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Did you know there's literally hundreds of nuclear warheads scattered throughout the old Soviet Union ? Bad news for humanity but good news for Hollywood producers who want to make a post cold war thriller featuring stolen nuclear warheads getting into the wrong hands but this type of scenario has become over familiar . While women watch " Disease of the week " TVMs I guess the boys will be watching " stolen nuclear warhead of the week " on another channel

So what makes THE PEACEMAKER different from a mediocre Tom Clancey novel or a James Bond movie ? Good question and one that I can't really come with a good answer to . I could point out that the bad guy is a White European Christian but if I remember correctly the plot of THE SUM OF ALL FEARS was changed so instead of Arabs we had WASPish Neo Nazis as the bad guys . In fact I'm struggling to remember when the bad guys weren't whacko white guys , would it be GOLDFINGER by any chance ?

I guess the movie deserves some credit in mentioning the motives of the villain who is misguided rather than evil , and the motives don't exactly put the United States in a very good light but of course it's left to an American special forces officer to save the day and yes there's a scene where the hero attempts to defuse a bomb that has a timer that helpfully lets the audience know how many seconds are left to detonation YAWN

THE PEACEMAKER isn't a terrible movie . In it's favour it's much better than another Hollywood blockbuster dealing with the Balkans conflict namely BEHIND ENEMY LINES but is in no way comparable to something like SAVIOR . It's also infinitely inferior to a mainly forgotten British production called SEVEN DAYS TO NOON and it's a movie that is more interested in making money at the box office than giving people sleepless nights in a world where a stolen nuclear warhead might explode anywhere

When nuclear warheads get stolen during decommissioning in Russia, American military agents Thomas Devoe and Julia Kelly start to try and track their movements before they get into the wrong hands. Julia's intelligence background and Thomas' more direct approach don't gel too well, but they must recover the weapons before they are used in a terrorist strike against the US.

This starts well – with the detonation of a nuke in rural Russia, and indeed it goes on quite well from there. The story is the basic 'terrorist with stolen nuke' story but it has sufficient ability to rise above the norm to be quite enjoyable. The odd-couple of Devoe and Kelly isn't made too much of and it avoids that pitfall. The action scenes are handled well and, though lacking in flair, they do contain plenty of tension and excitement.

The cast really help – in particular Clooney. Clooney takes what could have been just a one dimensional tough military role and adds layers to it. His violence is just beneath the surface and it shows in his face and eyes. At times he does what is expected of him – but for the most he lifts the role and the film. Kidman also does well – at times she is a screaming side-kick, but she also has a bit of depth there too. The support cast never really get beyond ethnic stereotype – only Armin Mueller-Stahl has a good role. There are some interesting roles given to now famous people – Boatman (Carter in Spin City) and, to complete the ER coonnection between star and director, Goran Visnijc in a tiny role.

Overall this is a standard story. But a top-class Clooney and plenty of good, tense action scenes make this much better than the average stolen bomb flick.

Terrorist films abound these days, as though putting stories about terrorists who make mistakes is supposed to make us all feel more safe. This taut, well-written and finely acted espionage film is different that those currently in front of us: made in 1997 this film in retrospect had a better grip on just how frightening terrorism is and how two-sided the implications of danger usually are.

Filmed with never let your guard down suspense, the story is rather simple: nuclear weapons are circulating with one headed to the US and the military joins with science in tracking the carrier of the bomb. George Clooney is in fine form as Lt. Col. Thomas Devoe, professional yet charismatic and his scientific colleague is Dr. Julia Kelly, with Nicole Kidman delivering a polished performance. And for once we get to see a terrorist as a person: Dusan Gavrich (Marcel Iures), despite his mission to destroy us, is a vulnerable, bruised human being. The supporting roles are well handled by such strong character actors as Armin Mueller-Stahl.

Cinematographer Dietrich Lohmann keeps the action lively with multi-angled shots and surveillance scenes and the tension is well maintained with the music score by Hans Zimmer. But in the final analysis the credit for the success of this film lies in the capable hands of Mimi Leder. A terrific little suspense film. Grady Harp

A US Army colonel (George Clooney) and a civilian woman (Nicole Kidman) supervising him must track down stolen Russian nuclear weapons before they are used by terrorists.

My biggest problem with this film is that it seemed to me to be miscast. George Clooney is pretty good, and he plays the smarmy role he is great at doing (the modern day Cary Grant). Nicole Kidman seems off, though. The role never seems to fit her, and there never seems to be a clear understanding of who she is: bumbling, nervous librarian? Or assertive world-class diplomat? Not surprisingly, the movie has sort of faded into obscurity, and will probably continue to do so as time goes on.

A distraught Bosnian piano teacher named Dusan Gavric (Marcel Iures), whose wife and daughter had been shot down before his eyes by Bosnian Muslim snipers in war-divided Sarajevo, intends to ignite a stolen nuclear bomb around the U.N. building in New York in revenge for that atrocity…

Nuclear weapons specialist Dr. Julia Kelly (Nicole Kidman) and US Special Forces Colonel Thomas Devoe (George Clooney) try to stop the psycho...

Clooney, convinced that United States educated half the world's terrorists, plays a talented soldier who takes great liberties to get what he wants including heavy bribes and savage beatings… With that cool, suave and dashing look that makes women swoon, Clooney demonstrates great sense of humor with his performance, and looks pleasantly cold as hell during high action sequences… His unexpected reactions get on Kidman's nerves so easily…

Kidman looks lovely as the anguished scientist who wants to save the world, struggling tightly against her self-doubt …

Mimi Leder definitely proves that she's a commanding presence behind the camera… She shows how to move more effectively the camera creating tension throughout the hijacking of the warheads, Vienna's exciting car chase, the flight of the three US Air Force helicopters ordered to return to Turkish airspace, the truckload of the bad guys hanging over a cliff, and the tracking of the missing warhead on Manhattan's crowded streets…

The music is great... It follows the action well and elevates the dramatic suspense throughout the show...