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Let's be honest first of all. Did anybody think the first movie out of the gate from a studio owned by David Geffen, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and Steven Spielberg be an artsy-fartsy film? For what it is, this is pretty good. Director Mimi Leder does a good job keeping everything going (she was less successful with her follow-up, DEEP IMPACT), and I was involved the whole way through. I like George Clooney and Nicole Kidman, but I will admit they don't get a whole lot to do here. Like the similar MISSION IMPOSSIBLE, there's not a whole lot of character development for the heroes, so the film depends on whether or not you like the stars, and fortunately, I do.

The one distinguishing factor of the movie is the villain, played by Marcel Iures. While the one who steals the missiles is your standard action villain, there's a gravity and sadness Iures brings that's unexpected in a film like this. This is no sneering DIE HARD rip-off, but a guy who takes an action because he feels it's the only choice he has, and the film at least brings forth the notion that if that's how he feels, we the Western powers are somewhat culpable.

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...

There is nothing in "The Peacemaker" that is new or something we haven't seen done before in an action movie. Yet the movie serves its purpose; to bring some mindless entertainment with some nicely done action.

Nicole Kidman in a main part of an action movie? Yes, Nicole Kidman in the main part of an action movie and who would have ever known, she is actually believable in her part but her acting is just a bit too standard and boring but yet like I said before, her characters remains believable. Thumbs up for that! But the best roles are played by George Clooney and Armin Mueller-Stahl, who is always great in a movie.

The movie's opening is really a memorable one and is one of the very best action movie openings I have ever seen along with "The Rock", which was made one year earlier. After that the movie looses some of it's power and pace and we begin losing interest until the next action sequence occurs. Yes, it truly are the action sequences that are the highlights of the movie and make this movie a watchable one.

The visual style of the movie is also what makes this movie above average. The cinematography by Dietrich Lohmann gives the movie a cool action movie feeling. Dietrich Lohmann unfortunately died not much later during or shortly after completing the movie "Deep Impact".

The music by Hans Zimmer is most excellent. Zimmer and co really set up some new standards for action movie soundtracks in the nineties.

Standard action movie but well executed!

7/10

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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