Explosion immédiate

While I was channel surfing one uneventful Tuesday Evening, I came upon this Pierce Brosnan actioner. Since their was really nothing else on, I decided to give it a try. I was not disappionted. Brosnan plays Danny O'Neal, an easily aggrivated FBI Bomb Squad agent who is assigned to protect a sleazy Senator (Ron Silver). The Senator is being threatened by a group of revenge driven terrorists who have invented a liqued explosive that caused people to explode when ingested. I know, that sound kinda cheesy, but the movie pulls it off nicely. The character tension and the invigorating action sequences make this a cool film.

Another film with several good elements that manages to fail, chiefly because of weaknesses in the story.

Good cast in Pierce Brosnan and Ben Cross -- they must have needed the money to take the job.

A key "science fiction" element is not really believable, but this is a Hollywood thriller, so if you accept it, you could enjoy the story.

There are many good one-liners, and the interactions between the protagonists and various minor characters are believable and entertaining. The pace is reasonable, and some degree of suspense is maintained, with some stock "thriller" elements.

Brosnan's character and his personal problems are well developed and make him sympathetic, and he plays his part well.

The film is also mercifully short.

BUT -- two major holes in the story killed it for me: 1. A political background (the reason the story is happening) is mentioned, but not really explained in terms of motives. Two minutes dialog could have filled in the holes and added a lot in terms of believability.

2. The villain's character is not developed at all. What motivates him (other than money?) Ben Cross does what he can with a lousy script (not much). And his name, Mikhail Rashid (I think never actually mentioned in the film - a Tatar father and Russian mother) seems intended to exploit negative racist stereotypes (Russian = corrupt mafiosi; Arabic name = terrorist). He seems like a cartoon, Bond-esquire villain without the glitz. With Ben Cross, they could have written a complex, nuanced, even sympathetic villain, and this would have improved the story immensely.

I gave this 5 out of 10 -- not painfully repulsive, but there are better ways to spend your time.

This film can only be misjudged these days. "Live Wire" comes from a time when coming up with the most showy ideas and putting into a movie were something fun for our eyes to see and for audiences enjoy it as if it was the coolest thing ever created. And it has Pierce Brosnan a little before Bond, already showing up some skills when it comes to be a great action hero and a sexy ladies man.

He plays Danny O'Neill, a bomb disposal expert with lots of trouble to deal (which includes the alleged love affair his wife is having with a Senator) when a maniac (Ben Cross) decides to eliminate political targets by using a liquid explosive that is practically invisible to eyes. And one of the targets is...the Senator (played by Ron Silver). I haven't said much but I guess you already can form scenes, situations, establish connections and see how this is going to end. Ridiculously predictable to make you feel sick.

The biggest achievement of "Live Wire" is seeing the use of the invisible explosive that is easily ingested and later causes a lot of damages and deaths. It doesn't end without some shock, very similar to a heart-attack, then the eyes start to get read and boom! The courtroom scene is terrifying, just to give an example.

It's fun to watch. The cast is good, they are suitable and comfortable in their roles and they save the script of being a whole mess. Speaking of the script, this had one of the worst plot holes ever presented on screen that even a kid can easily detect: the fighting between Danny and Tony Plana's character in the fountain scene. How come such writer comes up in developing such a tense moment with these two fighting, alternately drowning each other in the explosive water but only one pays the price and blow up to pieces? How does one expect to get away with this?

With all those obstacles this manages to be thrilling, funny (specially the robot trained to find bombs who has a crush on Brosnan's character or the whole city knowing about the infidelities of his wife) and there's reasonable action sequences. Highpoint of the movie: the duel in the house where Pierce has the chance to demonstrate he knows everything about bombs, improvising explosive devices to kill the bad guys.

Goofy, relatively dumb but who cares, this is good. Don't take it too seriously and you'll see what's so good about it. 7/10

This is one of my all time favorite movies, forget the water as a bomb, the story was held together by that string that is in all of us, JEALOUSY ! Jealous for the girl, jealous for the guy, and my all time favorite actor to portray a " Dick Head " Ron Silver is brilliant ! This is a movie to watch over and over, one to pick out the great 1 liners used, by Pierce. I just can't say enough about it. As for the year of release let's really think about what great movies there were in 1992? ? ? ? ? ? Exactly, not a whole lot, so give this what I call the " Sleeper Try !" There is a new release out just as similar as this film, called Scotland, PA Check it out !

This is fun bad. Too many laughs to enjoy.

There's a forensic lab robot that grabs Bronson's ass, and it looks like a reject from the old Dr. Who.

They seem to avoid ever telling you why these people are being killed - just hash it up to beltway politics.

And they never hint at just how this amazing new explosive could ever possibly work. That's why Jurassic Park gave us the maple-covered mosquitoes. Just give us some kind of something to hang our hat on, even if it does strain disbelief.

And not only is our hero recovering from a deep personal tragedy, but his wife is also sleeping with the villain. And there's a recurring panty-less victim who keeps getting rigged to blow.

The best thing you can say about movies like this is that they never took themselves seriously. Well, for the most part that is.

Check out Roy Scheider in Chain of Command, or Lou Diamond Phillips in Alien Express for similar projects. Even harder to swallow then their plots, believing they were ever sold in the first place.