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- Cert:
- Cat.no: 078 077 2
- Running time: 119 minutes
- Year: 1999
- Pressing: 2000
- Region(s): 2, 4 (UK PAL)
- Chapters: 20 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: English for the hard of hearing
- Widescreen: 2.35:1
- 16:9-enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £17.99
- Extras: 2 Trailers, Cutting Room Floor, Stunt Footage, Booklet
Director:
- Mimi Leder
(Deep Impact, The Peacemaker, TV: E.R.)
Producers:
- Andrew Cockburn, Leslie Cockburn and Pat Kehoe
Screenplay:
- Andrew Cockburn and Leslie Cockburn
Original Score :
- Hans Zimmer
Cast :
- Thomas Devoe: George Clooney
Julia Kelly: Nicole Kidman
Dusan Gavrich: Marcel Iures
Alexsander Kodoroff: Alexander Baluyev
Dimitri Vertikoff: Armin Mueller-Stahl
Ten nuclear devices have been stolen by the Russiansin an operation ledby the evil Alexsander Kodoroff. In an attempt to throw any investigators offthe scent, they place one on a train full of Russian soldiers going acrossthe country, and straight into the path of another train. As those left aliveon the second train stagger off, there’s only a delay of a few minutes beforethe device explodes making mincemeat of the passengers and the Russian farmingcouple who get out of bed to see the state of the damage on the track.
Nicole Kidman plays Dr. Julia Kelly, who is in charge of an operationalteam to track down who’s behind the bomb and find a way to track them down andstop them detonating another one, although why would they detonate one in thefirst place when they can sell for $200 million apiece?
George Clooney is her military liaison officer, Thomas Devoe, whothrows in his opinions on the crisis more loudly than anyone else’s, and it’snot long before the two head off together to have a word, so to speak, withthe man who sold a truck to Kodoroff and is using it to escape across theIranian border with the remaining nine nuclear devices. As the film progresses,there soon becomes one left, and a Bosnian activist, masquering in his hometown as a piano teacher is bringing it to the United States of America…
It looked like George Clooney had found his way into the A-list of Hollywoodwith this film following his other previous successes after being brought tothe fore by the television series, E.R.. However, he hasn’t reallyfollowed it up with anything that could keep him in the style to which he wouldlike to become accustomed and looks destined to remain back a step afterless action-orientated roles likeOut of Sight,O Brother Where Art Thou?and let’s not say a word about the direThe Perfect Storm.
It’s notable that this is the first big film in which Clooney’s name hasappeared first in the credits. In From Dusk Till Dawn he played secondfiddle to Harvey Keitel; in One Fine Day, his name appeared afterthat of Michelle Pfeiffer, and Arnold Schwarzenegger topped thebill in the summer blockbuster,Batman and Robin.
Nicole Kidman puts in a reasonable performance in this film. I’m not aparticular fan of hers, but I was not sitting waiting for her to move offthe screen, so she must have done well. However, I can’t quite see anyAustralian model-turned-actress taking on a job which would involve life ordeath decisions such as those she makes in the film, but then again this isHollywood.
This is the first major studio film for its director, Mimi Leder whocut her teeth on a number of TV movies, plus episodes of E.R., andshe certainly makes a successful job of keeping the film going inbetween theaction set-pieces, which include a car smash-up in Vienna as Clooney attemptsto exact revenge on the bad guys who offed his best friend, Dimitri, playedby Armin Mueller-Stahl and a three-strong helicopter attack on thetruck driven by Kodoroff heading for the Iranian border.
Overall, this is a film that comes recommended, although in essence, there’snot a lot we’ve not seen before, but it’s a good shot for Mimi Leder who alsohas an interesting visual style which occasionally makes the most of the 2.35:1widescreen frame.
George lets one drop and hopes no-one will notice.
The film is presented in the original 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen ratioand looks superb with bold colours where it counts. It’s certainly not a filmthat would sit comfortably if cropped at the sides.The average bitrate is 6.54Mb/s, occasionally peaking over 8Mb/s.
The soundtrack is in Dolby Digital 5.1 and strikes out in all the aforementionedscenes, coupled with an effective score from Hans Zimmer. Dialoguecomes in English and German flavours.
Extras are rather thin on the ground with 2 Trailers, 3 minutes ofsomething called Cutting Room Floor which makes it sound like outtakesbut is just director Leder talking about the cast members. The Stunt Footageshows how some scenes were done including the car smashing and Clooney runningacross car rooves while chasing after the bad guy. Finally, the Bookletjust gives two pages of production notes.
There are 16 chapters which isn’t really enough, the menus are silent andthere are subtitles in 7 languages: English (for the deaf and hard of hearing),German, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and Finnish.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
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Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.