Otages en péril

...so, after bombing, destroying and killing thousands of innocent people in Serbia, it seems that Americans decided to continue their anti-Serbian propaganda with films like this one. I won't discuss any further, but I'm afraid that in the next few years there will be a new barrage of 'patriot' films similar to those after the war in Vietnam (only that this time they will concern the people of Serbia), beginning with this one.

Avoid it at all costs.

This political thriller has a pretty good, up-to-date story (Serbian terrorists seeking revenge after one of their leaders is kidnapped by US soldiers to stand trial in Hague); but the execution is strangely lifeless and dull. Tom Berenger had top billing on my video cassette cover, but he didn't appear until about half of the movie had passed, and even then he got less screen time than Weller's son, played by teenage heartthrob Jeremy Lelliott. There is one rather catchy plot twist near the end (I didn't see it coming, maybe someone more observant would have) involving Weller and Hannah; but it didn't save this movie from being quite mediocre. By all means, the action stunts, the explosions and the machine-gun-firing is impressive, but the story and (most of) the acting is not. So unless you're a die hard fan of either of the actors involved, you probably won't be satisfied after watching this movie. Rating on a dice, I'll probably give it a 3 (out of 6).

"Diplomatic Siege" tells of those involved in the siege of the American embassy in Bucharest for the purpose of compelling the UN to release a Serbian officer being held for war crimes. The film is an ambitious project which self-destructs in the process of trying to do too much. An utter failure not recommended for anyone.

I'm usually a sucker for mindless action flicks, but this was an incredible waste of time, both for the actors involved and anybody who tried to watch. The military special effects are laughably fake, with colored smoke substituting for real explosions. I like Weller, Hannah, and Berenger, but even they cannot rise above this horrendous made-for-TV script. In fact, this was easily their worst film -- for all of them. When the actors do stop to give their lines, the result is often unintentionally humorous. There are far too many unnecessary plot elements, making the movie feel like 6 different scripts were thrown into a blender. The scenes stolen from other movies ranging from Mission Impossible to Toy Soldiers are immediately recognizable and come across as gratuitous and weak. It's just a shame. There was so much potential, instead it's one of the worst movies I've ever seen.

This so-called international thriller was so dreadful that I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. The team of four writers who wrote this trash should be imprisoned for crimes against humanity. The eight producers who brought it to the market should be tried for conspiracy to cause brain death. It was that bad.

This film was horrible in all regards. The production standards were below TV quality. The photography was poor, the sound was muddy and the music was pure garbage. The premise was interesting; that the U.S. planted atomic bombs in all its embassies in the Soviet Union and Eastern block countries during the cold war to give them first strike capability. Now that the cold war was over the U.S. was disarming all the bombs, but the last one was in an embassy taken over by a group of terrorists. Our heroes (Daryl Hannah and Peter Weller) had to disable it before the terrorists got control of it.

The presentation of the story was abysmal. The dialogue was so bad that I was literally guffawing between eye rolls. Some scenes were so implausible that I had to wonder what the writers were smoking. For instance, our heroes are clanking through the ventilation system, trying desperately to find a way to get downstairs to the bomb to disable it. Terrorists are all around killing one hostage an hour. So, this would be a perfect time to start necking in the air duct, right? The writers thought so.

Daryl Hannah and Tom Berenger did their best to bring credibility to their ridiculous characters with some success. Peter Weller was awful. His character had a batch of very stupid lines, which he was able to elevate to absurdity.

I rated this film a 2/10. Do not see this film under any circumstances. Action junkies might be tempted because of the enormous body count. Resist.