The Owl

Based on a novel by Bob Forward, this had all the trappings of something interesting. Sadly the movie was poorly executed for reasons I'll go into later, and it is easy to see why it did not get commissioned as a TV series. All the better for its star, Adrian Paul, it seemed. Not long after he was picked up for Duncan Macleod in the extremely successful HIGHLANDER: The Series. You could argue this was a good canvas for Paul's talents and later casting as the Scottish Immortal, if anyone had bothered to see it. I don't know if the Producers of Highlander watched The Owl, but Paul's natural agility and martial arts experience shines through here and was one of the most interesting aspects in the film. With long, drawn out scenes of Paul working out spliced between flashback segments of his former life, the movie is drawn out instead of getting on with the story. What is more, it tells us very little of what we want to know. How did he become The Owl?

A word on the music. Moody and atmospheric, you could say no more from Sylvester Levay (Airwolf)

The cast. I have to say, the Wooden Spoon Award must go to the awful rapping bad guy, Cool Ice. He's just plain silly. His stringy haired henchman are no better. Brian Thompson makes a worthy appearance as Bobby B, the bar keeper of a backstreet bar The Owl frequents. He is L'Hiboux's confident and informant. Patricia Charbonneau plays a cop, and L'Hiboux's on and off girlfriend. Hutchins, played by Alan Scarfe was obviously meant to be the recurring nemesis of The Owl. He seemed like a great foil, but sadly we'll never know what might have become of it.

Bob/Robert Forward wrote two Owl books. I confess I have not read them. What put me off is that they are written in first person, i.e from the character's perspective, which is a good idea to get into the head of the character, but so often doesn't work. I must try them, as reviews of the books are generally very good. Maybe they might throw some light on how L'Hiboux got to be The Owl. The movie makes little attempt. Again, maybe they left this to be revealed as the series progressed. In summary, this movie is worth a shot. It's very hard to get hold of though which doesn't make the job easy. In Australia it was called "Night Owl"

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.

"The Owl" was a proposed pilot that was not picked up by any network. Oddly, the makers of this show did something unique...they released a longer version in theaters in Europe after it bombed with the networks in order to recoup some of their expenses.

'The Owl' is a man who apparently doesn't sleep much and spends his nights dispensing justice as needed. In many ways, he acts like The Equalizer or Renegade or The Saint....but is much less prone to talking and more into punching and kicking. I am glad he didn't talk much, as when others (especially the baddies) did, I felt like tossing my remote at the TV. Yes, the dialog was THAT bad. What was also just horrible was the macho and highly formulaic fight at the end...uggh!

The bottom line is that after watching it, I could see why the series was never made. Had they made the hero less grunty and more like a real human being, it might have worked. And, had they made villains who seemed real in any way, that, too would have helped!

By the way, I learned from this show is that if you have a bullet-proof coat, baddies with machine guns will only shoot the coat...never the unprotected head or hands. Imagine...opening up on him at close range and never once hitting his head!

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.

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.