Avenger

I happened to surf past this last night, and I have to say it surprised me. I was a big Frederick Forsythe novel fan years ago, and I did not realize this was based on one of his books until the credits rolled.

I missed the first half-hour (I'll watch it again sometime), but I was still able to enjoy every minute after that. I typically think about TV movies as being on a different scale - but this movie breaks the mold.

If you enjoyed "Day of the Jackal" (the original) you'll really like this one too. The main character "Dexter" had just the right mix of "good guy, bad guy" and the cinematography of the locations/background made me feel like I was on the mission with him. Heck, even my wife liked it!

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 idea of a retired Vietnam veteran becoming an avenger for reward, provided the targets are bad enough is often successful.However there is often a problem in winding the story up.

In this case though the plot starts well with villainy in Bosnia deserving punishment and leads to the Avenger making some interesting voyages and the encounter of colourful underworld characters the plot kind of vanishes with the involvement of stereo type crooked Congressmen and CIA or FBI agents. In the end the Avenger finds his man but then conclusion leaves so many loose ends to th rest of the story that the viewer is bound to feel let down.

A disappointing film not really worth watching.

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.

You can see it is a television movie. There is not much quality to it. They didn't put a lot of effort making this movie. Maybe with a higher budget the movie could have been better. You could do something decent with the story, even though it's one of those typical I'm-a-good-guy-with-a-conscience-and-take-all-the-bad-guys-down-by-myself. It's a revenge action movie, but one without a budget, and I'm sorry to say not great acting. Sam Elliott has been better in other movies but in this one it's all cliché and average. It's clearly been made to entertain a television public on a rainy day. It's watchable but that's about it. I would rather pick another movie if you haven't seen this one. I'm sure you can find better without having to search too far.