Countdown des Schreckens

The story is surprisingly non-cheesy, and well-crafted.

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.

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 by saying I watched the 114 minutes DVD-version and that's what I'll be reviewing.

Paul Hood is appointed Director of a special agency monitoring situations all over the world. It has hand picked expertise in all sorts of field and has the cooperation of all big agencies at their disposal. Their code-name: OP Center. On his first day Hood has to deal with a situation in Ukrania. Three nuclear warheads are stolen by ex-KGB agents. It's all up to OP Center to track them down and get them back.

The story is good, but the script isn't quite there. I missed the characters. You didn't get to know anything about them. You got to know a little about one or two, but not enough to get to know them. Now, remember I'm commenting on the DVD-version, I'll imagine you'll get more time to get to know the characters in a mini-series. Cause I was left with unexplained behavior by the characters and I wasn't impressed at all. The action is also weird. They're mostly in the command room and things are happening too fast. Now, you keep up with it it's not that, it's just that for instance too little time to come up with and execute a plan. They're jumping past many hours and you don't know what they did. Did they all go home to bed? It looks that way and I find that odd. And then there are some characters that you really don't know who is.

The actors are OK. They're not great, but they do a decent job. The lack of good character kind of takes the juice out of the actors. Harry Hamlin is good as Paul Hood.

What's probably the best thing about this movie is the cinematography. It's absolutely nice to watch. There are nice shots with nice composition and the little touch to it. The scenes are nicely lit, both day and night. The editing is all over OK, but there are something here and there.

The sets and decorations are OK. It's not the most recent movie so things look a little wannabe high-tech, but you don't really mind it. The look of the OP Center is good, with glass and a clean impersonal look to it.

The score is orchestral and has a proud military feel to it. It has a theme that you don't get hooked on, but recognize. It works good, but there are some places where they go away from the established sound and feel of the music and go for a more easy moody score. That sounded kind of odd, but it's minor details. All together with score and sound-mix, it's a movie that sounds good.

All in all OP Center is OK as a movie. There are some continuity and other goofs here and there, but it survives. What really kills this movie is the fact that it's not a movie. Cutting down a mini-series is a bad idea and it don't make a good movie. I guess the explanations to many of the characters behavior that I found strange lies in the lost screen time. My advise don't watch this movie, watch the mini-series.

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