Detonator II: Night Watch

This has to be the worst movie ever made, Ed Wood come back All is forgiven.

I thought by renting this movie it was going to be a good spy/action movie BUT alas what I got has to be on the list for the worst movies ever made. From what I can make out this movie is about a stolen painting. I really don't know what it was about as after 10 minutes of this movie I decided to go out into the back yard and watch the grass grow.

Mr. Brosnan you should be ashamed of yourself for making this DUD

This is not a great film. It's certainly no Where Eagles Dare and it's not even a Puppet on a Chain. And if you were hoping for a Brosnan film in the style of Goldeneye or The Thomas Crown Affair, forget it. The cast deserve better, but if you ignore the star names and don't set your expectations too high, it's an OK TV action flick.

It wants to be a (low-budget) Bond movie with glamorous locations and a series of action sequences to make you forget a paper-thin plot, but there's no finesse to it, it's all a bit pedestrian. The dialogue creaks, the accents are all over the shop, and the direction uneven. There's several nods to Puppet on a Chain, with a lot of action set on the canals of Amsterdam, and I suspect that Brosnan had already been cast as Bond before filming the casino scene (Nightwatch came out a month before Goldeneye).

The main problem with the film is that it all hangs on the relationship between Brosnan and Paul, which has little chemistry and is badly developed. I've not read the book but it feels like a fairly minor female character has been expanded to accommodate Paul at the height of her Baywatch fame, when just following the original story was at the limits of the scriptwriter's capabilities - and writing decent dialogue was waaay beyond him.

Despite all that it rattles along at a reasonable pace, it's a passable way to spend 90 minutes if you don't expect too much of it.

I had heard of these Detonator movies Pierce Brosnan made films years. I found them at my local library and finally watched them. These are mostly a curiosity to his James Bond fans. I wonder when this second film was shot? Before or after his Goldeneye contract was signed. When he signed that contract he had long hair and beard for a movie of Robinson Crusoe which filmed before Goldeneye actually filmed.

It's well known that after Roger Moore did a James Bond parody in Cannonball Run that every Bond actor's contract was updated to prevent that. They could never appear in tuxedos or play similar characters to Bond while doing the role.

I suspect Pierce did not cut his hair or fully shave after Robinson Crosoe when he did this for that reason. In the Casino scene he wears a Tux jacket but no tie. Yet when the Original Detonator was made he looks his normal clean cut look. At that time Timothy Dalton was playing Bond and Brosnan had no reason to think that would change soon.

The most curious thing is in this sequel he acts so much more like Bond than he did in the original. Makes it feel like James Bond is working undercover in the UN. ALtered his appearance and name to hide his real identity!

I don't know much about Alistair McLean's series, "Detonator." I haven't seen the first film in this series but you don't need too. Pierce Brosnan played Michael Graham, an United Nations agent, who works with Alexandra Paul's Sabrina Carver to find the missing artistic masterpiece, "The Night Watch." They go around the world to Europe and Hong Kong to find it. Supporting cast actors, William Devane and Rolf Saxon do an admirable job in playing agents. The scenery in the film overshadows the plot. There is a budding chemistry and romance between Graham and Carver but predictable.

this is the second movie in the Detonator series.you should probably watch the first one before this one,just to get an idea of the agency and the characters.it goes by the title Detonator or sometimes Death Train.anyway,this movie is bit a bit different than the first one.this one is a bit more hi tech,with a few gadgets.it's sort of James Bond lite.in this one a very expensive painting has been stolen and a fake one put in it's place.so,the team is hired to find the authentic painting and return it.but that's just part of the story.there's a lot more going on.there's a bit more action in this one,but it's still not really fast paced.Pierce Brosnan and Alexandra Paul team up once again,and instead of Patrick Stewart as the boss,this time we have William Devane.i don't have a problem with Devane,i just wish they had also kept Stewart also .as i said,this move has more action,but still seems fairly slow.believability is a bit strained in this one.i don't think they were going for realism.i did,however like the story,although it isn't very original.still,it's entertaining and a decent enough diversion.i don't think it's worse than the first one,but it's not really better either.for me Detonator 2 AKA Night Watch is a 6/10