Opération Phenix

It could be being raised by a military family, or just my love of everything from my childhood, but I have highly enjoyed this film since I first saw it.

After a team of Navy Seals are captured by North Koreans upon completion of their mission, the children of the team embark on an attempt to rescue their parents using a rejected rescue plan. while not the best action movie ever made, the plot keeps chugging along at a comparatively quick pace. Not nearly as special-effects heavy as movies today, it still manages to hold my attention.

All in all, this movie is one to be enjoyed, especially if you have any knowledge of what it is like to have someone serving in the military.

While this may not be the best made or best acted movie, the ideals are sound. I loved this movie as a kid because it made me dream big. With movies like this, I though I could do anything as long as I was smart enough and wanted to work hard enough to achieve it. Acting and plot are not everything, and this movie is one of the greatest examples of going against the odds and doing what seems impossible. Today's movies for families rely on magic (Harry Potter, Narnia), animals (Dreamer, Air Budd), or computer graphics (Cars, Shrek). While these movies are great, they don't have the innocence and imagined realism that "The Rescue" does. I am dying to get this movie on DVD, and will not feel like my collection is complete without it.

I like movies that have some realism in them, except if realism will spoil the effect, like in fantasy or science fiction movies. This, however, is about a group of kids going into North Korea to save their parents. That is already highly incredulous as a main plot setting, but the way it is played out makes it impossible to believe at all. Though it may be remotely possible that things can happen the way they did in the movie, the plausibility rating is so low as to be unbelievable.

For example, kids with no formal training who can shadow suspects, evade guards, slip into fortresses totally unnoticed, practice cover and concealment from professional soldiers without training at all....and much much more. See it to believe it, or rather, to disbelieve it. The only saving grace is somewhat okay acting from the young cast, though at times it is very grating to see them in such contrived settings.

It is Interesting to note that "the Rescue"(1986?) set still stands on the Deer Park Heights outside Queenstown New Zealand. It is the same hill that George Lucas Filmed "the Willow" in 1988 and more recently several locations for the Lord of the Rings. The hill is open to the public via a Toll Gate. The North Korean style building seems a strange thing to come across in New Zealand but it catches the attention of bus loads of Asian Tourists who got up there to see the mountain lake that the refugees of Rohan file past on retreat from the evil minions of Saramon of Isengard... Who most likely never heard of this Disney Made for TV Movie whos presents looms spookily just out of shot.

Uh oh.

I would put this movie in the same category as Iron Eagle and Red Dawn. No movie can be worse, honestly.

When I read these comments I was very surprised that many of the people even said it was an OK movie!

Oh, please, Hollywood, never ever make anything like this again.

(Ok, I haven't seen Battlefield: Earth yet)