I respect Christopher Plummer, playing against his typical villainous character, and he is very convincing as a concerned scientist. The supporting cast is very good also. The plot alludes to "Frankenstein" numerous times and is obviously hinged on that classic tale. There is no excitement in this movie. It is so laid back, especially Arthur Hill, Plummers adversary, that you begin to drift off early and often. Cerebral sci-fi doesn't have to be this boring (see "Enemy Mine"), and while the acting is totally acceptable, everything lacks excitement, and just drifts along towards a conclusion that was only a minor surprise. Not recommended. - MERK


'THE FUTURE IS NOT FRIENDLY' intones the cover. While this may or may not be true, the movie is set in 1983. I suppose that being suckered into buying this bargain DVD at Wal-Mart in 2005 is the unfriendly future they were referring to.

The cover art is a lie. There are no skeletal Terminator-style robots with red eyeballs in this movie. The android guy wears a white turtleneck and is less threatening than Star Trek's Data, and he doesn't do anything interesting. He's a wuss. This movie is crap.

If you are responsible for the marketing of this DVD, you should be ashamed of yourself.


Gloria (Erika Eleniak) is a rich man's daughter and, therefore, requires a bodyguard. Since she is just a tad ornery, the security men come and go. Aaron (Dylan Walsh), who used to guard an aging Hollywood leading lady (Barbara Eden), has just been hired by Gloria's father to watch over his gorgeous, young offspring. Things do not get off to a good start when Gloria takes Aaron on a private plane ride and they narrowly miss crashing the aircraft. But, more excitement is around the corner. Gloria insists on taking a cruise on a refurbished old ship, The Queen Mary, where all of the beautiful people will be. Aaron, who "hates to travel", is unhappy about the trip yet, he must go along. On the vessel, also, is the wealthy businessman who provided the funds to spruce up the ship, as well as a hotshot football player and a lovely television journalist, who has a past with Aaron. But, wait, that's not the whole guest list! A terrorist thug named Josef (Ice T), his tough-as-nails girlfriend, Max (Claudia Christian) and his gang are on board, too, to steal the jewels and artwork that some of the passengers put in the ship's safe, since they couldn't sail off without their Van Goghs! Josef has a plan and a large arsenal of weapons. Will he succeed in carrying out his pilfering, without damaging the ship, of course? This is just a terrible film that sinks and stinks, from the first moment to the last. That is not to say the nice cast, including the good-looking Walsh, the lovely Eleniak, and the sullen Ice-T don't try to breathe life into the thing....they do try. But, not enough. The script is one abysmal cliché after another and the direction and editing are horrible, too. All right, the costumes are fine, are you happy? Especially so is the hot little blue number Eleniak wears through most of the second half. Therefore, if you are a fan of any of the cast members, you are certainly within your rights to rent this film. Why not show the movie at a gathering of couples, where everyone can laugh, jeer, and throw things at the screen? It would certainly make for an "alternative" party experience.


This film just left the dock, rolled over and headed straight to the bottom of the sea. The only positive thing about this movie is there won't be a Final Voyage II. This is one of the 10 worst made movies ever.


For an introduction I would like to say that this movie is absolutely amazing. How something like such could have ever been created, I don't know. IMDB's rating level of Awful' is based upon these sort of movies. The movie, the acting, the dialogues, the story line, and the special effects  all are pathetic.

Some of this could be regarded as a spoiler...

At one point, Ice T says, `God damn it, I hate incompetence!' at which I spent the next five minutes laughing. Incompetence it is. This is the lowest grade available for incompetence. When everybody else has finished dipping their knives of movie making into the jar of Incompetence Spread', movies like this are created by scraping the stuff off the sides of the jar with a spatula. Perhaps I would go so far as to say that this is more like the build up of spread round the screw top.

When the acting hits its high points, it is no better than pitiful. I spent a lot of the movie expecting Leslie Nielsen to arrive on the scene. He would provide the icing on this sad cake. If the movie had been intentionally written to be funny in his style, it would have been all fine and well. The problem is that it was not written in that way, so it is not fine or well at all. In short, it is boring, dismal and un-entertaining.

These are not exact quotations, but when the guy with the hard hat says, `Awww Jasper, I don't know about that.' And in the scene when another guy says, `Hell, if the engineer blew his nose too hard, the whole thing may break open.' it is obvious that there has been no thought whatsoever put into the script. The repeated use of the expression God damn it' is overused and gets very boring.

When the ship is sinking, it gets an aircraft carrier of the radio, and requests help. Instead, they send a helicopter loaded with heavily armed soldiers in desert type camouflage. When the hairline' crack in the baggage area wall is discovered, one guy says to the other, (this is after they are done shining torches into each other's eyes) `The vault is on the other side, if we can get in there we may be able to fix it.' If the vault is on the other side of that wall, where is the water coming from? Before the bad guys parachute from their plane a high altitude, well above heavy cloud cover, they were very low, not all that high above the ocean surface. Yet the two scenes were meant to be right after each other. After landing in the water, they managed to swim up to the ship and grab the ladders as it is tearing along through the water. When the main guy whose name I have not remembered, kills Ice T, he manages to get shot in the shoulder. He finds the reporter woman, and together they run to escape the sinking ship. They hold hands, specifically, his hand attached to the shot shoulder. Hold on, he is no longer shot; there is no wound, that is strange. A second ago there was a bloody hole in his shirt At mid way or so, the dumb blonde talks the owner of the ship into getting into the hot tub with her. Why she put herself on display for us, or why she was even in the story, I have no idea. Possibly she was included to keep up with the pattern that all the women featured happened to be in possession of certain pleasant attributes. Bad wraps were not limited to the females. Men copped them as well. The two clowns in the radio room were so enthralled by Max's chest that they totally forgot about the plane that was flying low towards them. Ahhh, but the guard guy wasn't so easily fooled, nope, uh-uh, he realised that is was quite suspicious for one to forget their mother's phone number. For a cruise that was supposed to be so special, why is it that there are so few people on the ship? Come to think of it, where is the staff? Why is there $130 million in the safe if there are only a couple hundred people on board? Hmmm It was clear that the characters had the benefit of insight into the happenings of other scenes. Ice T knows that the boat is sinking, but how? He also knows that they only have two hours of so left before they go down. At this the captain confirms his belief. Neither of them could have known such details. To top it off, Jasper, down below somewhere, also happens to know of the sinking deadline. Is C4 not a very powerful explosive? The baddies use great blocks of it to blow open things like doors; they even light a fuse for one piece Regular gunfights take place through the film. Numerous bullets are fired, not hitting targets, ricocheting, but just disappearing into thin air. This stupidity is so over used, and has been boring for years now. Cold-blooded baddies fill kitchen workers with bullets, who jump onto the benches to die, yet offer cigarettes to someone when they ask Or ask problematic hostages to put the gun down. When Jasper discovers the body down below, he gets a handily placed piece of pipe and makes a planned disarming of a baddie. He gets the gun, and starts backing away, looking like he's about to burst into tears. He fires the gun in a crazed attack, putting three or so bullets into the baddie, then sits down and cries. Later on that body is found with one bullet wound in the left collarbone area. The opening scenes show the full extent of the stupidity exhibited throughout, having an ammunition eating gunfight in a plane. Very few shots actually hit their target.

Anyway, this movie was a total waste of time, and I cannot understand why the creators even bothered. I found it so pathetic that I could not manage to enjoy it. I have only touched on a few points here, there are far too many to mention them all. Very few things line up in this movie.


I remember seeing this film when it first came out, and also remember that is disappeared from the video store shortly thereafter. The special effects are dodgy, the script is poorly-written and the acting is pathetic, but that doesn't matter. No one could seriously pick up this film and think, "Dylan Walsh, Ice-T AND Erika Eleniak? This is going to be good!" It's an average film that's fun the first time round, and may even offer a few surprises (frankly, I didn't expect it to end the way it did). Actually, now that I think about it this film probably kicked off my love-affair (*cough*) with B-grade movies. It's fun if you don't take it seriously, and even then it's painful to watch. Rent 'Beyond the Poseidon Adventure' instead.


what the ?? these people don't know how to make movies?? or i guess they were just making fun of themselves and others..

watching the title of the movie i thought that it would be some good ship movie but after watching the movie i was really disappointed..the acting was terrible..the main villain in the movie was so dumb and was thinking as he was the God..means he was so over acting at several points...

i could not understand what they were up to before and during making this movie..there is no story the action scenes are lame and cheap.. they could have done better in many ways like acting and other points..but they have to fail to do so and make a piece of crap...

never ever watch this movie under any circumstances... i wished i could give this movie 0 but that is not possible as the lowest vote is 1


It is an oddly run ocean liner. There seems to be a total engine crew of six people. When the engine room supervisor (unsure of his precise title), finds a worker murdered and kills the perp, he doesn't immediately report to an officer -- he just seems to hang out in the engine room till the writer wants him again. Luggage is in below decks storage rather than in people's staterooms, as if it were an airplane. There is no deckwatch during dinner. The bad guys are apparently less than 20 (the number is never clear) and seem to have always believed that sufficient to control a sizeable ship. We have no clue as to how the bad guys meant to get away. Anyway, some of the action is cool.


The USS Britannic is off on a cruise in the South Pacific. On board her are the rich & famous and most of all jewelry and money. But where there is money, there are those looking to take what they can get... ICE T plays the leader of a gang bent on robbing the ship once it is far enough out at sea. However, he doesn't count on a security guard (DYLAN WALSH) interfering with his plans. He also doesn't count on structural flaws in the ship which cause it to take on sea water. The film feels like a Made-for-TV film, but the action is passable enough and the dialogue so-so. Ice T's performance as the chief villain is a little over the top, but okay. Walsh's performance as the hero just lets everybody know that you don't have to be Van Damme, Schwarzenegger, Bernhardt or Daniels etc. to be the good guy. Overall, a passable film. If you spent the $7-$8 to see Speed 2...spend the $1-$2 rental fee and see this! You might be surprised.


If you have noticed, until now (July 2003), this movie doesn't have a "Goofs" category. The only reason I can find for this is that it has so many that it is pointless to list them. The movie alone, along with its ridiculous story and characters, is a goof.

