Raven

If you loved other Burt Reynolds action flicks like "Malone" or "Stick", which of course you did or you wouldn't be reading this, you'll like this one. Burt plays Jerome Katz, AKA "The Raven", an assassin for the government. When his latest mission busts, he goes underground. He turns up a few years later as a mercenary who plays by his own rules. His newest job is kill Martin Grant (Matt Battaglia) who is a fugitive. As usual, it doesn't go as planned. The best action sequence was in the beginning, so watch out for that. "Boogie Nights" was only a few years away at this point.

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Disjointed action film features an unfunny Burt Reynolds as Raven (hence, the title character), the leader of a team of hotshot mercenaries. This specialized team of hardcore mercenaries serve as government operatives to the United States. On a routine mission in Bosnia, the mercenary fighters must retrieve a "decoder" device which will render the U.S. the most powerful nation in the world. However, when the going gets the tough, the tough turn into a state of foolishness. Each squad member becomes systematically eliminated...and the mission was deemed...a fiasco...

Raven, left for dead due to a helicopter crash...has turned out to be very much alive...and boy...is he having fun eliminating the competition... Raven, after taking a one year hiatus from his enjoyable job as a professional killer, is now self-employed. He feels a necessity to eradicate the "Four Stars," a group comprising of corrupt U.S. Senators who were responsible for selling Raven out during the disastrous mission at Bosnia. One by one, the members of the Four Stars succumb to Raven's various booby traps, and the remaining few must join forces with several ex-mercenaries for Raven is capable of undermining an esoteric government conspiracy. When the odds turn substantially difficult, the hardened feel compelled...to spout out stupid wisecracks!

RAVEN was a bomb of titanic proportions. The film's premise was one extended cliché with every stereotypical characters (i.e. Corrupt government officials, lonesome mercenary, damsel-in-distress, etc.) imaginable. The pyrotechnics were plentiful, and the body count was surprising high, but RAVEN lacked pizzazz and both a credible cast and plot. The humor in RAVEN, granted, was hysterical at times. Still, the humor in RAVEN was undeniably sophomoric...

RAVEN was a numbing experience. The film tried to be a mixture of both a comedy and an action/adventure film. However, this film manages to FAIL on both accounts. The motion picture, RAVEN, like a nomad, wanders around aimlessly with nowhere to go and no direction to seek. This movie had absolutely no ambitions and the ineptitude cages the entire film in, being viewed as no more than a low-rent actioner. Burt Reynolds certainly has done better films in his life...and he definitely has had better experiences.

RAVEN is simply a pitiful, trite, as low as they can get thriller with no suspense that can't be predicted a million miles away. SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT this is not! The only justifiable reason to watch this movie is to check out the fine actress, Krista Allen, who shows plenty of promise. Her dynamic appeal and wonderful personality make this film barely palatable.

RATING: *1/2 out of ****.

Burt Reynolds is the lead man in a team of mercenaries being run by the CIA. Sent in to get a fifty-million-dollar maguffin, they make a lot of things go boom, and most of them wind up dead. Not Reynolds and Matt Battaglia. Battaglia decides he wants to retire. He takes half of the maguffin and disappears. Reynolds realizes his bosses want him dead too. He takes his half of the maguffin anf disappears, and builds a team of private mercenaries. A few years later, Reynolds shows up and demands his half of the maguffin. Battaglia says he destroyed it. Reynolds goes around killing various corrupt government officials, and takes Battaglia's girl friend, Krista Allen hostage.

It's a fine movie if you want to watch things go boom, and Reynolds reciting his lines adequately, if you can put up with Harry Mafredini's dumb score. For a good actor, Reynolds made a lot of bad movies, and turned down a lot of good ones. I suppose it was based on the size of the check. This one clearly was large enough. It never had a theatrical release.

I'm a big fan of Burt Reynolds and his performance and presence is the best thing about this otherwise run of the mill cheap action flick. For action fans there is quite a bit of gunplay, explosions and hand to hand fighting. It wasn't done well enough to make up for the film's other shortcomings. This was pretty poorly written and with the exception of Burt, really poorly acted. Raven is nothing special, but actors need to work and I'm sure it got Burt a paycheck.

This is a film worthy of having on in the background, save that it would be incomprehensible in those circumstances. The Acting is abysmal, especially from those 'on the hill' (who all appear to have been reading the script from a document a little too far out of comfortable view!) It is a modestly passable action film, with the main star too old for the part he is playing.

I have had better evenings entertainment when too ill to watch anything!

The producers think that just by adding an on-screen tag that the action is in , for instance, Bosnia, is sufficient to set a background that is obviously nowhere near the named location.

Even the 'love interests' are wholly unbelievable!

Not a terribly good film at all.