more macho bravado for your rental $

Rating: Null/10 (5 February 2001)

i recently picked this up on dvd and foolishly watched the behind-the-scenes- making of...part before watching the movie, it pretty much gave away the whole film and left nothing to the imagination, yet the dvd features are good, a introspective commentary by friedkin, good cast interviews (does tommy lee act in real life as he does on screen???) and some good picturesque shooting pics. worth it for that alone, now onto the movie.... i really enjoyed the first hour of this, but then once the cover-up was let out of the bag and the bad national security man was exposed - you knows whats gonna happen...tommy lee is his usual grumpy hard-ass self, which is always welcome, but here he seems even more jaded then he did in "double jeopardy" plus he dragged bruce greenwood into this movie too. greenwood and ben kingsley were frivilously wasted here, all kingsley get to do is to choose between jackson's ass and his own and thats that - more indepth analysis of this decision could of been better. guy pearce looks so gaunt here...hell, i can remember when he was so spritely looking in "neighbours" (for non-australians that was a 80s soap-opera he was a frequent cast member of..) his noo-yawk accent was believable, yet he too seemed just to be hanging around as part of the background. sam jackson excels in yet another bravado bold performance, has he ever put in a bad performance????? still, this was a well-made yet predictable thriller, yet with a great cast (i just wish phillip baker hall would get more screen time in his roles). there is enough shouting, accusations, macho posturing, and good-ol' american marine spirit to last a lifetime in here, yet i still love films of this ilk...worth using your free new release voucher for anyway