Everything in this cheap movie is so "goofy" that it is possible that the larger part of its "budget" was spent on the cruise ticket and rented filming equipment. Obviously, a lot of effort was invested into making a movie this bad.

1.5/10


Well, I'm sure within seven days I'll forget the fact that I've even seen this film. The actors are awful (even Dylan Walsh), the script is written by primary school students, the action scenes and visual effects are laughable (with extensive use of stock footages) and yes, the story. I don't see any single point in the whole storyline that has a minute trace of originality. There are numerous clichés and predicted sequences.

The film would be worth watching if there could be some Erica Eleniak nudity... seriously. Otherwise I don't see why one should watch this type of films anymore.


It is clear this mega howler is a result of the TITANIC juggernaut...if i can actually say that and have it double make sense.... FINAL VOYAGE is surely the unintentional SINKING HIGH (like Flying High) of oceanliner disasters. Yes, a remake of JUGGERNAUT with LAST VOYAGE and BEYOND THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE stapled on and a TITANIC wannabe...it is in rusty tub terms the equivalent of Behind THE DOOR as a rip off of THE EXORCIST . FINAL VOYAGE must be the full scale cringe on the resume for both Dylan Walsh and (the ridiculously named) Ice T. For this he should be billed Ice Berg...but that sounds like a Jewish Eskmo rather than a black man. Yes FINAL VOYAGE is the last genuine guilty movie pleasure of the 20th century and I advise you all to include it in your treasured library of all star stinkers and howlers....or should I say sinkers and bowel-ers. FINAL VOYAGE is fantastic it is so awful.


Action?? Where...?

Comedy?? Well, they make a very very bad movie, worst then D movie, and too late, they saw what a mistake it was. What do they do then? Call it a Comedy!! Hahaha.. loooosers.

Horror?? Come on.. 2 drops of blood on a neck!! F/x is totally worst then zero.

Thriller?? lol!!!

C. Thomas Howell and Tony Todd!! For example.. In this movie!! Don't ask me why or how, it's over my head. I'm tired of all this low budget, low serious 'horror' movies. Why not try to make a good movie for a change...?

I recommend Hatchet and Feast instead...!!

// Cheers


This is the equivalent to Turkey a la King. You know, what your mother used to scrap together from Thanksgiving leftovers using gravy, the parts of the turkey no one wanted to eat and some rice. Well, enough about my childhood.

Anyway, what you have here are some actors who used to be name actors doing throwaway scenes so the directors can put their names on the cover, making you think that this is a better film than it actually is, mixed in with the usual vampire movie clichés.

What you have are some college kids who get mixed up in a fight between factions of vampires, and vampire hunters who have resisted the taste for blood, but are equally immortal. (No, I couldn't figure it out, either.) Lots of scenes with the head chick vampire trying to seduce the hero into the "dark side'.

Oh, yeah, and then there was the sound. It didn't sync up with the action, it seemed to be off by about a half second, so you see people keep talking after their lips have stopped moving. More annoying where the cutaways from the sex scenes. "Hey, you aren't paying me enough to actually take my clothes off, buster. That'll cost you extra!" You can imagine the lead actress saying before she goes back to her day-job as a stripper.

JoeB- watching bad movies so you don't have to.


Poor battle between Vampires flick.

Paycheck job for the names (Tony Todd, Jason Connery and C Thomas Howell) this is one of those movies you look at and wonder if anyone was taking it seriously or whether anyone was doing it for more than the money. Okay Tony Todd maybe took thing a bit too seriously (he's way too intense) and the cinematographer was very serious about America Olivo's breasts, but other then that this seems to be a joke...except its not, or if it is it never signals that it it is. I thought after the opening attack on the feuding couple that we'd have some laughs after that but it never gets funny, at least not intentionally so.

Only worth seeing if you have to see every vampire movie ever made.


The Thirst: Blood War is set in modern day America where college teenagers Will (A.J. Draven) & Jayne (Allison Lange) decide they want to take their friendship to the next level & start dating, however local jock, bully & tough guy Darren (Cameron Zeidler) isn't happy about the nerdish hippie Will dating the hot Jayne & starts to make trouble. Late one night by a pond Darren attacks Jayne & Will comes to her rescue & in a struggle Will stabs & kills Darren who is in fact the son of a centuries old Monk sorcerer who calls himself a sentry & who are sworn to fight & kill Vampires. Now the head of the Vampire clan Julien (Tony Todd) has competition from his right hand man Cladius (Jason Connery) but the only way Claudius can snatch power from Julien is to kill a sentry & if he can't do that kill someone who did kill a sentry which is Will. Will & his friends are plunged into the ancient war between Vampires & sentry's...

Known under the title Blood Wars on DVD in the US this was co-produced & directed by Tom Shell & I had a quick look through the IMDb user comments section & a couple of external reviews & I can't really find anyone who says anything good about The Thirst: Blood War which isn't too surprising since it's awful on every conceivable level. First off the title is a lie, there's very little blood in it & as far as I could tell no war either. The first thirty odd minutes of this focuses almost entirely on Will, Jayne & Darren & feels more like a teen soap opera than a horror film & when the horror elements do eventually kick in they are pretty lame with Will trying to be turned into a Vampire & a bit of bickering between Julien & Claudius to see who is harder but they both come across as wimps anyway & really don't put up much of a fight at a very weak climax. There's these Monks as well who total three & are able to shoot blue 'stuff' out of their fingers for no apparent reason, we are never really sure if there are more or not or where they came from or the story behind them & we are never really sure if Julien is head Vampire in the world or just his clan & there are other clans out there & apart from sit in a room he doesn't seem to do anything else & he has no plans or ideas & we don't really know if a Vampire bite turns you into a Vampire or kills you since at the start a bite will turn you into a Vampire but at the end it kills you so it's hard to care about anything as it doesn't make much sense, there's no threat or grand plan or anything to keep you watching really & I do not count three Monks & about half a dozen Vampires as a war, maybe I'm being too tough here but I just don't. To make matters worse the character's are one dimensional stereotypes, the dialogue is awful & at 100 odd minutes it's far too long & feels more 100 odd hours while watching it.

There are no special effects in The Thirst: Blood War at all, none. All we get is a bit of blood on someones hands, some fake blood on some fake fangs & some fake blood pored onto someones neck. There's nothing in The Thirst: Blood Wars I couldn't stage myself with some fake blood & a camcorder, nothing. There's no nudity either. The film looks as cheap & low budget as they come with a very point & shoot look to it, the fight scenes are brief & contain no real excitement & the whole thing is just a tedious, dull mess of a film that feels like a cross between a teen angst film & a cheap Vampire flick but without the merits of either.

The IMDb reckons The Thirst: Blood War had a $1,000,000 budget which I find hard to believe unless it went on Todd & Connery & if it did indeed have a million dollar budget than the film get even worse in my eyes as the production values are awful with most scenes shot outside on a random path or in front of a tree or something. How on Earth did the makers convince fine talent like genre favourite Tony Todd (who is dressed in an awful costume complete with cape) & the son of Sean Connery no less Jason to appear in this? I wonder if Jason has shown this to his dad & what the one time James Bond star thinks of it?

The Thirst: Blood War is terrible, I haven't given a film a lowly one star rating in a while but this throughly deserves it. One to avoid, even Vampire fans might find it hard sitting through this.


Wow, where do start with this pile of shiz..

1. Who the hell plays on a PS1 in 2008?!

2. Tony Todd has officially extinguished all the goodwill he mustered by playing the Candyman and Captain Sisco's dad. He isn't so much slumming it here as eating fish bones from the dumpster.

3. This well oiled six-pack hunk in the lead might be able to fill out a white T-shirt, but an actor he ain't. Evertime he opens his mouth, you want to curl up in embarrassment. Oh. dear.

4. Who writes this dialogue anyway? Someone call child labour on these producers: I think they're illegally employing a bunch of kindergärtners to do their screenplay for them.

5. Where's the 'sexy seductress' promised in the plot synopsis? You don't mean the ugly old tart wrapped in cling-film, with more botox than Jane Fonda do you? Whoops.

6. The fight scenes are ssoooo pathetic, they should play an instrumental of Kung Fu Fighting in the background, and pretend it's supposed to be a comedy.

7. There is a highly camp black best friend who calls everyone dawgs and has a secret funky handshake with Mr Muscle. He might as well have STEREOTYPE tattooed on his head. But get this.. HE DOESN'T DIE. AMAZING.

8. Tru Blood, Twilight, Vampire Chronicles.. ENOUGH ALREADY. Especially when the end result is as dismal as it is here.

9. The Thirst: Blood War? That title.. SUCKS (Pun intended ho ho)

10.Seriously guys.. what's the deal with the PS1?!

The director is called Tom Shell, which is quite apt as you'll feel like a shell of a person after submitting yourself to this drivel. It also concludes with the threat of a sequel, to which I can only respond with the Wilheim Scream our hunk unleashes just before the end.

It's probably started filming even now, after all it shouldn't take Mr Shell too long to muster up the 7 new pence and half a packet of wine necessary to complete production. And that would still be more than they spent on the original.. 2/10


OK, I've watched & loved, Highlander the series.... I enjoyed it more than the movies themselves. Adrian Paul is a really talented actor & though I feel their acting was dead on... the script for this movie was HORRIBLE.

It was as awful as Highlander II... it just left me feeling like someone... wanted to revive the movie to make a few dollars. It was as if they threw this script together on a weekend & convinced some great actors this was a good idea.

Highlander creators... we'll act like this didn't happen if you promise not to produce another movie to finance a new house.

2 thumbs, way down.

Such a cool series, such a bad movie.


If you're a true Highlander fan, even a desperate one, steer clear of this movie. It is a disaster. The worst movie I've ever seen, and I've seen quite a lot of bad ones. Perhaps it's just because I love the original Highlander so much, that I am so angry. But my review is as follows: -The story is confusing, more supernatural than ever -The acting is horrible, particularly on Adrian's part. I could stand him in Endgame but he seems to be sleepwalking throughout this so-called sequel.

