The Owl

Martial arts movie with more than usual absence of any semblance of reality in plot, made distinctive by bad acting and increasing the film/expenditure ratio by repeating the same sequence several times in slow motion. Yet another gem under the Smithee Banner - Bad Movie Night review please...

Based on a novel by Bob Forward, this had all the trappings of something interesting. Sadly the movie was poorly executed for reasons I'll go into later, and it is easy to see why it did not get commissioned as a TV series. All the better for its star, Adrian Paul, it seemed. Not long after he was picked up for Duncan Macleod in the extremely successful HIGHLANDER: The Series. You could argue this was a good canvas for Paul's talents and later casting as the Scottish Immortal, if anyone had bothered to see it. I don't know if the Producers of Highlander watched The Owl, but Paul's natural agility and martial arts experience shines through here and was one of the most interesting aspects in the film. With long, drawn out scenes of Paul working out spliced between flashback segments of his former life, the movie is drawn out instead of getting on with the story. What is more, it tells us very little of what we want to know. How did he become The Owl?

A word on the music. Moody and atmospheric, you could say no more from Sylvester Levay (Airwolf)

The cast. I have to say, the Wooden Spoon Award must go to the awful rapping bad guy, Cool Ice. He's just plain silly. His stringy haired henchman are no better. Brian Thompson makes a worthy appearance as Bobby B, the bar keeper of a backstreet bar The Owl frequents. He is L'Hiboux's confident and informant. Patricia Charbonneau plays a cop, and L'Hiboux's on and off girlfriend. Hutchins, played by Alan Scarfe was obviously meant to be the recurring nemesis of The Owl. He seemed like a great foil, but sadly we'll never know what might have become of it.

Bob/Robert Forward wrote two Owl books. I confess I have not read them. What put me off is that they are written in first person, i.e from the character's perspective, which is a good idea to get into the head of the character, but so often doesn't work. I must try them, as reviews of the books are generally very good. Maybe they might throw some light on how L'Hiboux got to be The Owl. The movie makes little attempt. Again, maybe they left this to be revealed as the series progressed. In summary, this movie is worth a shot. It's very hard to get hold of though which doesn't make the job easy. In Australia it was called "Night Owl"

An ex-investigative journalist can't sleep – he walks the street as a vigilante, taking on cases. He is driven by the murder of his wife and daughter years before and uses his martial arts skill to fight crime. When he finds a new drug Instant Iron creating crime, he is hired to stop the supply. Coincidentally a young girl hires him to find her father, a chemist, who may have been kidnapped to make more of the drug for criminals – does this connect to the man who murdered his wife?

I hate most TVM's. I especially hate those that are only designed to become cheap TV shows. This was clearly one of those – th plot sets up all the elements the producers wanted for the series, a love interest, a bar room friend with whom he has a shady past, a revenge story line, a criminal nemesis to wheel out regularly and some sort of semi-super powers. Unfortunately they forgot to add any type of spark – this is evident from the credits where we see the director is…oh dear…Alan Smithee.

The plot is lazy and predictable, the action is worst. The film is dull throughout and it's little wonder no-one picked it up. It's not helped by having cardboard cut out Adrian Paul in the lead role – can't he act at all – there's nothing funnier in the whole film than seeing him wailing to the sky in despair after the loss of his kid! Brian Thompson (X-files' Alien Bounty Hunter) is OK but the rest are as bad as Paul.

There's nothing to like here, the film is lazy and poor in every area. It's dull and even Adrian Paul seems to think he's better than this – and if HE looks down his nose at something then you know it'' gotta stink.

For lovers of bad TV and film this really pushes the boundaries of what a human mind can take.

I shall not attempt to describe the full indignity of the film - rather a few select moments, in particular the two 10 minute montages of a silent Highlander Man (adrien Paul?) working out/watching his family dying/stalking the streets (all to a terribly bad, sub-yann hammer synth soundtrack). So bad that by the 6th time you see his wife and daughter get blown up, you wish you had been with them, if only to save the sweet misery of seeing the Owl re-live his dull montage again and again.

Indeed as we cross the half-hour mark, humour turns to revulsion as we realise that this is a serious piece of work, so bad that the director removed their name from his hateful and yet unintentionally hilarious movie.

I mean the central villain 'raps' all of his dialogue for god sake!! How could I sit through this? How will you sit through this? Well, like some horrible accident once you begin to watch it you won't be able to take your eyes from the screen.

However I warn you, the Owl is not for the casual viewer - if it comes on TV and you can survive the full hour then you can consider yourself one of the lucky ones, as many will have fallen where you now stand (probably weeping).

"The Owl" was a proposed pilot that was not picked up by any network. Oddly, the makers of this show did something unique...they released a longer version in theaters in Europe after it bombed with the networks in order to recoup some of their expenses.

'The Owl' is a man who apparently doesn't sleep much and spends his nights dispensing justice as needed. In many ways, he acts like The Equalizer or Renegade or The Saint....but is much less prone to talking and more into punching and kicking. I am glad he didn't talk much, as when others (especially the baddies) did, I felt like tossing my remote at the TV. Yes, the dialog was THAT bad. What was also just horrible was the macho and highly formulaic fight at the end...uggh!

The bottom line is that after watching it, I could see why the series was never made. Had they made the hero less grunty and more like a real human being, it might have worked. And, had they made villains who seemed real in any way, that, too would have helped!

By the way, I learned from this show is that if you have a bullet-proof coat, baddies with machine guns will only shoot the coat...never the unprotected head or hands. Imagine...opening up on him at close range and never once hitting his head!