Icon

FREDDY FORSYTH has come up with a storyline which will suit the mood of the West's suspicions about Putin's Russia. Forsyth installs a nasty guy as the Ruski president who wants to return the country - not so much to Stalin's Communism but more to Hitlerian Fascism. In fact, his Political Manifesto could have come straight out of Mein Kampf rather than Marx. And, the loon has the latest weapons of biological destruction to achieve the ethnic cleansing pogrom of the Russian Federation. American mercenaries connive with the Russian Prez to realise his fanatical, genocidal dream, but then enter Dirty Dancing's Pat Swayze...and,yep,things get really down and dirty. He's a former US operative-turned-drifter,Jason Monk, who is enlisted by the British Government to see what the Russians are up to. As a corny sidebar, Swayze's character who is no Monk (!)has sired a Russian beauty Elena (played by the gorgeous Marta Kondova) on his previous missions to the former Commie state. Hardman Swayze does a passable job in setting out to defeat the evil Russians. But young unknown actress Marta Kondova steals the flick as his nubile, 18-year-old Russian daughter Elena who helps dad root out the terror threatening her beloved Mother Russia.

I'd like to point out some positive things about ICON - the lead review here at IMDb pounded this telefilm pretty hard! lol. There were several decent action sequences (by 'decent', I mean much better than those silly ones on '24' where the good guys show up with tiny pistols and no flak-jackets or radio-gear). Lots of flash and bang - a truck blows up early in the film, which is sort of a launching point for the plot. Looked realistic to me, not unlike the sequence in the recent 'Quiet American'.

There were good actors: Barry Morse (still alive?) and Ben Cross. Swayze (Jason Monk) is OK, but maybe miscast in this one - he doesn't have the right face. I thought the Russian urban scenes were impressive - it's a beautiful country, you know. I liked 'the Saint', 'Hunt for Red October' and 'Russia House' - films with insight into the Russian culture - and problems. That's why the book 'ICON' and this DVD appealed to me.

However, I don't know why the writers chose to stray from Forsythe's super novel, which is in my top-10 favorites. I thought the basic novel plot was a natural screenplay: the ICON's grim political manifesto - and how it falls into Western hands. Also, Monk's early career unfolds as the CIA loses to the Russians in the spy game before the Cold War ends. This gave us some insight into Monk's skills, espionage background and disillusionment, but the screenplay follows a different track. The writers added a pretty female agent, and an ex-family for Jason Monk.

Up here in Canada, PG-13 'Action' films are hard to come by ('Munich' was just released as 18-A). This film has no sexual scenes or profanity. So, watch it for fun -- and then read the book for the real thing.

Right, well I stumbled upon this 2005 TV movie titled "Icon" by random chance. And I opted to sit down and watch it, given the fact that it was something that I hadn't already seen.

I am not overly much a fan of Patrick Swayze, but he does have some good enough movies and TV shows to his name, so I figured that a movie that ran for 3 hours and 10 minutes might have potential.

Writers Adam Armus and Nora Kay Foster managed to put together a good enough storyline here. Sure, I am not familiar with the book or books written by Frederick Forsyth, so I have no idea how close "Icon" is to the source material. But while "Icon" was adequately entertaning, it just wasn't a particularly outstanding movie experience. And I assume that the phrase "Patrick Swayze is CIA agent Jason Monk" is supposed to have a meaning, but then again, I didn't read the books.

For a movie that ran for 190 minutes, then it was somewhat of an ordeal to sit through, as the movie was way too long. The editing could easily have trimmed down the movie quite substantially in my opinion. And the fact that the script was bland, just didn't really help much to make time go by quicker.

The movie does, however, have a good ensemble of actors and actresses, with the likes of Patrick Swayze, Michael York, Ben Cross, Jeff Fahey, Annika Peterson and Joss Ackland.

Ultimately then "Icon" was watchable, but it turned out to be too long and just downright too mundane and bland in comparison to other action thrillers of the same kind.

My rating of the 2005 TV movie "Icon" lands on a five out of ten stars.

I just have watched Icon on DVD and despite being a great book, the movie is a weak substrate from it. Those responsible for the writing should be banished to Siberia. Why they maul the great story with all kind of C-film subploys which are totally irrelevant to the story is totally beyond me.

Yet the filmmakers and cast do there best to make something out of it, but at the end the film was not satisfying at all.

Can someone please make a decent movie out of this to show how it is done. I'm sure that the crowds will rally for such a masterpiece novel turned into a book, not into a cheap C-movie.

I recently rented this promising mini series, I didn't even know they had adapted it for television. I was really looking forward to it since the book Icon is one of the best spy thrillers I have ever read. What a disappointment it was. The plot only loosely resembles the one in the book, the characters are completely miscast and there's some appalling acting. A shame really. The story behind Icon is perfect for the silver screen, but I think television budgets just aren't big enough for a decent adaptation of this spectacular book.

Forsyth deserves much, much better than this. Avoid and stick to the book, which is a must-read.