Need I go on? Let's just say Highlander 2 is a masterpiece compared to this... exactly.


"Highlander: The Source" is to "Highlander: Endgame" what "Highlander II" is to "Highlander".

I really liked "Endgame", I thought it was a good way to continue the story set by the TV Series and Adrian Paul proved a more than worthy successor to Christopher Lambert. However, "The Source", which has been in the vaults of Lionsgate since late 2006 is a bitter disappointment.

The first cut of the film has been released on DVD in Russia. I ordered a copy from XploitedCinema.com (a great website, BTW) and watched it last night.

Initial fears were realised when it was revealed that the film was set "In The Near Future", which stirred up bad memories of "Highlander II". The premise of the movie and the motivation of the characters is poorly explained and the execution is rushed, which is very disorientating for the viewer. However, I will try to sum up the plot as succinctly as I can.

A group of Immortals, led by Methos (Peter Wingfield) are trying to locate and verify the existence of The Source, which is believed to be the origins of the Immortals. Methos is reluctant to involve his former good friend, Duncan MacLeod (Adrian Paul), but is forced to when Duncan encounters The Guardian, the Immortal Anti-Christ, while searching for his ex-wife, Anna, who is somehow drawn to The Source.

The Source, good. The Guardian, bad. Got it? Speaking of The Guardian being bad, it's really hard to fear a villain when they talk in a funny voice and act like a complete tool.

The Director, Brett Leonard, overuses trendy editing techniques that modern filmmakers are so eager to apply, giving it a "music video" style, essentially making the direction seem trite and cheap.

The sad thing is that this film has/had potential. While I'm glad to hear that it is currently being re-edited before a general release, I fear that without some re-filming, which I believe is not happening, certain flaws can never be rectified.

Overall, "Highlander: The Source" is a great disappointment, especially to a fan of the Movies and the TV Series.


What went right with the Highlander TV series starring Adrian Paul? First it was the main protagonist that really got into the role of the highlander, second it was the fact it it had very good swordplay and martial arts action and third it was those well done flashbacks into history, that showed many different time-lines and presented conflicts that lasted for centuries...

So, what is wrong with this movie? All the things stated above are missing...Yes we have Duncan , Mythos and Dawson but the script is really poor, the main villain is ridiculous , there are no flashbacks no swordplay whatsoever. All we get is a clown jumping around talking gibberish (the so-called guardian) and a crappy story about the "legendary" source.

The direction tries to seem cool but it ends up rather boring, and the acting is poor. Of course I wasn't expecting any great acting or imaginative direction but at least I was expecting some believable special effects...I didn't get those either the SFX are bad and uninventive. Obviously the movie hasn't got a big budget but it would have been adequate if it was used properly and with a story that didn't involve guardians with superpowers and other cosmic forces.

In the end it just feels sad that the Highlander franchise probably ends with such a bad movie. It's even worse than "Endgame" and that is really an achievement. Adrian Paul isn't much of an actor but give him a Katana and let him do his martial stuff and he'll work some magic. Unfortunately in this movie he does nothing of the above so in the and we get nothing , not even a good action scene...


I loved the first Highlander movie, loved the series, and have found every movie after the first to be pretty awful - but I watch them anyway, hoping against hope that they'll prove me wrong. I thought it couldn't get any worse than Highlander: Endgame, but I was very much mistaken. This is just a terrible movie - like watching a train wreck.

If they didn't destroy continuity in every movie and rewrite the history of the Highlander universe, it might be bearable. Like every other Highlander movie, this one acts like nothing came before it and nothing about it makes sense - it's an insult to the intelligence of the fans. And we have to suffer through yet another half-witted attempt to re-invent the source of immortality and what happens if "there can be only one." The post-apocalyptic world is just plain dark and dreary. Endgame was sort of heading in that direction - it was significantly more world-weary and tattered than the world of the series. However, The Source just plain doesn't make sense. For the world to have gotten in this condition, more than a few years would have to have passed, and Joe Dawson should look more than a couple of years older - by rights the character should have been dead before this movie takes place. But hey, I guess they figure we can't add either.

The fight scenes are terrible - the speeded-up special effects destroy the fun of the fight scenes, and you always expect one decent sword-fighting scene in a Highlander movie - not this one! If I had realized how bad this was going to be, I could have resigned myself to ogling Methos for a couple of hours. This movie is so bad even *that* isn't enjoyable. If I had seen this in a movie theater I'd have wanted my money back. As it is, I want back the time I wasted watching this dreck.

I'm giving up Highlander movies for good. As far as I'm concerned, There Can Be Only One Highlander Movie - and this isn't it.


I loved the Highlander series. I loved the first Highlander movie. But holy crap, this movie was terrible.

It has the acting, effects and plot of a made-for-TV Sci Fi channel movie (oh wait...). Everything about the film stunk of terrible quality. It was actually kind of sad to see Paul and the Highlander franchise in general in so bad of a continuation. Nearly every character mailed it in and sleepwalked through their characters. The rest played so over-the-top that you want to hold your head in your hands and groan. And, once again, the Highlander writers find another half-assed reason to make another movie (the prize in the last movie? no no no, that wasn't the REAL prize, THIS is the real prize.).

If you're a Highlander fan, don't even watch this. It butchers that which you love.


I thought that Highlander II and the animated Highlander series were the most horrible incarnations ever created, but Highlander: The Source proved to be truly horrible and might win the award for "Worst Highlander Film Ever." The dialogue reads like unedited fanfic, continuity gaps and non-sequiturs are frequent, the special effects are laughable (as in, so bad that they induce involuntary laughter), and the sword fighting sequences -- which make Highlander what it is -- are too painful to watch.

The sad thing is that there was a lot of potential for this story. The overall effect was a movie worthy of a showing on Mystery Science Theater 3000.

I watched this on the Sci-Fi channel, which means that I didn't have to shell out money for a movie rental or a theater viewing, but it still cost me dearly: two hours of my life have been spent. I could have spent that time at the pub, but oh no. I didn't even have the foresight to bring home some beer to dull my senses and make the movie seem to be enjoyable. Highlander had been that much redeemed since Highlander II that I didn't even consider the possibility that it would be a bomb. That reminds me: this movie demands the development of a drinking game.


Highlander fans - there simply are very few ways to enjoy this. Aside from totally ignoring the mythology of both the films and the series, the fight scenes were either poorly choreographed, poorly shot, or both. There are no flashbacks in a film that desperately needed some sort of underlying sub-plot and/or simple explanation of the main plot. The dialogue is cheesy, not one of the characters approaches anything like three-dimensionality (other than the recurring trio from the series - and that's only by virtue of fans' past experience with them), and there is no real motivation given for any of them aside from lame "having visions" plot.

Like the last Highlander film that attempted a futuristic setting, this one misses everything that made the first film and the series great. And unlike Highlander 2, the vision of the future here is never really explained and doesn't make a great deal of sense.

They should have stuck with the monkey and the airplane. (See the trivia section.) I can't even really say that if you aren't a Highlander fan it might be enjoyable - because even then it didn't make a lot of sense. I saw it, so I can't un-see it, but if you haven't spare yourself the train wreck.


The bewigged, face lifted, slimmer and worked out, but, still so very handsome, Adrian Paul is back as the Highlander. This junk is horrible. Please, Adrian, the Highlander was great and superlative as a television series, but the Highlander movies (Endgame) and The Source fail, and fail miserably. Let them die. Do no more. I think he got the idea now from the reviews of The Source. This concoction was hard to watch. A murky, dark movie, and dark meaning everything looked as if it were shot in the middle of the night. Acting was awful---some weird plot to find the source--the origin--of the immortals. Adrian walks his way throughout the movie. He knew it was crap. He looks great with his new wig and face lift and slimmer than ever, but this is way beneath his talents. A ridiculous movie with so much screaming and yelling and fighting, it makes no sense. Takes place in some future world with trite sets and some maniac wearing a half helmet acting as a guardian, but to what, I have no clue. The movie has no purpose, no direction. It was awful.


i gained a copy of this months back and have to say that they did something wrong with this film. There is nothing special about it, its seems half ass way of producing it with the effects and location, gives the feeling they had £20 to play with and they seemed to have gained £19.99 back in change.

the effects of the head slicing is better and i was surprised it happened, but from that the special effects are half ass , the story line is boring and tiring , there is not one single section of the story or visual that makes you actually want to stay in the cinema to watch the film, it simply gives you the feeling of when you were watching a bad b movie in the 80's where the budget was extremely low and with no talent behind the camera.

considering AP took over production near the end f the TV series i was strongly expecting lots more from this.... Has he lost his touch has producing become to much of a stressing situation. Hell the team and even him don't seem to be bothered with doing the production notes and b lo g on their own official site, so from that are we to take it they are re doing the whole thing to actually drill in some intelligent action with a spot of special effects and dash of story line that will blow our socks off, or should we take it that they simply have given up and are now hoping they can get away wit the slow progress of a crappiest produced film of the 21st century and I've now just read that its in fact going straight to sci-fi channel, How pathetic is that Im highly saddened by this because this was going to be the ultimate film for me to watch, I've been a highlander series fan for years and just gained the box set, so to know that they have simply destroyed and made a film worse than end game is soul destroying.


This film is really bad, while you have several characters from the Great TV series, it is clear they knew crap when they saw it because they gave nothing in their performances.

The Guardian which is the main bad guy, is just a joke beyond words. HE is not at all menacing, mainly just an idiot, who repeats himself, makes poor jokes, with pasty skin and S & M gear on. You get practically no flashbacks of note, which is a staple of the series, nor do you get really great fight scene, these scenes are rushed and edited so poorly you would wish they had just skipped them altogether and the film goes where Highlander 2 proved you should not go, the near future.

All of the acting is bad in the film, the sfx are bad, the editing and camera work are bad and the script was really bad. There really is nothing good about this film including the main plot point of the source that is any good. And I haven't even mentioned all of it yet.

I have never been a big fan of just ignoring a movie in a series and so forth. You just deal with it and move on is what i usually say. However, i would not shed a single tear if this film is trashed and they were to start over, because this movie is just plain horrible and an embarrassment to highlander fans.

