America's Most Wanted

Keenan Ivory Wayans! Jon Voight! Action! Thriller! Suspense!

Yawn...

Well, I can't say it's a bad movie, it's just not a good one. Basically, it's Mr. Wayans in the tried, tired, and true role of The Honest Soldier Being Framed By an Evil Army Official. If it wasn't so formulmatic, it'd be a lot more enjoyable. Alas, the movie does nothing to establish it's own identity separate from other similar films. The acting is suspect in parts and some of the one-liners make you cringe. Jon Voigt is the only actor who seems remotely believeable, but even his acting seems a bit forced in parts.

Final Analysis: I wouldn't rent it, but if you're not doing anything else and you come across it on the TV, it might be a good guilty pleasure.

This is a fine romp of a movie, full of interesting plot twists and developments, and not too heavy on mindless violence. The politics of the story are a timely warning against the military industrial complex that would destroy democracy for its own greed. The true hero is the one who abides by human values rather than accepting the blind authoritarianism so common in right-wing zealotry. Jon Voight superbly skewers this insanity masquerading as patriotism in his performance. Jill Hennessy provides adept detective work in uncovering the conspirators heinous plot. A very enjoyable adventure.

Although the movie has a couple of slow and boring parts, it's considerably more intelligent than the average action/thriller flick. There are also a couple of hilarious scenes, but I wouldn't want to spoil them for you. But the acting from the supporting cast is pretty abysmal, even though Wayans himself is good. So it evens out to be a fairly average, unmemorable movie.

Enjoyable movie by today's standards. It used some technology that was exploited one year later in another movie called "Enemy of the State". More than one subplot came together nicely at the end. Contains mystery and suspense interspersed with action. Not being overly critical, I found only one sentence that I would have changed with different words. A seldom seen movie, this little gem has a few surprises that can keep one's interest to the finale.

I think I've finally seen all of this movie, which one channel seems to run every week.

It's fairly ridiculous. Jon Voight has an absurd accent to which he is fully committed. Jill Hennessey plays most of her part in what appears to be a summer pajama top (and wonderfully perfect makeup). The military has whatever resources they need to advance the plot, but never enough to crush the hero. The twists are visible from miles ahead. But it remains entertaining.

I think that it is an advantage to the watchability that the hero (Keenan Ivory Wayans) is also the writer. Banter comes out more believable when the writer has to put it in his own mouth.