Caracara

The first half of Caracara is really quite terrific, slowly building suspense and carefully establishing character before a thrilling mid-point climax in which Henstridge thwarts the assassin's master plan. What follows is pretty generic stuff: the assassin goes off to silence all witnesses and our game leading lady races against time to catch him.

What absolutely distinguishes this fun rental is Natasha Henstridge. She's not only gorgeous and totally winning but an increasingly capable actress. If only she'd be more discerning when it comes to picking roles. The Whole Nine Yards and Ghosts of Mars are understandable choices as they offered her some exposure, but parts in Second Skin and A Better Way to Die are disastrous.

Henstridge is still quite young and has a good decade of leading roles ahead. Hopefully the films will improve -- she deserves better.

outstanding,superb,excellent ..these words don't even begin to describe this movie . despite its gigantic constraints like only a 500,000 dollars budget the director does one perfect job in putting the pieces together . beautifully scripted and flawlessly directed ,the impeccable performance of Natasha Henstridge elevates the movie from some mediocre moments . There is no weak link in the plot as such and Natasha Henstridge gives an impressive performance as the damsel in distress .If someone asks me to describe the movie in 2 words ,i would say simply amazing . Natasha clearly deserves accolades for her performance and i hope she continue to do these offbeat roles. She emerges as an amazing actress with an ability to display plethora of emotions with effortless ease. One of the best t.v. thrillers i saw it in a long time .Natasha sure deserves an award for this

Other reviewers have described the content of this film, so I won't repeat. Instead, I'll hold forth on a pet peeve about movies. Which is - the liberties taken with bird content in movies. To wit: The film is named "Caracara", but the bird used in the film is a Harris's Hawk. There are nine species of Caracara in the world. They're all found in Central and South America. One of the nine occurs far enough north to be found in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. Did they think that none of the 70 million birdwatchers in the US (according to the "National Survey on Recreation and the Environment" conducted periodically by the US Forest Service, most recently released in 2002) would notice?

One of the other comments on this film included: "Hence the title, referring to the species of Peregrine falcon she keeps as a pet". First, a Peregrine Falcon is a species itself; there are not species thereof. Second, although the Caracaras are members of the Falcon family, the bird used in this film is not a Falcon of any kind - Caracara, Peregrine or otherwise.

This is a low budget film, but this is not an expensive item to research. I suppose they liked the name "Caracara", which is rather more exotic than "Harris's Hawk". So, when it turned out that no Caracara could be found to appear in the film, they simply substituted something else, and kept the cool name. And they figured it didn't matter if they got it "right", because the audience wouldn't notice. Considering the comment quoted above, perhaps they are right. But, considering the kind of obsessive attention to detail found in many other aspects of filmmaking, it is baffling why so many films consistently goof up bird-related content. (The sound people are especially culpable in this regard.)

Natasha Henstridge has never been better. She can really act and looks great. Great story full of surprises. Fun seeing Lauren Hutton again. She was terrific. Very well directed by Graeme Clifford (Frances). Highly recommended.

Natasha (post-SPECIES) and Jonathon (post-THAT THING YOU DO!) star as an unsuspecting ornithologist and a South African assassin, respectively. She's into birds of prey, and he is one in a manner of speaking. (Hence the title, referring to the species of Peregrine falcon she keeps as a pet, not to mention the unconsummated petting she does with him before he tries to eliminate her.)

I suspect that this is one of those shelved movies that was done well before either one of them became famous, and like any movie of that ilk, it's worth a watch if only to see how the producers try (and don't necessarily succeed) to pass off Toronto and/or Vancouver for NYC.

Natasha looks great, she manages to keep a straight face through the laughable script, (something about an assassination plot against Nelson Mandela and genocide; that's about as coherent as it gets.) The real fun is getting to see her play scenes with Lauren Hutton, who gets to do some over-the-top emoting as Natasha's "nympho-alcoholic-aging hippie" mom.

The irony of watching two former models, one in the twilight of her career and the other just starting hers won't be lost on movie buffs, and director Clifford does keep things moving along quickly enough so that boredom doesn't set in. A good rent on one of those "rent-one-get-one-free" nights when all the copies of LAKE PLACID or DEEP BLUE SEA are already gone.

Those who love Robin Cook/Harold Robbins/Jackie Collins-style potboilers will want to seek this one out, but don't look for a lot of sex amidst the violence, though you do get a titillatingly brief flash of T&A. (For MUCH more from Natasha, you'll have to re-rent SPECIES or SPECIES 2.)