There is talk of it going to the sci fi channel, but this film isn't even good enough for that, it should be on Mystery Science Theater 3000. I can't even believe there had been talk of a theatrical release, the series had better production values.

There is also talk of it going through a re edit, but without addition filming I can't see how you can fix it.


Few movies can beat this one for unintentional hilarity. Okay, that was to be expected, the Highlander movies were going downhill for a while.

But if you thought it couldn't have gotten any worse after Highlander IV, you're in for a big surprise. First of all, the script has only one real idea - the Source of the immortals, the big mystery. The rest looks like a result of a brainwashing Monday morning session when no ideas were crossed out. Cannibalistic bikers? Check. I know, I know - hear this one guys - a leather clad S&M weirdo that talks like he just sat on his balls and makes next to no sense and we'll... we'll call him something big, like - what about The Guardian? Check. We'll kill someone to show the fans we mean business - what about Dawson? Check. We'll have planets moving! Check. A story that goes back tons of thousands of years! Check. A man fused with stone wall (no s**t). Check! Flashback to the stone age with 17th century swords! Check. Immortal archbishop who looks like he fell out of Scooter music video! Check.

Second, the whole point of the movie is that planets align themselves just so Duncan could get laid. Seriously.

If you're in a mood to see the Highlander intellectual property s**t on and have a good laugh, watch it. Otherwise you'll be better off not seeing it.


there is NOTHING about this movie, absolutely nothing, worth watching NOTHING

if you liked the movie, if you liked the series, do yourself a HUGE favor, do NOT WATCH this

1) the music is terrible (cheap at best)

2) the writing is so amazingly bad

3) talking heads, rather than acting

4) stilted acting, wooden heads reading lines from cue cards

5) worthless directing

6) INANE dialog

7) the ending? insipid

8) special effects? why bother, NOTHING could save this movie

9) sword fighting? nope, people banging sticks together

I really don't understand why anyone spent any money on this. I can't understand why the scifi channel broadcast this.


The Highlander films were good, but I fell in love with the series. The quality of the production was excellent and the characters were superb. I saw 'Highlander: the Source' on the SciFi Channel and couldn't believe how second-rate and sad it seemed. There seemed to be no excitement, no passion, no interest on the parts of the actors. It was as though the veterans of the series were just going through the motions because they had resigned themselves (with great resentment) to being typecast and performed mechanically out of some sort of obligation (or necessity?). I am happy for Duncan that he was finally able to have a child, but the film was a great loss to the tradition. I will stick to watching the original series and just be glad that I can get videos of the series at second hand stores for $1.95. I am so sorry :-( for our loss. At least I have immortal memories.


I could easily go into a detailed rant about the way they chose to end this thing. But I would rather let everyone see the TV movie. And come to their own conclusions. What I would like to say is, that I lived and breathed Adrian Paul's Highlander. Bought memorabilia. Hoped for the end to be worth the time spent. And I would rather have had the last motion picture be the the final chapter of this saga. Then to be set up for a huge let down the way I was. In my opinion "The Source" is the worst piece of garbage I have seen in many years. And it was very uncomfortable to see a beloved character like Duncan. End up in a movie that was like the "Power Rangers" on crack. I could barely sit through the whole thing. And I quickly erased it from my DVR. Before the credits rolled. What was the purpose of having Duncan. If all of his lives and loves ended miles from the mark? I am more than angry and disappointed. And seriously thinking of putting all my Highlander keepsakes on Ebay, and be done with it. This piece of trash was an insult to Highlander fans. And Adrian Paul should have had more self respect, than to even think about letting Duncan fizzle out this way. The concept was someone's drug induced nightmare. Pure crap!


I really hate a movie that gives away the ending in the prologue. I spent the entire movie really hoping that the opening narration just didn't give the whole thing away... to find out it really did.

I came into Highlander with the TV series first, then the movies. The bad guys are always caricatures, but this time was worse. The Guardian is unreasonably evil with no real explanation.

I agree with everyone else's criticisms. Character development is nonexistent, the characters we know are unrecognizable, the post-apocalyptic future is inane, and seems just to help create a world where the masses are cannibals (what?!?). And random abandoned BMW SUVs manage somehow to look as if they've just been detailed.

I hope no one else has to sit through this, and the only thing I lost is time, since I Tivo'd it from SciFi.


...star that is. This movie was festering ape feces. We would have given an additional star because we had a good laugh, we just didn't have it in us. By the way, did anybody else play SoulCalibur? I think the bad guy is Voldo. They do it the source, and their prize is they get a baby? We don't know how much money grubbing and glue sniffing was involved in the production of this film but no amount of scrubbing can undo the cinematic rape we have just experienced. Three more lines without using profanity? We don't think we can accomplish this. Instead let these periods represent the tears we shed watching it. .............................................................. ............................................................. .............................................................. .............................................................


I am admittedly one of the biggest highlander geeks out there. I have all the DVD's (and VHS before that), I own swords and clothes from both the movies and the series. I am a huge sci-fi geek and I can always find some reason to like a sci-fi movie that nearly everyone else laughs at... UNTIL NOW!

The Source is probably the worst movie I have ever seen in my life. I wanted it to be good. I really did. From the first opening scene and voice over, I was trying to like this movie. I kept asking myself, "what is this?" I can explain in great detail every aspect of the Highlander mythology and I don't see how this movie fits in it at all. I feel badly for Mr. Paul. What little he was able to do for this movie was not nearly enough to justify the existence of such a bad movie. I find it amazing that teenage girls would be able to hold Adrian's amazing physique as justification for liking this movie. And as much as I love to look at him, this movie is simply too horrible for even my beloved 'Duncan' to save. I will just have to watch the series or 'End Game' for my Adrian fix.

The writers should be shot but only after many long years of heinous torture. I know we could make them watch this movie, over and over again. What were they thinking? Really, I would like to know. The Highlander mythology is so rich and wonderful it would have been easy  even for me  to write a plot for a movie. So, why was it so hard for them?

With the story alone being so horrible it makes the rest of the movie making process seem almost insignificant for discussion. However, I think it might have been possible to make the movie watchable through the other aspects of the movie making process. So to that end I sadly comment: the director is horrible and should not be allowed to continue to work in the industry. The editor's clumsy cuts show an amateur pretending to be a professional The music. Oh, what have they done to the music? Seriously, how much would it have cost to get the original music or just pay any of the many out of work composers to come up with something fitting? There were actual drop outs and wow's in the sound again, most amateurs would probably not have made these mistakes, how could a professional? I have seen student films that got F's that were handled better. What little the actor's were allowed to do was not enough. They came off a flat or two dimensional. The only character I actually recognized at all was Methos. I know that Adrian, Jim and Peter can act, but this movie hides that fact very well.

I was bitterly disappointed by this movie. I feel betrayed by the film makers who took a mythology that is precious to me and distorted it so much as to render it unrecognizable. I would have been there greatest advocate but this movie is far too bad.


Such a disappointment, this film needs to go into the trash with Highlander 2: The Quickening. This movie marks just another disappointment in a long line of disappointments after the great first Highlander. At least the Series had a few seasons before it lost its way. I love the story concept so much it is painful to watch crap like this. Why do the creators insist on changing the story concept, first the planet Ziest and now there can be only one but there can be more than one? I hope they never make another Highlander again, it is just to painful. Also, will they stop breaking the swords!!! Bad enough Connor has his katana break, but now Duncan's too! Just stay away from this movie!!!


I was waiting for this movie to come out for a while, Highlander had not had anything new come out for a few years and I was eager for something new. I could not have been more disappointed. The actors from the series are all there, the ones whose characters survived the series anyway, and that is the only plus I can possibly give this movie. The writing was horrible, the actors shouted their lines unconvincingly much of the time. Elements of the Highlander universe were just added with no explanation, and the characters treated these additions like they were always there. The one thing about Highlander that even made some bad episodes watchable were the sword fights, not here, the sword fights were idiotic and the villain was ridiculously fast and strong and yet the characters are able to fight him long enough for the writers to have a long enough fight. The acting was terrible, even actors from the series who gave very good performances before seemed just awful. The ending was so bad, I literally laughed out loud.

Skip this movie, it is not worth watching.


OMG! I have been a fan of the highlander franchise since the original movie came out, and this movie is blasphemy! Besides listing all the things that were wrong with this movie, I will attempt to list the things I liked..... NOTHING!!!!!!!!!!!! This movie is virtually unwatchable! Without reservation this movie goes into my top 5 list of all time worst movies! (And to be honest I am having difficulty thinking of something that was worse off the top of my head)I always liked Adrian Paul , but how on earth did this film ever see the light of day? the story, the cinematography, the acting, the dialogue, even the special effects,it was all trash. NEVER EVER RENT THIS MOVIE! I Wouldn't own a copy if they gave it to me for free plus paid me to keep it, honestly it is that bad!


Alright it's not a great film, but compared to Highlander 2 this is Scorsese material! Adrian Paul is an actor who never lived up to his potential- Highlander The TV Series was a great contrast to the classic original film. But he became a straight to video kinda guy and some of the films he's churned out since have been unwatchable! Back to the film it's entertaining, if muddled. If you pretend it's not a Highlander film- you'll appreciate it more. The action and special effects are good. The villain looks ludicrous and he's no Kurgan by any means. But with an attractive woman in the mix and some so so swordplay, this is worth a good two beers/Doritos!


Sadly enough, this new Highlander film, the 5th if you are keeping track. made it's television debut on the Sci-Fi channel. Good effort made, but it felt and looked like a made for TV movie anyway. Adrian Paul does a credible performance, but all others seem to lack to acting chops. Funny enough is the vague references to the original Highlander but this episode fails to compete in the continuity compartment. According the official H:Sourse website, this is the first of a new trilogy...well if they move ahead with the other two, you can be sure they will be made for TV or straight to DVD releases. Highlander: The Source may have a chance with repeat viewings when it gets released on DVD.


