Huge McQueen fan, but this one...well...it's just plain stupid.
It seems they developed the plot {!??} in 5 minutes and then started filming.
Sad for McQueen's last film, all the way around.
'You can't HANDLE the truth!'
I'm a big Mc Queen fan but must agree.I wish I hadn't watch it a total mess of a film
shareIt's a total head scratcher. At the time this film was made, Steve McQueen was the most powerful and sought after star in the film industry - he had his choice of all the best projects - and he chose to do this - something that plays like a TV pilot film for a series, and a bad one at that. The producers of this film were stunned when he accepted - they went through the formality of offering him the role first, but they were not realistically expecting to land him - they were expecting to get somebody like Lee Marvin (a former superstar whose star was fading).
shareplays like a TV pilot film for a series, and a bad one at that.Agreed -- at times it felt like I was watching an episode of The Rockford Files or Husky and Starch. Seemed really hastily put together, with simple camera set-ups and sloppy editing. McQueen and Harrold are okay, but the script is flat and the action scenes aren't exciting.
Agree on the way the movie looks but to call the action scenes not exciting is just hating.
shareThe people who vote on IMDB are a bunch of idiots. They wouldn't know a good movie it bit them where the sun don't shine.
The reason is because ANY movie with the Steve McQueen personality in it always transcends IN ONE ASPECT, while excellent scripts without that character might make for a better film and yet have ZERO transcendent aspects.
I doubt he was still the most sought after star at the time. He already had two bombs in a row after Towering Inferno. I bet he was desperate to make another comeback attempt.
shareI doubt he was still the most sought after star at the time. He already had two bombs in a row after Towering Inferno. I bet he was desperate to make another comeback attempt.
shareThe movie's shambles that barely holds together and represents a particularly jarring tonal mismatch - it's at once a comedic slapstick action movie as well as a corny melodrama milking for easy - and easily undermined - pathos and then there's the Tracey Walter character who seems to be existing in some kind of campy horror movie of his own. And all of that is shrouded in a pervasive, self conscious, cheesy quirkiness at every turn. The action itself is pretty entertaining, but it has no sense of narrative unity or character development to support it, with random antagonists (who sometimes aren't even given any dialogue beyond grunting or screaming threats) popping up here and there. McQueen's typical dry, understated delivery sometimes works, but by and large his character is just a compilation of ticks and cheesy doubletakes much reminiscent of Roger Moore's brand of Bond that reigned supreme at the time. Some more annoying pieces of business notwithstanding, it's not nauseatingly bad necessarily - just a bunch of poorly written, forgettable nonsense.
"facts are stupid things" Ronald Reagan
I thought it was pretty good.
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