Attacco: piattaforma Jennifer

Throughout his career critics have placed Roger Moore in a catagory with such alleged actors as George Hamilton and Pamela Anderson. Individuals whose celebrity status has been maintain by good looks rather than talent.

It is not hard to understand why. From the start Moore has been typecast in the same basic charactor mold; the ruggedly handsome high competant womanizer. James Bond, Maverick, The Saint, they are all virtually the same. Only on rare occations has Moore been able to overcome the stereotype and prove his versitility as an actor. The 1979 action yarn Ffolkes is one such occation.

In the title role Moore is anything but his typical ladies man. The product of a messy divorce, Rufus Excaliber Ffolkes resents women. He considers them inferior at best and a blight on society at worst. He now prefers the company of cats.

Ffolkes is also a gruff reclusive genius with little tolerance for lesser intellects. This is neatly demonstrated when a secondary charactor addressing Ffolkes's intellectual prowess flippantly states,

"You must be one of those people who finish the (London) times crossword puzzle in ten minutes."

"I assure you." Ffolkes angerily responses. "I have never taken ten minutes!"

But Fflokes is no braggart. His genius is quickly proven when a vital British oil drilling platform is taken over by a group of blackmailing terrorists led by Tony (Psycho) Perkins. Ffolkes, an expert in counter terrorism anticipated such an attack months in advance and has a well trained group of handpicked specialists standing by to lead an assult.

Despite the misgivings of the Royal navy command who consider him a loose cannon the prime minister commissions Ffolkes to liberate the platform. What follows is some of the best high action drama in movie history.

The canteen on the set of North Sea Hijack, there's the principal players sitting around having a drink. James Mason pipes up to say he was nominated for three Oscars, worked with some of the greats. To which Anthony Perkins chimes in, "I was in Psycho!". In strolls Andrew McLaglen, "I used to direct John Wayne movies once", and there's Roger Moore, a smug grin on his face, he doesn't need to say anything, he has got the James Bond franchise to fall back on, North Sea Hijack is merely the chance to have a good time and get paid for it. The others realise this fact and decide the best way to play this is to just run with it, have a good time, and really that is what anyone watching the film should do.

North Sea Hijack is a riot, daft but never boring, but not to be taken seriously. The plot has some guff about Perkins leading a bunch of criminals in an attempt to bags load of cash by threatening to blow up a couple of oil rigs. In comes wealthy and eccentric Roger Moore to lead a crack team of commandos to stop the fiendish plan. Cue a deadline to be met, some shouting, some tongue in cheek dialogue and big finale that isn't very big at all. The action is on the tame side but it's honest, and Moore's Rufus Excalibur ffolkes (yes, with a little f) is as fun a character as he ever played. And if you look closely, you can actually see Perkins turning to Mason and saying, "I was in Psycho you know!". 6.5/10

It has often been said that Roger Moore can't act - that all he can do is raise his eyebrows a few inches. This film refutes this notion. Here we see Roger Moore in an unusual role...for anyone, not just him.

A group of hijackers take over an oil rig. The owners have no choice but to call in an SAS-style group of mercenaries under the command of Roger Moore's character - an eccentric woman hating cat lover named ffolkes (with two small fs), who lives in a Scottish castle.

The plot is pretty formulaic and predictable. What makes this film watchable is Roger Moore's character.

Hilarious are the reactions of the passengers in a first class train compartment to ffolkes doing his petit point while slugging a huge bottle of whisky.

He is also superb in his acting just before he gets rejected by the terrorists for "grinning like a cat." It's enough to make one a Roger Moore fan!

Actor Roger Moore is best known for his work as Agent 007 in the James Bond movies but during his stint as James Bond he made a number of other movies of variable quality. One of the best was this 1979 adventure (it was released in 1980 in the US under the title "Ffolkes") in which Moore stars as an eccentric British adventurer with a disdain for women and a fondness for cats. Moore leads a small underwater commando group that does the occasional favor for Lloyds of London. The British government has a problem. Two oil rigs in the North Sea and a Norwegian Cargo Freighter are being held to ransom. A terrorist group has overrun the freighter and has both it and the two rigs fitted with booby trapped bombs. The economic, environmental and human cost if the British refuse the ransom could be astronomical. Unwilling to negotiate with hostages the government decides to contact Lloyds with a view to using their private specialized methods for dealing with problems. This is where Moore's character Ffolkes comes in. With a truly exceptional cast including James Mason, Anthony Perkins and David Hedison "North Sea Hijack" (aka "Ffolkes") is an enjoyable romp that is high on action and good humor. I highly recommend this movie.

If you've seen Roger Moore as The Saint, as 007, as any other character, even if you haven't liked him, you'll enjoy him as "ffolkes," the cat-loving misogynist of this movie. Even though I'm very much a feminist I loved this character. I don't think that the casting of Anthony Perkins was too obvious, I think he brought complications to a simply drawn character. The supernumeraries on either side are just complicated enough to be slightly confusing and still enjoy their conflicts.

This is one of my favorite movies. Of course, so is "Eating Raoul."