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5.6/10
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After A US senator is killed, A Bomb Disposal Expert is brought in to investigate the deadly explosive and must uncover the terrorists plan.After A US senator is killed, A Bomb Disposal Expert is brought in to investigate the deadly explosive and must uncover the terrorists plan.After A US senator is killed, A Bomb Disposal Expert is brought in to investigate the deadly explosive and must uncover the terrorists plan.
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STAR RATING:*****Unmissable****Very Good***Okay**You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead*Avoid At All Costs
Danny O'Neill (Pierce Brosnan) is a bomb disposal expert.He's your typical cynical,hard-bitten good guy type,chewing on a cigar and uttering hard-edged one liners.Not only that,he's got the typical good guy set up.His young daughter's been killed in a tragic swimming pool accident,he's getting stick from his superiors for his unorthodox approach to his job and his wife Terry (Lisa Eilbacher) has left him and has started seeing smarmy senator Frank Traveres (Ron Silver).His life is about to get a whole lot worse,though,when a nasty piece of work by the name of Mikhail Rashid (Ben Cross) and his sidekick Al-red (Tony Plana) start putting explosive devices in the drinking water of politicians and eventually get plans to start targeting the rest of society as well.
In an action role he was to take on a few years before his debut as Bond,Brosnan manages the tough,swaggering good guy role reasonably well,as effective and convincing as he needed to be.Cross can always be relied on to deliver the goods in terms of presence as a good guy or bad guy respectively,but here his part is very poorly written and not given much meat to chew on at all.It's with the action that the film comes alive though,with one or two rollicking good sequences that you will have to see to believe.It certainly ain't with said performances or even the story which,by the end,is stewing so deeply in it's own preposterousness you can practically hear it gurgling.
But,hey,if it wasn't so silly,maybe it wouldn't have been such fun.That,and a surprisingly and ultimately pleasantly compact running time make Live Wire a genuine piece of no-brainer entertainment to savour.
Sit back,switch your brain off and enjoy.****
Danny O'Neill (Pierce Brosnan) is a bomb disposal expert.He's your typical cynical,hard-bitten good guy type,chewing on a cigar and uttering hard-edged one liners.Not only that,he's got the typical good guy set up.His young daughter's been killed in a tragic swimming pool accident,he's getting stick from his superiors for his unorthodox approach to his job and his wife Terry (Lisa Eilbacher) has left him and has started seeing smarmy senator Frank Traveres (Ron Silver).His life is about to get a whole lot worse,though,when a nasty piece of work by the name of Mikhail Rashid (Ben Cross) and his sidekick Al-red (Tony Plana) start putting explosive devices in the drinking water of politicians and eventually get plans to start targeting the rest of society as well.
In an action role he was to take on a few years before his debut as Bond,Brosnan manages the tough,swaggering good guy role reasonably well,as effective and convincing as he needed to be.Cross can always be relied on to deliver the goods in terms of presence as a good guy or bad guy respectively,but here his part is very poorly written and not given much meat to chew on at all.It's with the action that the film comes alive though,with one or two rollicking good sequences that you will have to see to believe.It certainly ain't with said performances or even the story which,by the end,is stewing so deeply in it's own preposterousness you can practically hear it gurgling.
But,hey,if it wasn't so silly,maybe it wouldn't have been such fun.That,and a surprisingly and ultimately pleasantly compact running time make Live Wire a genuine piece of no-brainer entertainment to savour.
Sit back,switch your brain off and enjoy.****
This is fun bad. Too many laughs to enjoy.
There's a forensic lab robot that grabs Bronson's ass, and it looks like a reject from the old Dr. Who.
They seem to avoid ever telling you why these people are being killed - just hash it up to beltway politics.
And they never hint at just how this amazing new explosive could ever possibly work. That's why Jurassic Park gave us the maple-covered mosquitoes. Just give us some kind of something to hang our hat on, even if it does strain disbelief.
And not only is our hero recovering from a deep personal tragedy, but his wife is also sleeping with the villain. And there's a recurring panty-less victim who keeps getting rigged to blow.
The best thing you can say about movies like this is that they never took themselves seriously. Well, for the most part that is.
Check out Roy Scheider in Chain of Command, or Lou Diamond Phillips in Alien Express for similar projects. Even harder to swallow then their plots, believing they were ever sold in the first place.
There's a forensic lab robot that grabs Bronson's ass, and it looks like a reject from the old Dr. Who.
They seem to avoid ever telling you why these people are being killed - just hash it up to beltway politics.
And they never hint at just how this amazing new explosive could ever possibly work. That's why Jurassic Park gave us the maple-covered mosquitoes. Just give us some kind of something to hang our hat on, even if it does strain disbelief.
And not only is our hero recovering from a deep personal tragedy, but his wife is also sleeping with the villain. And there's a recurring panty-less victim who keeps getting rigged to blow.
The best thing you can say about movies like this is that they never took themselves seriously. Well, for the most part that is.
Check out Roy Scheider in Chain of Command, or Lou Diamond Phillips in Alien Express for similar projects. Even harder to swallow then their plots, believing they were ever sold in the first place.
I came upon this film while channel surfing on an uneventful Tuesday evening. Being that I am both a fan of Pierce Brosnan and action movies, I gave it a chance. And let me tell you, I was not disappionted. Pierce portrays Danny O'Neil, a temperamental FBI bomb squad agent. O'Neil must protect a Senator from a group of terrorists who have invented a kind of liquid explosives that destroy the victims from the inside out. I know, the premise does sound kinda cheesy, but the film itself is quite entertaining. With plot twist (the Senator had an affair with O'Neil's wife) and invigorating action sequences, I would recommend this film to anybody.
While I was channel surfing one uneventful Tuesday Evening, I came upon this Pierce Brosnan actioner. Since their was really nothing else on, I decided to give it a try. I was not disappionted. Brosnan plays Danny O'Neal, an easily aggrivated FBI Bomb Squad agent who is assigned to protect a sleazy Senator (Ron Silver). The Senator is being threatened by a group of revenge driven terrorists who have invented a liqued explosive that caused people to explode when ingested. I know, that sound kinda cheesy, but the movie pulls it off nicely. The character tension and the invigorating action sequences make this a cool film.
Long before his stint as James Bond, Pierce Brosnan did make some darn good movies. One of them is 'Live Wire'. Director Christian Duguay (The Hitchhiker series) has done a brilliant job in making Brosnan's entry into the world of action as smooth as possible. Brosnan plays Danny O' Neill, an Irish bomb defusion specialist working for the FBI's anti-terrorist division. The movie is a cat and mouse game between Brosnan's old adversary from the IRA and Brosnan himself. The IRA terrorist is out to make his millions from corrupt politicians and their wrongful ways. Ron Silver plays a Senator under threat and Brosnan is called in to protect him. The movie also intertwines Danny O' Neill's separation from his wife due to her alleged affair with the Senator (Ron Silver). All these make for very intriguing drama and fast paced yet "intelligent" action. Worth a rental definitely.
Did you know
- TriviaPierce Brosnan waxed his body hair for the film.
- GoofsWhen Terry is kidnapped, it is the middle of the day, while at the same time Danny and Frank are in the kitchen and it is 4:45 am.
- Quotes
Mikhail Rashid: [having drunken his own chemical explosive] Defuse THIS BOMB Danny O'Neil!
- Alternate versionsUK version was edited by 16 seconds to secure a '15' rating with cuts to detailed shots of home-made explosive being constructed from fertilizer.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Bad Movie Beatdown: Live Wire (2010)
Details
Box office
- Budget
- $9,000,000 (estimated)
- Runtime
- 1h 25m(85 min)
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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