daniel_lalla

Terrible acting with people looking wistful at the camera or staring off into the distance. Long pauses, slow pace. Horrible dialogue that would be bad for a made-for-TV movie. And car chases. Bruce Dern earns special credit for smug detective over-acting and Ryan O'Neal for looking like a sad puppy staring into everyone's soul. Nicknames, clichés, schlock.

Maybe this was seen as a good film in 1978. I regret wasting time of my life I'd never get back. If you want to see some shots of New York as it was then, bad American cars and horrible acting and bad dialogue, this is the film for you...

I gave this 2 (instead of 1) stars for the driving scene with the Mercedes in the underground garage. It kept my attention for a few minutes. Honestly the only redeeming thing I can say about this film.

Horrible stereotypical Russian accents (that keep changing and sound like phlegm)? Quicksand - really, a movie with quicksand... ? Horrible acting? Fake characters with horrible dialogue? Magnets that are only magnetic part of the time? Scenes that make no sense? Gunshots that should have killed everyone yet inexplicably never do? A Teen actor brought in with a plot device: playing a stereotypical 50s greaser? Double agent bad guys like when you used to play with your friends when you were 6 years old? Nut shots? CGI monkeys (that save the day) and ShiaLeBeef swinging from trees? If that's what you want? THIS is the film for you. How a piece of junk like this gets made is beyond me. Furthermore, the fact that it made 185 million at a box office is proof that people will watch anything. You can't compete with nostalgia I guess but this is so formulaic as to be laughable. There are so many good films out there and the fact that people even wasted film stock making something like this is incomprehensible. A story that phones it in from beginning to end. If you want to enjoy this experience, perhaps watch the Rifftrax version - you might laugh a little then. Spielberg is only 'good' at making spectacles. He could never make a nuanced realistic movie in a million years. He wouldn't know real dialogue or acting if it hit him in the face. If someone can explain to me why this film is anything worth watching.. please... try. I'll listen.

The reason to watch this film is for the exotic location as it was back then in the 1960s - hip, jet-set Beirut that benefited from an influx of wealth at the time. There is no sympathy for the major character who is it trouble. Hardly spoiling anything to say that you know from the outset that things aren't as he says - there's little suspense and also little sympathy. Actually Rooney is excellent at playing an annoying little creep - it was apparently his true character.

Great shots, interesting for the cars, the geography, but terrible acting largely and plastic characters.

Don't get me wrong - I'd still watch it, but don't expect much more.