Sole Survivor

In Seattle, while grieving in the cemetery the lost of his wife and little daughter in a plane crash, the former reporter Joe Carpenter (Billy Zane) is contacted by a strange woman that is being chased by FBI. She makes him understand that his daughter might be alive. Joe decides to investigate deeper what happened with the domestic flight 353 and the causes of the mysterious accident. Meanwhile, the sadistic agent Yates (John C. McGinley) follows Joe, killing and torturing people contacted by Joe, trying to catch Rose. "Sole Survivor" is a too long movie, with lots of unnecessary flashbacks and a disappointing twist. The story has a good beginning as if it were X-Files, and a terrible ending. The stupid and unbelievable character of Yates, with gratuity sadism with people, is the worst in this mini. The accident is explained, but the reason for such lunatic kills and tortures so many persons along the story is simply ridiculous. The reason why Rose contacts Joe is also silly. "Sole Survivor" is only recommended for a rainy day without any other option for killing time. My vote is six. Title (Brazil) "O Sobrevivente" ("The Survival")

Sole Survivor is the movie adaptation of a supernatural thriller book by Dean Koontz.

The 3 hour epic teeters on greatness but somehow, someway misses the mark and misses it hard.

It tells the story of man played by the incredibly underrated Billy Zane who lost his wife and daughter in a plane crash. Before he knows it he finds himself embroiled in a supernatural conspiracy that may explain what really happened on that fateful day.

Also starring Scrubs (2001) star John C. McGinley this powerhouse of a movie is one of those that has a great concept but runs out of steam about half way through.

Also starring Timecop (1994) star Gloria Reuben and former child star Jodelle Ferland I was really enjoying Sole Survivor up until the point that it became apparent it really wasn't going anywhere special.

The film is worth watching for Zane & McGinley alone but the heartbreaking thing is how much potential this had. Sole Survivor had limitless potential but Koontz clearly ran out of ideas (Good ones anyway).

A damn fine attempt regardless.

The Good:

Billy Zane and John C. McGinley are excellent

Great first half

Some nice ideas

The Bad:

Plot gets a bit muddled

Too much "God" speak

Finale was a dud

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

I hate kids, also likely to be my last words

Dean Koontz writes a superb story and part of his strength is that he develops his characters so well. Movies based on his books have not been as successful because film-makers often aim for horror and action at the expense of characterisation. I'm happy to say that "Sole Survivor" does not fall into this short-coming. The movie retains not only the drama, suspense and mystery of the book, but also the characterisations, especially in the first half of the movie. The acting is superb, particularly from Billy Zane and Rachel Victoria Roberts, who make their characters totally believable. The movies does lose some impact in the 2nd half as the character of Yates descends into a caricature of evil. The movie would have retained more credibility if he was portrayed as fanatic rather than lunatic. Nevertheless, the movie maintains its suspense to the end and, in my view, represents the best translation to screen of any Dean Koontz book I have seen to date. This is a movie well worth seeing.

A man loses his daughter and wife in a plane crash. He has to cope with the loss, and in the process of finding out why the plane went down he meets a woman who someone wants to kill and subsequently starts being hunted by a few CIA agents. The agents were involved in cloning people with special gifts. There favorite was a boy who could get into the mind of people and influence them to kill people the CIA wanted dead (assassinated). Gloria Reuben's (ER) character is one of the scientists who was cloning people, and cloned this girl with special gifts like healing. The CIA thought the girl was a threat to their project and wanted her dead. They had their boy cause the plane crash in which the man lost his daughter and wife. Gloria Reuben's character and the girl with the special powers survived the plane crash because the girl transported both of them into another dimension. I started watching the series, without realizing what I was really watching. The suspense grabbed me although I make a point of watching nothing that brings fear into my head. This two-part mini series did not bring fear, but was a suspenseful sci-fi type of story that really caught my attention and I enjoyed watching it. Favorite Scenes: The girl healing people. Awesome! Favorite Quote": Thank you for the cookies and for the gun." I recommend the series!

A made for TV miniseries - thank god it aired in one piece in my country- based on a typical Dean Koontz story. A typical Dean Koontz story consists most of the times of the following trademark ingredients:

1.an evil villain that has access to all the nifty computer and info stuff, mostly a loner and a sociopath. 2. a secret organization that can only partly control the fore-mentioned bad guy but delivers him ( mostly its a him) resources. 3. a loner that is halfway out of the system is also very witty on the same grounds the bad guy is 4. someone in distress. 5. a little dash of the supernatural or some ET activity.

Stir this up and serve chilled. In other words in my opinion most of the Koontz books are exactly the same with a few exceptions. A done by the numbers story that after reading more books becomes predictable and boring.

Most of the Koontz movies I saw - not that many- suffer of course all the more from the above and so does this movie. Billy Zane is not a very gifted actor and he stumbles through the plot with mild commitment and I never felt the grief portrayed enough that a man who has lost his wife and child must feel. The muddled plot that is predictable for everyone who has read at least one fiction book in his life goes and goes and the viewer might take the opportunity to nod off so once in a while...

But

There is Mr McGinley, I liked him in on deadly ground and an ever further over the top character is brought to the screen here. He has all the great lines and he breathes more life in the material he has been given than one could expect. Lucky for the viewer he has a nice portion of screen time and it might be hard not to cheer for the bad guy in this case. He portraits a better bad guy than Mr Koontz can create in his books. He is by far the best actor in this series and from the looks of it the only one who is enjoying himself.

The 7 I gave is for his performance.