I just looked back at my notes on Highland: Endgame, still the only other Highlander movie I've yet to see (also never seen an episode of the show), and an a little surprised at how high it was rated then even at a C+ grade. I must have reacted to the final battle scene between Adrian Paul and Christopher Lambert, which is the only thing I can even recall from the one time seeing the film, and finding it kind of cool in a cheesy, disposable science-fiction flick manner. But the fact that it is so forgettable shouldn't be taken for granted, at the very least in what has come AFTER THE ENDGAME! According to a friend each Highlander film gets even more disconnected and continuity confused than the last, and The Source is probably one of those textbook examples of a story being simply way too confusing for one who isn't at least a little familiar with the franchise. And at the same time, seeing it tonight on the Sci-fi cable channel, it's not totally out of place, and maybe not quite as offensive as some of the product made right in their home premises. But it's still a waste of any viewer's time, even for die-hard fans.

The only real value at all to be taken from the movie, and there is maybe a little bit, may be in aspects, *in parts*, of craftsmanship, like the make-up on Pyramidhead and the cinematography, the latter calling into mind (oddly enough as I'm not kidding) Pan's Labyrinth, of course without much at all of the power of the context that film had in style and substance. But once that is past, then one is left with direction that seems to come out of a school that is based entirely on a time when MTV still made music videos, with touches of would-be 300 knock-off thrown in either as unintentional or as sucker-punching for genre fans. And acting that is just fair at best and atrocious at worst (Adrian Paul can act, says who? And the guy that plans the Pyramidhead, what gives?) But what made it most incredulous was the editing; since the story is filled with many a cliché (dying man gives his long monologue to teary-eyed hero, longer monologue from a disgusting creature about what is to come in the rest of the story, sex scene between hero and girl after a heart-to-heart, final duel, et all), the editing should at least try for professionalism of some sort.

Not so. This director/editor team is about as toxic as Steven Tyler and Joe Perry in a 1978 hotel room loaded with five 8-balls a piece and a one hooker between the two of them. Often during a fight the characters will be shot as if in slow motion and SPED up, and then back and forth as if there isn't any conviction in just seeing simple fight choreography. But worse are the montages- aside from Bratz, which is in a league of its own, this is some of the just, well, inept editing I've seen in many a moon, particularly at the beginning and end where it seems as though nobody even watched the f***ing last 9/10ths of the movie that came before or after it! The music is also another kicker to go with the director's scheme of assault on cinematic style. By the time it ends- which seems to be longer than it really is despite the long commercial breaks. The only good news that can come is that The Source has now been reached, and the series can now end, like another beheaded immortal or whatever the hell.


Don't waist 2 hrs. of your life on this film. This movie is such a disappointment. the whole thing just has no direction. goes from one thing to another back to first and then on some other tangent. Worst off they knocked off Joe Dawson. I am a huge Highlander fan own the series own first film own final dimension and own endgame. This one like the second Hilander movie is not worth owning. Oh am I the only one who thought the voice of the guardian sounded like Christopher Lambert (Conner McCloud) at times? I had hoped for so much more of this movie. AAAAAA AAAA AAAAAAA AAAA AAAAAAA AAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAA AAAAAAA kk80kkk kk lololol nkn o 5


to be honest ever since highlander 2 the highlander series has been slowly declining in quality. the contradiction between each story lines is ridiculous and as for this movie it completely destroys it. i mean where has this whole source storyline come from, i was under the impression that immortals came from a plant in the distant future. and how many times can someone be the one like think of something new every time someone says oh I'm the last immortal at the end of the film then there's always another load in the next one its just pitiful. the first highlander film was great the second and third were not bad but now its just completely lost its way. and the series and endgame was rubbish too none of it made sense compared to the original.


Highlander: The Source takes place in the near future, in Eastern Europe that is going to hell with crime, gangs and riots.

The first thing that comes to mind watching this movie is that is must have been a fan-flic. And not from fans of the actual movies, but rather from the series instead, which was mildly entertaining but had no real story to it.

The same goes for Highlander: The Source. It's mildly entertaining, and has no real story. The whole concept of the previous highlander movies is bypassed, but thankfully they still keep enough sense to not mess up the time line for the other movies, of which one is set in the future. Of course this also means more predictability in the already thin script.

The acting is far from convincing, there are some decently choreographed, but poorly executed fighting scenes to be found, and a very unlikely scenario sketched, to force a reason for this movie, that follows up on a series that, well, is already pretty much done and finished. The story has been told, making stuff up "along the way", especially the way it is done for this movie, doesn't really make for a very convincing or interesting movie. A low scorer, and not recommended for anything but maybe a matinée movie to entertain some adolescent kids..


What was probably the last "big" news "erotic" film before video took over and the porno industry went where it belongs, on the home VCR, "Curse of Debbie Does Dallas" (just like some old porno films, they have changed the name of the documentary to re-market it) could have made an interesting jumping point for a discussion on the porno industry, the country that supports it and the psychology that drives it.

Instead we are given yet another "dregs of humanity" portrait that's been done before. A telling point is that the "moral" voice of the film is given to the FBI agent who tells of his disdain for erotic films several times. Granted that the man spent years chasing the criminals who ran the industry but his position is the easy way out. Actually the story of his exploits, which are very interesting, have been done elsewhere in more detail. A strange point is when he tries to categorized which type of child pornography "really" bothers him. Yes, the porno industry is a sad, sleazy place but we know that already. What we need to know is what drives it, why do people hate it yet spend billions of dollars to get the product. Why is it a shameful place to work for all but a few uninhibited people?

Questions that come up are ignored so the film can focus on the shame and misery and exploitation of the performers. The documentary spends time on "all" the performers who died, implying that they either overdosed or committed suicide while giving no real statistical evidence that the rates are higher then in the general population. Possibly it is but we need to see some real evidence not anecdotal comments from the interviewees. "R. Bolla" seems like a sad case until you check out how many porno films he has done. How can someone do dozens of porno films over the span of a decade and then wonder why the "normal" entertainment industry doesn't want anything to do with him. Why are people bigoted against him and why is he unaware of the position he put himself into? More questions unasked. When the only actress interviewed, Robin Byrd, says that she has nothing to be ashamed of, the statement is just left there. Most of the other interviews are interesting on their own but don't add up in the film. It would have been interesting to explore why some of the female performers are so ashamed of their participation in the film that they refused to be interviewed yet the men have no qualms. The difference between the late 1970's and now could have been interesting. And the similarities.

You're better off renting "Boogie Nights". It's a fictional story yet has more real answers.


Of course, everyone knows the story of this one. The original plan from the brain trust at RKO was to borrow Marlon Brando from 20th Century Fox and have him star in this one. When Fox refused to cooperate, Howard Hughes apparently remembered that John Wayne still had one more picture left on the RKO contract he signed back in 1939. And so, one of the most dubious casting decisions in Hollywood history was made. It deserved its spot in the "50 Worst Films of All Time" list. This one is for Wayne completests and die-hard bad film junkies only.

This is the one film John Wayne made that is truly terrible. All the others (even the lesser ones) at least have something to recommend them. But the thing that sets The Conqueror apart from all the rest is how extremely pedestrian everything is. Let's start with the script, which is the overriding problem throughout the whole film. It's written in a sort of mock-Shakespearian lingo and is filled with dialogue that anyone on earth would have a hard time saying with a straight face.

Next we have the casting. John Wayne and Susan Hayward, both at their career peak, were cast in this one. Neither one looks the least bit Asian (Hayward doesn't even try to). You get the feeling throughout that both of them know this thing is a joke, and they are both just trying to make it through. Wayne drawls his way through the role of Genghis Khan, while Hayward is alternately dumb/boring as Bortai, his red-headed wife. Even the lower billed actors look uncomfortable in gaudy costumes that look like they were borrowed from a high school play.

Of course, we can't forget the music. Victor Young (The Quiet Man) wrote some of the greatest scores in Hollywood history, but this one certainly ranks as one of his worst. Here he seems to be repeating the same few bars of the melodramatic theme over and over again throughout the film with little to no variation.

Next we come to the cinematography. This was the one thing that could have made the film worthwhile. It didn't. While the on-location battle scenes were well-suited to the CinemaScope photography, too much of the film took place inside tents and palaces (i.e. on soundstages), giving it a cluster phobic look at times. Most of the action takes place in the middle of the frame, the director doesn't even come close to tapping the full potential of the widescreen technology he was working with. Other Wayne films from around the same time (The High and the Mighty, The Sea Chase, Blood Alley) made much better use of CinemaScope photography.

Last we have the direction by Dick Powell. This was just the second film Powell directed (the first was Split Second, a 1953 noir film also for RKO that starred Stephen McNally and Jan Sterling), and it showed. In all fairness, he was saddled with a impossible script and a meddling boss (Hughes). Powell would later go on to direct some good war movies over at Fox with Robert Mitchum (The Enemy Below, The Hunters). I guess Powell learned his lesson with this one and stuck to twentieth-century wars after this, leaving the ancient history alone!

Of course there were other problems during shooting (Sue's erratic and irrational affection for Duke) and the cancer cases that occurred later were an unintentional tragedy of this film. Hughes personally bought back the rights to this film (along with Jet Pilot) when he sold RKO in the late 50's. Legend has it that in his last days, he watched this film over and over while in bed. Maybe his strange behavior before his death was the result of seeing a little too much of the The Conqueror. Viewers, Beware!!!!!


Whoever made the decision to cast John Wayne as the young Genghis Khan either had too much imagination or too little. I have rarely laughed so hard at a movie which was trying so hard to be serious. My favourite lines: "My heart tells me this Tartar woman is for me" and "Share the booty" (both of which have become regularly quoted catchlines among the friends who have seen this). Gather some friends, have a few drinks (or more than a few), and watch this film. You'll gasp, you'll groan, you'll wonder if the casting director and scriptwriter were legally sane.


I must confess that I'd wanted to see this movie for a while, if only for its notoriety in cinematic history. This is one of the movies that just falls under the genre of "infamously terrible," and though the idea of John Wayne as Genghis Khan in and of itself is laughable, I wanted to see for myself why, exactly, it deserved such ignominy. Not two minutes into the movie, it was made clear to me. Still, one thing I can say for this movie is that it was humorous without trying to be. As I watched it, I could not stop laughing upon hearing the Duke utter such lines as, "Dance! Dance for me, Tartar woman!" So, in a sort of way, I do recommend seeing it, but only for hilarity's sake.


