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The Osterman WeekendRating:
Release Date: 23 March, 2004 Retail Price: $19.98 OUR Price: $17.99 You SAVE: $1.99! Cast: Complete Cast (10 total) |
The Osterman Weekend Reviews
Our Friendship is (Probably) OVER!
This one works only about half way. So 2.5 stars really. But I round it up to a 3.
There are signs of Pechinpah's filmaking throughout, but the story gets in the way, and that counts for a lot.
As to why these guys are friends, why they meet continually, why some of them are dealing with the KGB, why Burt Lancaster's character sets John Hurt up, why John Hurt follows through with the plan when he knows the truth, etc., etc., remain unanswered. This is the part of the story that doesn't work.
The acting is alright. Rutger Hauer is fine. Steely and equipped with essential hair. Pre-"Coach" Craig T. Nelson stands out, but not only for his stellar moustache and command of martial arts, but for his substantive presence as the eponymous friend. The other friends Dennis Hopper and Chris Sarandon must have had creative conflicts, or more established characters in the novel, because their parts end too neatly, Hopper never gets to shift beyond third, and Sarandon (one could claim here he IS Mark Ruffalo's father) is all venom and vitriol. John Hurt is too good an actor to be bad, and represents an English FBI agent (whose wife's brutal murder opens the movie) bent on torture well. His penchant for being cast as a talking-head-on-a-screen, like he did recently in V for Vendetta also works here. Perhaps it is his ability for seething unabashed cruelty. Burt Lancaster is fine as well, neither here nor there as the shadowy figure of power.
The film does have well paced and suspenseful action sequences, standard Peckinpah slow-motion violence, and an ultimately oppressive use of technology as communicator and omniscient weapon of mass destruction.
Not bad, a decent rental, certainly a dated technological piece, with illuminative hair and style for an actioner....
Peckinpaw
I have to admit that what I liked about this movie was the fight scene in the kitchen. I am really into martial arts and I think that one reason is seeing Sam Peckinpaw's work back in the 1970s and 1980s, while I was growing up. He was the master of the slow-motion action shot, and we now see it in the films of John Woo and other directors. This is I think a pretty mediocre film, directed by one of the great directors, and like I said, that one scene really stuck in my mind over the years. It is a watchable film overall.
More Customer Reviews (16 total)
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