Manifiesto negro

I recently rented this promising mini series, I didn't even know they had adapted it for television. I was really looking forward to it since the book Icon is one of the best spy thrillers I have ever read. What a disappointment it was. The plot only loosely resembles the one in the book, the characters are completely miscast and there's some appalling acting. A shame really. The story behind Icon is perfect for the silver screen, but I think television budgets just aren't big enough for a decent adaptation of this spectacular book.

Forsyth deserves much, much better than this. Avoid and stick to the book, which is a must-read.

"Icon" was a fun, if long, miniseries. Patrick Swayze plays Jason Monk, who is an ex-CIA agent. As usual, he's roped into one last case. Here, it's by Nigel (Michael York). His assignment is to take down presidential hopeful Igor Komarov (Patrick Bergin). Igor wants to rule the world. I'm not kidding.

Thankfully, the movie is full of action. Patrick Swayze does a good job, but in some scenes he looks very old. Patrick Bergin goes over the top. I think he perfected his Russian accent by watching Natasha on "Rocky and Bullwinkle". Michael York is his usual professional self. The standout performance is by Jeff Fahey as a presidential aide.

In the end: If you don't mind the 3-hour running time, it's worth watching. If you can, take a look at the foreign trailer! For more insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com

Adapted from a Frederick Forsythe's novel - entertaining but nothing more - this TV movie is entertaining, not really boring, rather well made and also faithful to the book - as far as I remember - but because the book was not that exciting, I can't imagine the movie being better than the book, especially if it is faithful to it. Follow me? Anyway Frederick Forsythe's best novel will always remain his first DAY OF THE JACKAL, period. For the rest, the main good thing with him is that it is so well researched in terms of accuracy and details, which you don't feel in a film, no matter the directing and acting obvious skills. And also suspense always kept tight in Forsythe's material.

I haven't read the book Icon, but I understand it's quite different from the film. One of the reasons may be because it was a TV movie and didn't have a budget for the grand finale that was described in one of the reviews; another reason may be because most TV movies are not written to the same level as feature films. Given some feature films I've seen, that's pretty scary, but there we are.

Icon is the story of a retired US Operative, Jason Monk (Patrick Swayze) who comes out of retirement to return to Russia and bring to justice Komarov (Patrick Bergin), an enemy responsible for the death of Monk's fellow operatives years earlier.

Komarov is now running for President in the new Russia. Working with a member of the Russian police force (Annika Peterson), he discovers Komarov's true agenda, which includes wiping out ethnic groups using biological warfare.

Monk has an additional reason for returning to Russia - he has a daughter there and has learned that his wife died of cancer. He hasn't seen his daughter since she was a little girl; she's now 17.

This was a solid, if not overwhelmingly thrilling, miniseries that held my interest. And the cast was solid: Barry Morse, who was something like 88 when he did this miniseries; Ben Cross, Jeff Fahey whom I always think of as my elevator buddy; and Michael York.

Now, why do I call Jeff Fahey my elevator buddy? About 30 years ago, when he was on One Life to Live, we were on an elevator together. Around 2000, I went to an opening of some kind, and as I walked onto the elevator to leave, Jeff Fahey entered.

Anyway, this was pretty good. Sad to see Patrick Swayze, gone too soon.

Frederick Forsyth's books are always so intricately plotted, with twists and turns, and usually a great surprise ending. This adaptation had none of that.

So much of what was great in the book (the history of Monk and the betrayed agents; the plot to influence the outcome of the Russian election) were completely missing in this adaptation. Instead, there's this completely new plot about bio-weapons that was a yawner.

Forsyth's protagonists always operated in the shadows, forever just slightly beyond the reach of the antagonists. The joys of his books have always been the machinations of carrying out their mission. This film resigned itself to gunfights and car chases early on.

Swayze's Monk might as well have hung a sign around his neck saying "I AM A SECRET AGENT" for all the attention that he called to himself during the film. And with all of that attention, the amount of time that it took the bad guys to catch up to him was surprising.

Granted there was some energy to this film, which is why I'm giving it a "3" instead of a "1". It was also great to see some underutilized pros like Patrick Bergin, Ben Cross, Michael York, and Barry Morse.

I hope that someday, someone will once again do justice to a Forsyth film adaptation like "Day of the Jackal" did.