The Owl

This film is real bad, its a real bad film i tells ya. It even stoops to the rapping bad guy level, in fact barring sesame street i cant remember rap being used so effectively. Anyway, Bill Cosby is the rapping bad guy who is trying to kill the owl, other wise known as Alex L'Hiboux. The French name doesnt really explain why the actor playing the role keeps slipping into an English accent. Their are very few things to recommend this film. One of them is Uscar nominated Branscombe Richmond who is at his impeccable best as chief Walks with a Limp, the guy who taught the owl everything he knows. A star turn by Billy "Sly" Williams as gullett also stand's out.

I saw a bit of this film just once. It has haunted me for a very long time, I have failed in all my attempts to find it. I can identify with the hero since I'm writing this at 5:00 in the morning.

Great hero concept, but since I didn't see the whole thing I can't say more

An ex-investigative journalist can't sleep – he walks the street as a vigilante, taking on cases. He is driven by the murder of his wife and daughter years before and uses his martial arts skill to fight crime. When he finds a new drug Instant Iron creating crime, he is hired to stop the supply. Coincidentally a young girl hires him to find her father, a chemist, who may have been kidnapped to make more of the drug for criminals – does this connect to the man who murdered his wife?

I hate most TVM's. I especially hate those that are only designed to become cheap TV shows. This was clearly one of those – th plot sets up all the elements the producers wanted for the series, a love interest, a bar room friend with whom he has a shady past, a revenge story line, a criminal nemesis to wheel out regularly and some sort of semi-super powers. Unfortunately they forgot to add any type of spark – this is evident from the credits where we see the director is…oh dear…Alan Smithee.

The plot is lazy and predictable, the action is worst. The film is dull throughout and it's little wonder no-one picked it up. It's not helped by having cardboard cut out Adrian Paul in the lead role – can't he act at all – there's nothing funnier in the whole film than seeing him wailing to the sky in despair after the loss of his kid! Brian Thompson (X-files' Alien Bounty Hunter) is OK but the rest are as bad as Paul.

There's nothing to like here, the film is lazy and poor in every area. It's dull and even Adrian Paul seems to think he's better than this – and if HE looks down his nose at something then you know it'' gotta stink.

I just saw "The Owl" on TV, and man, what a bad flick. Did we need another vigilante martial artist? Marvel Comics should sue the TV company for plagiarism, the Owl is a dead ringer for The Punisher.

I voted 5 because I didn't want to influence the overall average. I haven't seen the movie but I read the original novel and was sorry to hear the film being savaged so. I would have hoped for a better treatment of the film by its author but apparently, from what other people have said, he was not trying to translate the novel on to the screen so much as he was trying to create a salable product and get a series going. Too bad! The novel was highly readable. It had a rough, crude vitality. Sure, it was unnecessarily violent but it was not the sort of book one picks up to read for its literary qualities. It was the sort of book one buys from a bus station paperback rack. It was fun, and best of all, the main character was memorable. He wasn't believable, he had no redeeming qualities, but he was memorable. Oh, well, another opportunity for good entertainment sacrificed on the altar of the desire for fame and money.