes are handled well and, though lacking in flair, they do contain plenty of tension and excitement.

The cast really help – in particular Clooney. Clooney takes what could have been just a one dimensional tough military role and adds layers to it. His violence is just beneath the surface and it shows in his face and eyes. At times he does what is expected of him – but for the most he lifts the role and the film. Kidman also does well – at times she is a screaming side-kick, but she also has a bit of depth there too. The support cast never really get beyond ethnic stereotype – only Armin Mueller-Stahl has a good role. There are some interesting roles given to now famous people – Boatman (Carter in Spin City) and, to complete the ER coonnection between star and director, Goran Visnijc in a tiny role.

Overall this is a standard story. But a top-class Clooney and plenty of good, tense action scenes make this much better than the average stolen bomb flick.