O Fator Hades

Horrible movie. The production values and acting are decent which don't help much to hide the stupid clichéd dialog, the illogical plot, and the ridiculous focusing on faces and looks that are irrelevant and gratuitous. So many red herrings. Danny Huston is all wrong for this role. No credibility here. It's the writing that does him in. Why suspect John Smith. No reason at all. Why would he allow his girl friend to die. More stupidity, and all taken so damn seriously. This movie makes me so mad. It just makes no sense. And that customs guy gets a red flag and lets the lingerie salesman go. No questions, and wouldn't there be a full alert during this time where the slightest suspicion would at least require further investigation? So many unrealistic plot lines. It's like a caricature of a spy movie. A spy running around in spike heels? Come on. Oh look at the bruises on Sophie's body...Oh no that's nothing. Are these people supposed to be pros? And that Russian style spy/gangster with the punk haircut that no one notices? Oh yeah he looks so cool and just blends in. What idiocy. Yeah lets hire an agent that looks like that. That will be real successful. And then he's on the train platform, leans over without checking under the edge. I guess he's not very well trained or just has a death wish. And more and more crap.

While in a retrieve operation of a virus in Berlin, the Covert One agent Rachel Russell (Mira Sorvino) is double-crossed by two dirty agents; she kills them and escapes, trying to find a hiding place and someone to trust to protect the vials. Meanwhile, the former Covert One agent Dr. Jon Smith (Stephen Dorff) is also in Berlin with his beloved fiancée Sophie Amsden (Sophie Myles) participating in a congress. When three persons die with bleeding, the doctors disclose a Hades virus outbreak, an extreme rare Ebola variant. Jon and Sophie return to the USA to research a cure, and Jon discovers a huge combination of bio-terrorism and conspiracy.

"Covert One: The Hades Factor" is a long full of action thriller with conspiracy, terrorism, corruption and betrayal. The complex story is very well-developed along 165 minutes running time and very well acted. Mira Sorvino has specialized in the role of detective or agent, following brilliantly the steps of her father. Stephen Dorff is also excellent and the gorgeous Sophie Myles of "Tristan + Isolde" has a short but effective participation. The conclusion is not predictable but has nor surprised me. In the end, it is a story about the good old-fashioned American capitalism in times of terrorism and intolerance. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): 'O Fator Hades" ("The Hades Factor")

Average.

This is the third bad (not good) movie in a row based upon novels by Robert Ludlum. I think that Ludlum is just too complicated for modern-day Hollywood, whose directors, producers and writers have all formed themselves by watching MTV music clips and PC Video games. Accordingly, this film is too fast, too short and too simple to be able to even begin doing justice to the novel. There is absolutely no character building, we have no insight into the motives, no details about the plot, etc...

In my opinion, the only decent filming of a Ludlum Novel was the first 'Bourne Identity' made sometime in the 80-ies. But then, those where completely different times...

If you enjoyed the Dustin Hoffman movie Outbreak, the TV series 24 and X-Files and the HBO/BBC series TheCell, and wondered what would happen if you mixed them altogether, then this is the result.

It trundles along at the usual pace of all the above, with Stephen Dorff doing his best Jack Bauer impersonation, in both looks and personality. Naturally the love of his live is offed fairly early on and that sets up the lone-agent working to recover the truth. Very 24'esque.

The X-Files element is all the government conspiracies that are woven into the plot and that makes for more distraction than anything else. The story is a good one on its own merit, no need to keep mixing in nonsense that really only serves to bog down the movie.

But on the whole it is a good watch.

Movie runs for about 3 hours (as it was made for TV in two parts). Many portions were predictable in the second part. Though not as interesting as MI , it is worth watching once.