Menace Mortelle

The cast is excellent, the acting good, the plot interesting, the evolvement full of suspense...but it is hard to cram all those elements into a film that is barely 80 minutes long. If more time was taken to develop the plot and subplots, it would have a much better effect. Another 30 minutes of substance would have made this a very good film rather then just a good one.

Oh dear - what a mess. Scientist Luke Perry ("Michael") joins up with RCMP officer "Johnson" (Olivia d'Abo) to hunt down a missing scientist (Horst Buchholz) who has developed a weapon capable of annihilating mankind. Sir Roger Moore is the head of MI6 who offers them a helping hand tracking down the nasty "Mannek" (Hendrick Haese) and hopefully reconciling father with son - yes, of course there is some contrived familial tie up to it all. The thing flows like glue; Sir Roger looks like he is there under extreme duress and though handsome once, Perry no longer has his looks to fall back on so his acting talents (or lack of them) are somewhat exposed. To be fair to all, the script and direction are pretty dire too, the thing sort of lolls along like a slug on a pathway. The last ten minutes are slightly enlivening though, so maybe just spool through 80 minutes and just watch that - you won't have missed much.

Might amuse those who like to say - ooh wasn't he in thanks to appearances by Tom Conti, Hortz Bucholz and Roger Moore. I find it hard to remember what was what here. Bucholz is some sort of mad scientist refugee on the run type. His equally intelligent son, Luke Perry, needs to recreate his experiments quick when he disappears. After that it is all - who can he trust and a couple of explosions. The final twist is well signalled.

This movie was pretty good. The acting was great, and there were some really great actors in it like, Buchholz and Roger Moore. This film is full of surprises. Confusing at times...yes, but the twists and turns of the plot always keeps you in suspense. The only thing that this movie had too much of was exploding cars.

I bought this DVD to watch Luke Perry, to continue on my journey in watching everything he's done. He was good in it and believable. I only found out afterwards that the British sounding guy was a James Bond. Cool. I expected a B-movie plot, budget, and acting, and a sub par story that will hopefully have me a little entertained. So, in all those regards, boy did this movie deliver! I had fun watching, didn't grow bored, and there were plenty of chase and action scenes to keep the excitement going for those who like that sort of genre, too.

Luke likes to try different roles, like the bad guy, the southern guy, the husbandy guy, the shady guy, etc. to try to expand his versatility, I guess, and I can't hold that against him. It's his acting career and his choice to make. But I'm a fan of Dylan! It's my favorite type of role of his. He's recreated the Dylan character in other shows after 90210, like in Jeremiah. I was overjoyed to see that for this role he brought out more Dylan, albeit a genius version of it, which is fine! It seems that he has a comfortability doing that role whenever he plays a character that has a strenuous relationship with his father, like in 90210 and Jeremiah. So, in that regard, this movie really delivered for me, awesome stuff!

Rated R for violence that you would see on TV and "some language"? Weird.

The movie got a tad technical at times and that could be a bit confusing, with gene splicing, Interpol, and computer jargon, but it stayed honest enough that it sounded all legit. A funny part of the movie where it was a "big reveal" (don't worry, it was only a big reveal for a split second of the scene) when the main character says, "Tell me now! What does WMD stand for!" And when he got his answer it was supposed to be eye-opening. It's sad that only a few months after the release of this movie, WMD became a household term.

Recommended if you're a Luke Perry fan and want to see more of his work. Also recommended if you're a B-movie fan and like action movies that no one has heard of. Not much else reason to watch this one.