Wet Job

Lacklustre drab and miserable. Amateur acting, dreadful , or was it just badly written screenplay , or was it just badly directed ? Which of those possibilities, or all of them ? Commplicated to the point of switch off and read a good book ! Admittedly I did not avidly follow Callan exploits back in the day so maybe , just MAybe this would have clicked as interesting ? After 30 minutes I opted out !

There are some technical issues I have with this TV movie but mostly the problem for me is how this story would have been better as a 52 minute episode instead of an 80 minute made for TV movie. The story could of had more subplots going like Callan practicing shooting again and trying to hide the practice or who behind Hunter hatched this scheme in the first place since it was established in the series that Hunter is not entirely in control of The Section. I imagined Hunter lied about Meres on orders from Meres should Callan ask about him and Meres, now in the same role as Bishop in the 4th season of the Series came up with the scheme involving Callan out of spite. There does seem to be a personal motive to use Callan again like this but this Hunter never met him before.

The technical issue I have is the superfluous incidental music. It manages to undercut instead of enhance the impact of each scene. Maybe I was just so used to there being no music at all in most Callan episodes.

There was probably alot of fanfare around this movie when it first came out. The series was hugely popular. It had a fitting end to it but having the creator write about events ten years later must have been intriguing to many including me. The story fits and it wouldn't seem so overly sentimental at times if it weren't for that lousy music.

This is a one-off "reunion" play made some 9 years after the end of the series "Callan". Edward Woodward and Russell Hunter from the original show appear, along with George Sewell as the guest star. The creator of Callan, James Mitchell, is credited as the script writer.

This production looks like a student job from some early 80's film school, with the directors 14 year old brother responsible for the music. I am not exaggerating. The production values are so poor, they are way below the average standards of 1981 British television. The script is weak and contains some embarrassingly clumsy dialogue. The original novel was written by James Mitchell, yet i suscpect he never wrote the awful screenplay for this. After all, his scripts are of a different class. The screenplay for the movie "Callan" he wrote just 7 years earlier is great. Well, maybe he wrote this sick or busy or something. The direction is clumsy and the music deserves a special mention as one of the worst soundtracks ever.

I feel sorry for the stars. Woodward and Sewell sleepwalk through the film, Hunter at least tries his best. His scenes with Woodward sometimes actually work, and they are the only reason for watching this lackluster turkey. The actors playing the new Hunter and his replacement-Meres are utterly forgettable. The original Meres is written off with a clumsy joke.

I am sorry if i sound pessimistic and dreary, I wanted to like this, but this really is an extremely poor movie. I would like to know the full story behind this failure. What on earth was going on with Mitchell? I recommend all friends of the Callan series to consider the final episode from 1972 to be the end to the saga. Skip this.

Just a note to one of the other reviewers (rev-584-459122), Wet Job is NOT a remake of the original play A Magnum for Schneider, which formed the basis of the Callan movie. This is a sequel to the original popular TV series in which an aging Callan has been forcibly retired from the security services, but is reactivated for yet another job. Though the performances of Edward Woodward and Russell Hunter and some others aren't bad, it's very poorly made with a tenuous plot, frequently incompetent camera-work, and irritating incidental music. Having watched it when it was first shown and again recently on DVD I suspect the production was hurried and with a smaller budget than it should have had.

"Callan: Wet Job," was supposed to have led to another T.V series. Luckily, this didn't happen due to the poor ratings this episode received. The plot is dull, confusing and uneventful. The only scenes worth seeing, are those with Callan and Lonely. It is worth it to see these legendary characters together one last time after all the years that had elapsed. The chemistry of Edward Woodward and Russell Hunter is still in evidence as Lonely secures Callan another gun. When asked if he needs any further help, Callan pauses for a couple of seconds and answers in the negative. He urges Lonely to leave his shop immediately and that is it. Lonely walks off into the distance and we see the final curtain come down on one of British television's leading partnerships. There isn't any action or incident to speak of, just a meandering story.