This movie made by former Bond director Peter (On Her Majesty's Secret Service) Hunt and starring then 007 Roger Moore has all the hallmarks of a great fun action thriller. Yet, the action doesn't seem to truly pick up until the latter part of the movie when things start to go terribly wrong in a South African gold mine. The plot - for what it's worth - revolves around plans to increase the value of gold stocks by flooding a gold mine in Africa, and the machinations employed to keep the manager of the mine (played by Moore) suitably distracted and away from the location to allow the villains plot to succeed. A great cast supports Moore in this piece including Susannah York and Sir John Gielgud and it moves at a fair pace. The troubling aspect about this movie (and the reason I give it only four stars) is the poor treatment that has been afforded the picture on the DVD - it really does deserve to be redone and remastered.
Authentic
While living in South Africa in 1972 I had the idiot notion I might like to work in a gold mine, so I spent a day about 2 miles down. This, and my studies of geology, qualify me to speak a bit to the authenticity of this movie. What the audience of this movie cannot FEEL about life 2 miles down is the heat and humidity that is natural and the coldness that is artificially created by the 20-ft fans pulling air down through the tunnels and around one's drenched body. But everything that can be conveyed visually is true to the facts of that time (above ground and below, and political as well as natural), and for these reasons this is an absorbing story well told.
Roger Moore gives one of his best Performances
After Peter Hunt directed ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE he left the Bond series. This was Hunt's best directorial effort since then. Roger Moore gives a standout performance as an engineer working for a gold mine in South Africa. The beautiful Susannah York provides the love interest. The sort of likeable Bradford Dillman is the villain of the piece. At a time when composer Elmer Berstein seemed to be struggling between genres he came up with one of his most innovative and beautiful scores including a rousing vocal main title. This is a good film supported by an intelligent script. Well acted.
There's something about this film that's so irresistible, despite its grandiose manipulation. Maybe because it recounts the greatest air battle in history, achieving the greatest aerial battle in film history. Maybe because it has such a terrific cast (Harry Andrews, Michael Caine, Trevor Howard, Curt Jurgens, Laurence Olivier, Nigel Patrick, Christopher Plummer, Michael Redgrave, Ralph Richardson, Robert Shaw, Patrick Wymark, and Edward Fox). Maybe because it's so technically well-made, thanks to the Bond team of producer Harry Saltzman and director Guy Hamilton and the great cinematographer Freddie Young. Or maybe because there is something truly riveting about watching the British kick the Nazis back to Germany. --Bill DesowitzMore Info about this DVD Actor(s): Michael Caine - Trevor Howard Director(s): Guy Hamilton DVD Release Date: Released the 20 May 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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I first saw this film on HBO. I tuned in because two long-time favourites (Roger Moore & Patrick Macnee) were listed. I watched it over several times, bought it on VHS, and now own it on DVD.
This is based on a true event in WWII, when the British were losing cargo to a U-Boat pack in the Indian Ocean. Since the problem stemmed from the neutral Portugese port of Goa, nothing 'official' could be done. The Calcutta Light Horse, a group of retired British military, are recruited to do the impossible, and pulled it off. The event was declassified in 1980, and the film was made. Most of the cast is portraying actual persons involved, as shown in the end credits.
One of director Richard Lester's least-known films, Juggernaut was part of the wave of disaster movies of the early 1970s--and one of the only ones with a sense of intelligence. Richard Harris, in one of his most controlled performances, plays a bomb expert called aboard a luxury liner in midocean; the ship has been commandeered by an anonymous terrorist, demanding money before he starts setting off bombs he has planted around the vessel. The cast, which includes David Hemmings, Anthony Hopkins, and Omar Sharif, is a solid one, and the suspense is thick enough to cut through, with Lester's nasty sense of humor working at full throttle as the countdown gets into the single digits. --Marshall FineMore Info about this DVD Actor(s): Richard Harris - Omar Sharif - David Hemmings Director(s): Richard Lester DVD Release Date: Released the 15 July 2003 Usually ships within 24 hours
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Mention the name Roger Moore to the average moviegoer and they'll most likely immediately associate him with the James Bond franchise. Makes sense to me. After all, Moore took up the mantle thrown down by Sean Connery and eventually made some seven Bond films, beginning with "Live and Let Die" in 1973 and ending with "A View to a Kill" in 1985. I'm partial to Roger Moore because of this very fact. He's definitely my favorite Bond; I enjoy his glib wit, expressions of fear when confronted with daunting situations, and just the way he handles himself onscreen. I never turn down an opportunity to watch one of his films when AMC or another channel runs yet another lengthy 007 marathon. It's natural, considering how much I enjoy his Bond films, that I would seek out other Roger Moore projects.... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Roger Moore - James Mason - Anthony Perkins Director(s): Andrew V. McLaglen DVD Release Date: Released the 12 August 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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This 1976 adventure story set in World War II concerns a Nazi plot to kidnap Churchill from his retreat--or murder him if need be. The large, great cast and a director, John Sturges, who's been down this road of ensemble action before (The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape) make this project exciting if not as memorable as Sturges's more famous works. The weak ending doesn't help. -- Tom KeoghMore Info about this DVD Actor(s): Michael Caine - Donald Sutherland Director(s): John Sturges DVD Release Date: Released the 17 October 2000 Usually ships in 24 hours
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