Jack Higgins - Das Abkommen

I watched this again today having been let down somewhat on the first viewing. I hoped I'd been little harsh on the TV treatment since I like Jack Higgins stuff and I was willing to give it another go. A second viewing didn't raise my appreciation. They seem to have spent loads on locations, this thing goes all over the world and there are a few decent sets. The story is fine and the woman playing Bernstein is excellent but Rob Lowe and most of the rest of the cast are dreadful. I can see a few well known faces in there but they deliver their lines as though they are drugged. It looks like it was shot on an old camcorder and the music sounds like it came from a 80's digital watch. I guess it depends on the production company and the resources they've got but I've seen many TV movies with good production values, Robin Cooks Formula for Death springs to mind as a good example. I've also seen Thunder Point with Kyle Maclachlan as Sean Dillan, it's just as bad.

As the book was superb but it isn't quite there almost but not quite. It needed a little more of a jolt in the action/drama department and that is one characteristic that isn't present in most Jack Higgin's book-based movies which is a crying shame if you ask me. Rob Lowe is once again Mr. Sean Dillon, professional IRA terrorist contractor turned British Government assassin whose job this time is to recapture a vital document called the Chungking Convenant which allowed the British to keep Hong Kong for another 100 years. The problem is that the Mafia wants it as well and they dispatch a seemingly legitimate businessman and his beautiful daughter to beat Ferguson to the punch. I like the fact they kept the original cast members in these films to give them some stability and credibility which is unusual for the vast majority of TV movies. It is also amusing that another reviewer couldn't understand that Prochnow's daughter wasn't his real daughter she was his wife's real daughter and yes the Italian bad guy's name is Giovanni what did you think his name should be Ralph or Edward? The poor devil couldn't even figure out that Prochnow's character was HALF Italian not full Italian. Not a film you are going to watch routinely or even twice for that matter the point is to watch it so you can say you have if someone ever asks you. That's it end of story.

This movie was really enjoyable. Although the plot wasn`t extremely interesting at times, the film had other qualities like some of the settings and beautiful women. Dapkunaite and Deborah Moore get a high score for there beauty, especially Dapkunaite was very charming. The music score was also fine and contributed as well.

The movie was 2h 40 min long but it was fine all the way through.

This was the first of Rob Lowes involment in Jack Higgin`s novels to be filmed, he showed in both film he`s a fine actor.

I tend to rate movies twice: once for technical merit and once for how much I enjoyed it. I gave On Dangerous Ground a high enjoyment rating ( I definitely enjoyed it.) but a low technical merit rating. (Some of the acting was weak and the story line was a bit difficult to track.) but I liked it!!

Rob Lowe sleepwalks through this convoluted plot, with barely a glimmer of an expression ever crossing his face. I think he was meant to be an ex-IRA man who now worked for the highest bidder, but if so he'd lost his accent along the way. Most of the cast were equally underwhelmed by their parts, but with the main Italian villain being called, in all seriousness,'Don Giovanni', this is hardly surprising. He had a German nephew - Jurgen Prochnow, who did show plenty of expression but mostly of the 'how did I get into this film?' kind - and Prochnow had a German stepdaughter from his dead wife, which made the Italian mafia link a little tenuous. The plot was merely an excuse for lots of different locations, and ultimately a pointless exercise. However, along the way the English were shown to be pinstripe suited men who hid swords in their walking sticks, the Irish all drank a lot and danced to the sound of fiddles in sawdust floored pubs and the Scots were barking mad, rolling their eyes and saying 'och aye the noo' at every possible opportunity. The Chinese were in it too, all speaking Oxford-educated style English. It's very long, which is lucky for Prochnow as it gave his hair time to turn from grey to blond. This was the most interesting thing in the movie, but it rates high for amusement, albeit of the wrong kind.