The Lemon Has Landed

The film feels rushed. By mid-point, we know the plot against Churchill is a disaster. This kills the suspense, unlike, say, "The Day of the Jackal", where everything comes down to the wire. What a wasted opportunity.

There are several good comments on this thread--and BrennyPicks did us a service by pasting his review on the board--but I always felt TEHL was a sentimental, but appealing load of cheese. And anyway, any movie that has Jenny Agutter looking that good and Michael Caine calling an SS General dog$hit in that great Caine murderous diction of his can't be all bad!

"You eat guts."--Nick Devlin

I don't know exactly what to make of this film. It starts off as being a smart thriller but it turns into a pretty formulaic action film. I absolutely hated the "Twist" ending; not only did I see it coming a mile away, I found it absolutely insulting. It had a few interesting conceits - Michael Caine's character's sense of honor that prevented him from shooting hostages - that didn't really pan out and served to diffuse a lot of the drama and tension. It could have been a lot better.

The action scenes were well-done in and of themselves. The acting was mostly good, except for Larry Hagman, who's already been roasted to a crisp elsewhere on this thread. Caine was okay, but it's Sutherland who steals that end of the film. Duvall is excellent and I wish he'd had more screen time. Donald Sutherland and Anthony Quayle were good in tiny roles, and Treat Williams is good in an action hero role. The whole of the movie is a passable waste of time, but I'm not sure I'd watch it again.

REPENT, you son of a bitch!