See John Wayne playing Genghis Khan like a cowboy. Listen to Oscar Millards' ridiculous dialogue and Waynes' struggles to enunciate it. Listen to the whole cast struggle. Watch Susan Hayward sulk and pout. I think she was meant to smoulder but it is quite likely she was doing all she could do to stop laughing at her co-star.See and listen to John Hoyt giving the worst-ever impersonation of a scheming Oriental. Look at great tough-guy actors Ted de Corsia, Lee Van Cleef and Leo Gordon dress up in funny clothes. See a world in which " plunder and rapine were a way of life and no-one trusted their brother" but do not expect to see any rapine, just the plunder. Enjoy some spectacular horse-riding and stunt work, and the Utah Valley scenery ,for that is about all their is to enjoy. The rest is just funny in an open-mouthed head-shaking they-could-not-be-serious kind of way. To think that so many of the cast might have died during the years that followed as a direct result of the locations used for this film adds a more serious undertone to it all.They really need not have bothered making this tosh.


If the rumors are true in fact and the whole cast was stricken with cancer as a result of atomic tests nearby, than The Conqueror in some respects may have been the most expensive bad film in the history of the cinema.

There's a famous story about the differing attitudes of Walter Huston and Thomas Mitchell that Jane Russell tells in her memoirs about that other Howard Hughes epic, The Outlaw. She relates that Mitchell moaned and groaned throughout the shoot that this film would ruin him as an actor and why did he ever sign for it. On the other hand Walter Huston's attitude was to laugh uproariously at the awful dialog he had to spout and said since Howard's check cleared the bank he'd say any words in the script.

Hopefully Howard's check cleared the bank for all concerned, because a decent pay day is the only reason for everyone from John Wayne and Susan Hayward on down to have stuck it out.

What everyone doesn't get about The Conqueror is that it has a very gay subtext. It's obvious that Pedro Armendariz is crushing out big time on the Duke. They may have even gotten a little physical. But that all changes for Wayne the second his Mongol made up eyes set sight of red headed Tartar princess Susan Hayward. It's girls for him now, especially this one.

Viewers might disagree, but I swear it's the only explanation for what happens in the rest of the film. Armendariz alternately betrays Wayne and rescues him for no discernible reason throughout the rest of the story. When Wayne finally takes care of all his enemies, Armendariz who won't share Wayne with Hayward or anybody asks to be put to death.

So help me that's the plot of The Conqueror. Everyone from Wayne on down looks as trapped as Thomas Mitchell was in The Outlaw. But they all must have gotten the money up front.

Fortunately John Ford would rescue Wayne with two back to back classics in succeeding years, The Searchers in 1956 and Wings of Eagles in 1957. Now those are really good John Wayne films.

What more can I say, the acting is terrible, the story is awful, even the technical aspects of this film leave a lot to be desired. It only gets as high a rating as it does because of the quality of the cast, maybe the most shameful waste of talent players in the history of cinema in every sense of the word.


This movie is about Ghengis Khan, which stars John Wayne and Susan Hayward. I had heard that this movie was bad, but then I decided to sit down and watch it. What did I think of this movie? This movie is honestly one of the worst movies ever made that I have seen! This movie is filled with a lot of bad things for a start. For example, rather poor acting from John Wayne, Pedro Armendáriz, and Thomas Gomez, laughable dialogue, most of the dialogue in the movie was totally modern talk! Another really bad part was where they did the filming, you could tell that it was filmed out in the desert out in Utah, because since when did the Gobi Desert have small plants and cliffs and rugged terrain in it?!

Before I really get going, I am going to say: What was John Wayne thinking?!

After seeing this unbelievable atrocity, I thought that whoever was in charge of the casting department for this movie ought to have been fired, because casting John Wayne as Temujin, or should I say, Ghengis Khan, was perhaps the worst mistake that they made with this movie, because I can't picture Temujin with John Wayne's voice! And I like I said above, Pedro Armendáriz and Thomas Gomez's acting was also very poor. This movie has some of the worst acting in Hollywood history, the acting was atrocious.

Also, it seems as if a large majority of the battle scenes in this movie were drawn out. It only goes to show that even John Wayne was not immune to a box office bomb. This is one of the worst movies that I have ever seen, I know that other movies such as Plan 9 From Outer Space are bad, but this makes Plan 9 From Outer Space look like a Best Picture Winner!

John Wayne has made some clunkers, such as The Green Berets, McQ, and Brannigan, but this is probably his worst. It only goes to show that even John Wayne was not a completely perfect actor!

I'm only giving this movie one star because I have to give it one star. If I could, I'd give it a very rare rating, perhaps one that there never could be!

Negative one star out of ten.

-1/10


I give this movie ten zs. I couldn't get through it before falling asleep.

The other comments mentioned the groaner lines (i.e. "Farewell, Tarter Woman") but what they didn't mention is that the whole script is a groaner. Seems that Susan Hayward's wardrobe was recycled from a biblical flick. All the roles are over the top, from Wayne looking like a cross between a carpetbagger and the cat Gideon from Pinocchio, to Hayward doing a true biblical vamp. Wayne, not a versatile actor, sounds whiny in this role. Even the action shots of the battles and horses were boring. If a movie is based on a place in a certain time, it should have some relation to that place and period, or at least depart in a witty or funny way. This depiction of Mongolia around 1200 did neither. This movie deserves the "slow death".

If you want to see a good Genghis Khan movie that was actually shot in Mongolia and has some realism, see the recent Genghis Khan, by Aoki Okami. If you want to see other movies shot in Mongolia, see Genghis Blues or the movies of Byambasurem Davaa: The Weeping Camel and The Cave of the Yellow Dog.

If you want to see some good battle scenes with horses, see Seven Samurai.

This movie maybe good for a laugh, but I couldn't stay awake long enough.


John Wayne is improbably cast (to say the least!) as Mongol chief Temujin, later Genghis Khan, leading his Mongolian army in a battle against the Tartars, falling for the enemy leader's fiery, beautiful daughter. With three cinematographers credited, the picture certainly looks good, but director Dick Powell can't seem to pick up the pace, and it quickly becomes a leaden affair punctuated by inane dialogue. Princess Susan Hayward and the supporting players are all ridiculously miscast, but none more so than the Duke, whose performance might have passed muster had he been encouraged to play it strictly for laughs. Produced for RKO by Howard Hughes, who reportedly was obsessed with this movie and later bought sole rights to it, effectively keeping it out of circulations for years. Filmed partly on-location in Utah near an atomic weapons test site, with many in the cast and crew later succumbing to cancer-related deaths. *1/2 from ****


John Wayne was never a great actor. But his films were entertaining.

Most American films of this era were similar in that the actors never looked and spoke authentically. The costumes and animals were first rate and you could not tell they filmed the picture both in radioactive contaminated desert and radioactive contaminated movie set. It appears all involved thought they were making some kind of epic, but really you can see the overacting.

If someone would dub the film with mongolian accents, it would be highly comical.

The untamed princess Bortai, Susan Hayward was such a hot babe for her time. Those crazy hairstyles!


The John Wayne marathon.

Now, this is real Grindhouse fare. the lines in this film are comparable to such classics as Satan's black Wedding or Diary of a Nymph. John Wayne as Ghengis Khan!

I would not waste time talking about this film as i don't recommend anyone seeing it, but there is an interesting story behind it.

It was filmed in Utah. The military had been doing atomic bomb testing near the location before the film, and the area was still hot. Several of the people involved with the film - over 100 - died of cancer. I kid you not:

John Wayne: lung & stomach cancer, Susan Hayward: brain cancer, Pedro Armendáriz: suicide, after learning he had cancer, Agnes Moorehead: uterine cancer, and John Hoyt: lung cancer

Tose were main characters. The rest of the deaths were crew.


John Wayne is at his worst here but it is not as obvious why he made this movie as you think. This film was the brain child of Howard Hughes. This film is cinema "Spruce Goose" & it is possible it didn't even fly that far.

A large part of the cast & crew of this film died from Cancer including Wayne. It was shot on the New Mexico desert near the a-bomb test areas which is speculated as the cause.

This is an RKO production 1 year before the studio was sold to Desi & Lucy. Maybe this is why the studio was sold. I mean, the once proud studio of King Kong putting out a movie that could be named Ding Dong?

Sadly, a talented cast goes down too. This film might be why Hughes was a recluse in his later years. The joke goes that this film set is where Howard Hughes hid his will. Maybe while someone was out in the desert looking for that document they found the first trace of the real genius who wanted this movie made - Irwin R Shyster?


At its heart, the Conqueror really wants to be a great film. Its got big name directors, big name actors, and an epic story. And in the pit of its heart, it wants to be a great film, but then again, in my heart, I want to be a thrice published novelist contemplating my fourth book which will surely garner me a nobel prize for literature. As expected, then, what it wants in its heart, much like what I want in mine, just is not going to occur in reality. Wayne not only is miscast, be he seems woefully unsure of the heroic aspect of his character, which is fitting, because Kahn was not a hero. The cast in and of itself are good actors, but their characters are underdeveloped, lackluster, or just plain wrong. The movie is worth a watch to those who love John Wayne, B-movies, or epics of any porportion, or to those looking for a good movie with which to play Mystery Science Theater 3000.


Most of the historical epics of the fifties and early sixties took their subject-matter from what can be regarded as the three pillars of Western civilization; the Bible ('King of Kings', 'The Ten Commandments'), Graeco-Roman antiquity ('Spartacus', 'Cleopatra') or the Middle Ages ('The Vikings', 'El Cid'). Apart from the occasional film with an ancient Egyptian theme ('The Egyptian', 'Land of the Pharaohs'), ventures into other cultures were rare. 'The Conqueror' is one of these rare exceptions.

