Hamilton

I read what another one of my fellow users had written about Hamilton. he apparently thought that it was an, and I quote, "amaricanized piece of garbage". This is completely wrong. It is an excellent action movie and as for the fact that Peter Stormare is playing the leading role, I can tell u that he is the best hamilton ever. Stellan Skarsgård was the last one to play hamilton and he was much worse than Peter Stormare. It's definately a 8/10.

This Sweden-Norway co-production begins when Carl Hamilton (Peter Stormare) is assigned the dangerous mission to chase Russian gunrunners . Hamilton reunites a command formed by five tough soldiers . They are parachuted into Russian tundra where meet the smugglers and a nuclear missile SS,20, 1,5 megatons . It leads to Mursmank (Russian), there resides Hawkins (Mark Hamill), he formerly served in Vietnam and Fertile Crescent, today is a cunning manager whose 11 employees were the smugglers . Then , Hamilton goes to Lybian desert where encounters the baddies's base . Meanwhile , his wife (Lena Olin) is kidnapped in his mansion of Stenhara but Hamilton goes on the attack on the headquarter .

The film displays suspense , action-packed , thriller , violence and is quite entertaining . The highlights of the film are the impressive beginning with creepy execution including gore and a breathtaking final attack with fighting , pursuits and explosions . The base took several months to build and nearly 60,000 $ worth of damage was done when it was blown apart . This is an adaptation from TV series about Carl Hamilton and his assignments for Swedish government , filmed with high budget and Swedish players , such as Peter Stormare (Prison break , Fargo) , an usual nasty here turned into a cold action hero , American actors as Mark Hamill (Star Wars) as an exaggerated villain and Terry Carter (Galactica) ; furthermore a gorgeous Swedish , Lena Olin (Ninth gate, Chocolat, Unbearable lightness of being ). Rating : Entertaining and well worth watching.

This film just doesn't work. No two ways about it. I saw it for the first time back in '98 when it was released and I didn't like it. I just bought it on sale a couple of days ago, 'cause I thought "whatta hell, I'll give it a try". I don't regret for the money I put out for Hamilton, but the fact remained the same.. this movie is pointless, dull and uninteresting.

Stormare is usually a delight, but that's when he's making films in the US. Back home he doesn't do the trick. Sure the movie is well made (if you forget the odd stock footage here'n'there), but in the end the only thing that REALLY lifts Hamilton above one star garbage, is Hamill's turn as the bad guy Hawkins. He seriously has fun with the character and is also responsible for the only two good moments in the movie.. "Swedish intelligence, huh? Now there's a contradiction in terms" and when he allows Hamilton to have a word or two with his wife over the phone towards the end of the flick. And that's really pretty much it.

** / *****

People, you gotta see this! This is an excellent movie, wonderfully directed by the Norwegian director Harald Zwart, and incredible acting from pretty much everybody, especially Peter Stormare, Mark Hamill and Lena Olin. This has everything. Great special effects, but not too many, an intriguing plot and the thrills that keep you on the edge of your seat throughout the movie. I loved it, must be one of the best action movies I've seen.

Sorry to say, this film did not fulfill my expectations at all. Peter stormare may be believable playing single dimension psychotic killers such as in Fargo, but when it comes to a character like Hamilton, his single expression face is far far from enough.

The action in the film was rather ok until the story leads us to north africa and the film suddenly wants to be an american hollywood action flick. Why not make swedish action the way we know best? And by the way... who wrote Mark Hamill´s lines anyway?...

Oh, and finally... if the story gets too boring you can always play the game of "spot the obvious product placement"... Yeeech...