Countdown des Schreckens

It's not bad for a TV miniseries, although you really don't get to know most of the characters, famous names or not, as other commenters have noted.

The exception is Harry Hamlin as the newly appointed head of one of those security agencies within the US government whose existence is kept so secret that everybody knows about it. He's having the usual trouble with his wife, the criminally radiant Kim Cattrall. I call it "the John Wayne problem." Are you more in love with your job or your wife? Any normal man would have no such trouble with Kim Cattrall. He would quit his job at once and do whatever she told him to, just for the chance to squeeze and bite her once in a while.

It seems the Russians or some fractious subgroup of them, have stolen a couple of nuclear warheads, put them on a ship in the Mediterranean and are schlepping them to Benghazi. Hamlin's mission, should he choose to accept it: recover the missing missiles by deploying Special Action troops to take over the ship. Meanwhile, there is the problem of a spy in the Special Advanced Ranger Task Force Agency.

It's all handled pretty well, considering that the budget could hardly have been lavish. The climactic shoot out, though handled in a pedestrian manner, is still exciting. I missed the usual cliché in which -- while trying to disarm the device that will shortly explode and sink the ship -- somebody had to choose between the red and green wires.

The acting is of professional quality with no one particularly standing out. Rod Steiger must have been hired for about two hours' worth of work time.

Let me start off by saying that I saw the 114 minute long version of this film that was released on DVD. Everything in this review is based on that, as it is the only one I have seen. I have read two of Tom Clancy's OP Center books, so I knew most of the fictitious people before viewing this film, and I must say, it's quite fun to watch, having read so much about them... most even looked almost exactly like I imagined they would. The casting department did a great job on that... their work is quite impressive, with just about every single recurring character from the books being perfectly cast, as far as looks, type and personality goes. The plot is interesting, realistic and develops nicely throughout the entire film. The pacing is very good, it keeps you watching and stays quite intense more or less all the way through... blink once, and you might miss something crucial to the story. The acting is pretty much all top-notch, with almost no exceptions. They managed to get some fairly big names(well, for TV, anyway), too. The film has plenty of tension and suspense throughout, with a few scenes being packed to the limit with it. The action is great. Much better than in regular TV-movies. The special effects are also of unusually high quality. My only real problem with this film is that there's too little of it... it's clearly cut down from a larger product, and it feels like half a film as a result. I hope I'll get a chance to see a full mini-series one day. I would love to see the rest of this. I recommend this to any fan of Tom Clancy and any of his books. It's his style, through and through. Just make sure to see the full one... don't go for the shortened one I saw, if you can choose either. 7/10

I liked this TV movie better than Tom Clancy's other book-into-film movies, "Hunt for Red October" and "A Clear and Present Danger." The extra screen time possible with a TV mini-series makes a mini-series the best way to film a long and complicated book. The acting was good and the photography and special effects were great.

The 170 minute mini series is excellent, i've seen it several times on TV, and it does an excellent job of keeping the viewers attention. The unfortunate thing is that it is next to impossible to get a hold of, it doesn't appear to ever have been released on DVD, and the VHS version is a completely butchered cut lasting 114 minutes.

The cut version is still able to convey the main plot, but will leave viewers scratching their head throughout the movie as parts are obviously missing. Very unfortunate as it falls well short of what the full length brings to the table.

My rating would be: 170 minute version : 9/10 114 minute version : 5/10

Fortunately I recorded the full 170 minute mini-series version of this off TV a few years ago, and subsequently digitized it before the tape deteriorated too much. I just recently re-watched it and was pleasantly surprised at how well it still stands up over 20 years later. As I recall, there was a fair bit of criticism when it was first released, that it was too slow moving, too much talking heads and not enough action. I find these kinds of criticisms tend to come from people who lack the necessary attention span to follow a complex plotline. For mine, it like slow moving, detailed drama - it makes for a much better balance - the talking heads aspect makes a story like this more akin to reading a book, and in a sense more realistic.

I agree with the other reviewer who said the 170 minute version is nearly impossible to get. I have tried for several years to find it on DVD and on bit-torrent sites without any luck. I even looked for it in video rental stores (when they were still a thing). The 114 minute version is available, but you can't cut out 33% of a story and expect it to make sense... and it doesn't.