The story is based upon the life of the young Genghis Khan, or Temujin to use his original Mongol name. Temujin has fallen in love with the Tartar princess Bortai. There are, however, several obstacles to a successful romance. The Mongols and the Tartars are traditional enemies, Bortai's father was responsible for the death of Temujin's father, she herself hates him and she is betrothed to another man. The film narrates the story of how Temujin overcomes these obstacles and wins Bortai's heart, while simultaneously waging war on her father, the Tartar chieftain Kumlek, as well as a treacherous ruler named Wang Khan. (Wang Khan is the ruler of a city-state; there seems to be a deliberate contrast between the primitive barbaric vigour of the Mongols and the effete, decadent civilization of their enemies). The film is shot in the spectacular epic style against some striking scenery (actually in Utah; presumably political considerations precluded filming in Mongolia, at the time under Communist rule). Visually, like most of the epics, it is attractive - besides the scenery, the costumes are good and the horseback stunts are well done- but it is a hollow shell of a film, with little behind its façade. The main reason for this is that the story of Temujin is rooted in a culture quite alien to the filmmakers and which they make little attempt to understand. John Wayne made a much-quoted statement that "The Conqueror is a Western in some ways. The way the screenplay reads, it is a cowboy picture and that is how I am going to play Genghis Khan. I see him as a gunfighter." This is a good example of what I mean by a failure to understand an alien culture. Rather than trying to see Genghis Khan for what he was, Wayne simply associated him with what he thought to be the nearest American equivalent. To see him as a 'gunfighter' is, in any case, inaccurate, and not merely because Mongolians of this period did not have firearms. The gunfighters played by Wayne in his other movies, whether outlaws or lawmen, were typically loners, working on their own. Genghis Khan was a leader of men, both as a political ruler and as a military commander. It is hardly surprising that Wayne's portrayal of Temujin fails to convince if he so fundamentally misunderstood the nature of the role he was playing.

Susan Hayward's performance as Bortai is even less convincing than Wayne's. She wears the same expression throughout the film, a sort of sulky pout, which is presumably her best shot at conveying her character's proud, independent and tempestuous nature. It is difficult to believe that it was during the same period of her career that she produced two of her best performances in 'I'll Cry Tomorrow' and 'I Want to Live'. Her appearance in 'The Conqueror' presents even more problems than does her acting. All the male actors in the film, who are primarily of European descent, are made up to look Oriental, but for some reason no attempt was made to change Hayward's looks, with the strange result that the 'Tartar Princess' is a voluptuous, blue-eyed redhead.

None of the other acting performances are distinguished- Pedro Armendariz as Temujin's loyal brother Jamuga is about the best- and at times they verge on the ridiculous, particularly Wang Khan and his scheming shaman, both embodiments of the western stereotype of the 'wily Oriental'. While deliberately elevated, formal, often slightly archaic, language was something of a convention in epic films, much of the dialogue here has a particularly stilted flavour to it, along the lines of 'You're beautiful in your wrath' and 'She is a woman- much woman. Should her perfidy be less than that of other women?' If John Wayne still thought of his character as a 'cowboy', he should have tried to imagine a real cowboy- or even a fictional cowboy- speaking lines like that.

While the film is not quite the classic of badness that some have claimed, it is certainly one of the weakest in the epic genre, and it shows how wise other Hollywood film-makers were to confine themselves to cultures more familiar to Westerners. For the large amounts of money that were evidently spent on 'The Conqueror' the producers should have ended up with a much better film than this one. 4/10.


John Wayne as Ganghis Khan, and lots of white people playing Asians and making no effort to look and sound Asian. The Duke was a great actor, but a 6'4" white man with blue eyes doesn't make a convincing Asian. Give him a much shorter Mexican brother, Jamuga, played by Pedro Armendariz, and a barely 5 foot mother who was only 7 years older than the Duke, Hunlun, played by Agnes Moorehead, and you have The Conqueror, one of the grossest examples of miscasting in Hollywood history. The other big f-up is the semi Biblical English dialog. If you just have to see this movie, and it is worthwhile for laughs if nothing else, get the DVD and turn the captions on. Otherwise you won't have clue what anyone is saying.

The basic plot is actually pretty good. The stunts and battle scenes are good too. If it had been cast correctly and if the Biblical dialog had been eliminated, it could have been a good movie.

Although never intended to be a comedy, it comes across as one, largely due to the ridiculous dialog and costumes, especially head gear. Agnes Moorhead's costume is especially hilarious, wrapped up like a mummy in green with only here face visible and huge multicolor beads dangling from each side of her head. Susan Hayward, who plays Bortai, Temujin's love interest, looks like a modern prostitute, in a succession of low cut dresses and modern high heels. Also included is a Las Vegas dance revue of scantily clad white women who have these things on there heads that look like pink doggie-doo. During the opening credits and later during the first battle, John Wayne is seen charging into battle on horseback, waving his sword in the air, and screaming like a Commanche with an expression of shear insanity on his face that had me busting at the seams. William Conrad plays Kasar, Temujins immensely strong but retarded brother, and plays it HORRIBLY. John Hoyt plays the Shaman, dressed in a white and yellow Merlin costume, the character is the stereotypical Japanese from WWII movies.

Much is made about the fact this movie was filmed in SW Utah, about 100 miles or so from the Nevada Test Site which lead to the cast and crew being radiated and dying from cancer. I my opinion, this is grossly exaggerated. The facts are a lot of people die from cancer, actors included, and cancer has many causes. Also many of the deaths occurred decades after this movie was made and most of the actors lived into old age. This movie was filmed in 1954, but John Wayne didn't die until 1979. Several of the players survived him including, John Hoyt, William Conrad, Peter Mammokos (who is still living 50 years later), Chuck Roberson (stuntman, no screen role in this film), and the Duke's son Pat Wayne, who still lives. Las Vegas is about 100 miles from the Nevada Test Site, it hasn't died off from cancer. Several small Nevada towns, Tonopah, Goldfield, Beatty, Indian Springs, and Pioche, are literally next door to the Nevada Test Site, and they haven't died off from cancer either.

This is generally regarded as the Duke's worst movie. Although this is definitely a bad movie, at least it is entertaining. The Fighting Kentuckian, the Fighting Seebees, and The Green Berets are all much worse, they are unwatchable.


"I fight! I love! I conquer like a Barbarian!" Sound like something Yul Brynner might say? Nope, it's just the Duke, wearing a scraggly Fu Manchu mustache and seemingly painful eye appliances for that Oriental look. Yes, pilgrim, get out of town when the Conqueror rides across the steppes of.....Utah? This film is so ludicrous that you will howl with laughter.

And the Duke isn't the only object of derision. Susan Hayward of the flaming hair and milky skin as the princess who is the object of his desire couldn't be more wrong in that role. You expect her to whip out a cigarette and give forth with some snappy dialogue. Dialogue???.....did people ever really speak that way? Somehow I think not. I'm surprised MST3K never did this film but maybe it's funnier without added comment.

I cannot imagine what the director Dick Powell was thinking? This was a man who made some wise decisions in his long career; unfortunately this was not one of them. Maybe the answer lies in the fact that Howard Hughes who was not noted for his wise decisions was the head of RKO at the time.

The down side of this film is the fact that the majority of those involved were all stricken with cancer possibly as a result of filming in an atomic/hydrogen bomb testing ground. Whose decision was that?


This pretended spectacular epic film about Mongol emperor Genghis Kan's early years is simply an awful film and easily one of the worst I've seen in its kind (and believe me, I've seen most all of them).

John Wayne is completely out of place in the role of Temujin (later the Kan) just as he was as a roman centurion in "The Greatest Story Ever Told" 10 years later. Sword and costume movies never went along with the Duke.

The Conqueror is all flaws. It is slow, even boring at times,lacks emotion and strength and as it could not be otherwise looks like a western in the Mongolian golden times, and a poor one too. Director Dick Powell can't handle this mess that proved to be an impossible task for him. He is not to be blamed alone: the script is horrible and the dialogs just can't be, the costumes are funny and the musical score doesn't help a bit. The cast doesn't seem to take things seriously either.

What else is there to say? Just that my 2 out of 10 rank is because there are some average battle scenes and incredibly you have the feeling that producers didn't try to save money though the outcome also looks cheap.

If you didn't see "The Conqueror" please don't! Just remember Wayne as the fine western's star he was.


This movie got a sad fame, when it was rumored both the two main actors (Wayne and Hayward) and the director initiated their cancers from the work in the New Mexico Desert Fall Out area. If it's true or not, it would seem to be a way too hard punishment for making this movie, however only by a small margin. The story of Gengiz Khan given by Wayne is terrible, almost like him watching Jesus being crucified in the "Greatest Story every told". His only costumes fully fitting him was the Cowboy dress of any kind and the Uniforms of any kind, land, sea or air. It's only digestible if you take it as the Kitsch it is.


I previously reviewed Jet Pilot, another John Wayne film done for RKO in the mid-1950s. It was a BAD but fun to watch film. However, The Conquerer is JUST BAD. Instead of laughing at its ineptness throughout the film, the movie lasts so long that this one joke wears off very quickly and the viewer will most likely begin to contemplate suicide.

Although abominable casting is important to both films and LOTS of abominable casting occurs in The Conquerer, it is the slow pacing, hackneyed dialog and tediousness that make this film so bad. DULL, DULL, DULL, DULL!!!! Okay, I got that out of my system. Now for the bad casting: John Wayne as the Mongol Terror (Genghis Khan), red-headed Susan Hayward (a miserable actress in general due to her constant overacting) as the Asian princess Bortai and, once again, red-headed Agnes Morehead as Genghis' Mommy. What were they thinking?! I assume that because Howard Hughes owned RKO and was well into becoming 100% unhinged, he personally must have made the casting decisions. No explanation other than insanity could explain it! I have made it a point to try to watch EVERY movie listed in The Fifty Worst Movies (Medved and Dreyfus) book and I've seen the vast majority of them. However, unless you are a glutton for punishment like me, I don't recommend you try to watch this film--after all, you've got to take care of your brain better than that!


It's hard to believe that this movie had ever been made, hard to believe that the cast could be so badly wasted despite the talent, and even harder to believe that the purest example of detached machismo in Hollywood couldn't pull off the role. John Wayne was a great actor, and not the hollow stereotype that he was often accused of being as his popularity waned. He might not have been one's ideal for delivering a comic line, but if anybody could force a line to have dry humor, it was he.

The script is the first disaster. The mock-Shakespearean lingo is for Shakespeare, who never set any of his plays in Mongolia. Here it is ludicrous (Chaucer would be in tune with the time, but few people understand Chaucerian English)! The costumes fail to convince one. Add to this -- Genghiz Khan was no hero; he initiated the most horrific killing spree of the pre-modern world. It's a big mistake to lionize a killer.

The great lore of this movie is that so many of the cast and crew died of cancer during some A-bomb tests near the location. That is sheer bad luck. Even without the calamity of cancer allegedly contributed to by nearby nukes, this would be a horrible movie, an embarrasment for all involved.


Never have so many been so humiliated for so little. John Wayne as Genghis Khan is beyond a doubt the most ludicrous casting decision in movie history: John Gacy and would have been a better choice. The Duke seems to have Mongolian confused with Mongoloid, and nobody's told him The Conqueror isn't a Western. Oscar Millard seems to have this Mongolian horse opera confused with Shakespeare, and writes his poetic dialogue accordingly. We now know why Wayne never did Hamlet. Lots of toppling horses during the battle scenes, and the weird casting of William Conrad (who at least looks like he's having fun), Lee Van Cleef and Agnes Moorehead as Khan's fellow Mongolians just add to the fun. And let's not forget Susan Hayward as a red-haired Tartar bride to Genghis (?!?). Only Pedro Armendariz avoids humiliating himself, but he looks embarrassed to be here. A camp classic.


John Wayne. Genghis Khan.

It sounds like a bad joke, but no; in the ultimate ego-trip, Wayne, sporting a ridiculous moustache, has landed himself in one of the worst films ever made, an embarrassing, ludicrous historical epic, which plays more like a cruddy Oriental western than the sweeping Asian drama it would like to be.

It really is a disastrous affair, shamelessly misogynistic, woodenly acted, filled with appalling dialogue like 'the city will fall like a ripe plum', this is one vanity project that should never have seen the light of day.


I see that there are six people who gave this idiotic, misbegotten, miscast film a 10 rating. I can forgive the twenty or so people who gave TERROR OF TINY TOWN a ten rating, but anyone who gave this a rating substantially higher than 1 is an idiot. Anyone who gave it a rating higher than 3 has never seen this movie. Anyone who gave it a 10 should be punished, punished severely. They should be forced to see it TWICE. I demand their names!


Movie was slow moving in general, the plot was simplistic and is a smash between the Saw series and a CSI episode, but potentially less entertaining than either of the two. There was gore and disturbing content which in my opinion may have been inappropriate for the story. It could have been just as powerful without the disturbing pseudo-snuff film scenes as a police film and the suspense could be maximized, or the director should have made the call to make it more like a Saw movie, maintain the disturbing content and bring that fan base in. The target in my opinion was broad, drew in viewers who will be disappointed. Overall, if the movie moved a little quicker, or was potentially less graphic it might have earned a 6. To sum it all up, it was 20 minutes longer than it should have been and was misguided. Potentially worth a rental but even questionable in that case.


Greetings again from the darkness. This is the garbage we get in January. Ridiculous "thriller" from director Gregory Hoblit, who has a string of elementary psycho-thrillers: "Fracture", "Hart's War", "Fallen" and "Primal Fear" (the best of the lot). In "Fracture" Hoblit managed to waste Anthony Hopkins and Ryan Gosling, so there was little hope with Diane Lane and Billy Burke.

In Hollywood, success breeds imitation, but it helps to throw in a little creativity. Borrowing from "Silence of the Lambs" and the "Saw" series, this one just substitutes a psycho-cyber killer played by Joseph Cross ("Running with Scissors"). Hmmm, let's see ... which is more intriguing, a brilliant, clever and playful world-famous psychiatrist who out-thinks the FBI or some young techno-geek played by a Doogie Houser look-alike? Please.

If that's not bad enough, instead of Jodie Foster battling her inner demons while chasing Hannibal Lechter, we get the always beaten-down Diane Lane and her cohort played by the lifeless Billy Burke (who, by the way, seems to be this generation's Jeff Fahey). Shortcuts and gimics rarely combine to generate a world-class thriller. This one isn't even worthy of its Portland location.

Tom's son, Colin Hanks gets a grown-up role as an FBI agent and Mary Beth Hurt gets to raise an eyebrow and roto-til a garden, but the only real point of interest here is Lane's daughter played by Perla Haney-Jardine, who real movie lovers will recognize as BB Kiddo from "Kill Bill Vol 2).


Unlike others, I won't even give the premise much credit. This is Saw over an internet connection. It's such a generic movie. All the characters are one-dimensional and get you to invest zero in them. The online dating guy was the most interesting.

Holy cow do they get the technology wrong. Zippy noises on computers. We all have computers, why do they insist in Hollywood at making them alter from reality? Computers don't bleep and blip. They also don't pull up video, websites and webpages that fast. It's distracting and insulting.

The killer is serving streaming video to 17 million people at one time. Sure. Anyone ever used a proxy server? They're slow as hell to even web browse. Sure buddy. You hacked into Diane Lane's computer network, you're using her ISP to stream to 17,000,000 people. Uh huh. Plus, where does a man buy a machine to deliver an IV drip electronically pegged to another device? Or 250 heat lamp bulbs? Wanna find the killer? Find the address that 250 heat bulbs were shipped to.

Oh, and the killer took Diane Lane to her freakin house to torture her? Good choice. They'll never check there. Plus, in that dense, busy neighborhood - nobody noticed the strange teenager moving equipment by the caseload into the basement? Ridiculous and lousy movie. Rent the far superior Silence or Seven.


Watched this thriller Untraceable last night.Plot is like this in short.A total sicko killing people live on internet and each time the killer does it in different ways.If much people log in to the site the victim reach heaven quicker.Movie is not my cup of tea,i found it just plain boring.I barely watched the film to the end,felt like I all time did now what will happen.If you want to watch a movie with similar plot but better done go rent Italian director Dario Argentos Card Player(not masterpiece but a bit more inspiring film).On the + side is Diane Lane as agent Jennifer Marsh and let me think...hhm..sorry nothing more.Not a thriller for me and I do not recommend it.I give Untraceable only 2/10.


This movie was awful. It seemed to me that the movie went from idea to finished product in about 2 weeks. Here is why this movie (and others like it) makes me so mad.

I can suspend disbelief for a movie, to a certain point. I can buy into the existence of ghosts and demons, the supernatural, space travel, laser guns, and so on. I cannot ignore the patently ridiculous when realism should be expected. Some examples:

Diane Lane is a low level night shift key pounder. All of a sudden, she is the task force leader of the most high profile FBI case in the country. She didn't show a single instance of leadership before or during her tenure as task force "leader". In fact, when her friend called in and said I think I am on to something, I'll tell you about it later, I laughed out loud. How about saying, "no, tell me about it now. This is more important than your dating life". Or "Why didn't you tell me about this at our twice daily update meetings that a task force of this magnitude has?" As soon as he hung up without passing on the information, my movie brain said he is the next to die, and my professional brain said if he dies it is her fault for being a terrible leader and manager.

They have discovered a hacker with the ability to make his IP address untraceable. This is a huge deal, and I can easily suspend disbelief for that piece. I cannot excuse the idea that the NSA wouldn't be interested in helping. Untraceable IP addresses could potentially cause a huge security risk for the country, and could also be exploited to be used BY our country for espionage. The idea that the NSA wouldn't be interested is ludicrous.

There were many other smaller issues, like when she picked up the phone on the bridge and said "I am an FBI Agent! Connect me!" I laughed out loud. I'll have to try that next time. Apparently operators these days are pretty trusting. But by this point the plot holes were so glaring that I was only continuing to watch because I was with my wife.

Overall, a decent and original idea, terribly done.


I am a pretty harsh critic which annoys my girlfriend to no end, but I will always try to find at least one good point in any movie. Apart from some Kevin costner films and the "epic/superhero/etc movie" series I don't think there are many films that would make me want to walk out of a cinema.

This movie takes the cake. The film begins with the senseless torture and killing of a kitten at which point I attempted to walk out but was stopped partly by my girlfriend and partly by the fact that I had blown $32 for the tickets.

Anyway I tried my best to forget about such a tasteless start and tried to get into the spirit of a suspenseful thriller. From this point on the movie treats the audience like a child. Computers bleep and boop every time a key is touched, intensely suspenseful over-the-top music at almost EVERY single point of the movie (no matter how un-suspenseful the moment actually is) and the creators try to get across a message that people are inherently evil for wanting to watch torture when that is exactly what the audience is sitting there watching! There was not a single moment when I was scared. There was not a single moment I was even a little bit worried for any of the characters (except maybe the kitten). This movie is not that sort of tragic-bad where you can kind of laugh at the mistakes and hypocrisies, it is more of a bad that makes you a little bit nauseated afterward.

I regret not walking out sooner as I will never get that 2 hours back. I am actually tempted to try to find some way of getting my money back from the film's creators as I feel dirty for supporting this movie with my hard earned $.

Enough with my ranting. I'll just finish by saying that I wouldn't normally even write a review but this film really got me fired up inside and it just had to be vented!


As a Portlander, I always get suspicious if a movie gets filmed in Oregon: "The Postman" was probably the worst example, but there have been others. By this logic, "Untraceable" should suck.

It turns out that the movie's main problem isn't acting or continuity goofs or anything like that (although I should affirm that I believe that there are a few too many movies about people looking for killers). It appears to be the possibility that the movie glorifies spying. Could it be that someone is trying to give the government some good PR in the wake of the NSA scandal? The right wing always says that it wants to get "big government" out of people's lives, but always turns around and spies on everyone.

Anyway, I don't recommend this movie. Starring Diane Lane and Colin Hanks.

PS: what I mean by "Arthur voiced Elmer" is that there's a character named Arthur James Elmer. We Looney Tunes fans know that Elmer Fudd's voice was provided by Arthur Q. Bryan. Yes, I know that it's totally unrelated, but just something that I notice.