★ 7 / 10
Veteran journalist "Fowler" (Sir Michael Caine) is coming
CinemaSerf
Veteran journalist "Fowler" (Sir Michael Caine) is coming to the end of his time in Vietnam. Despite the fact that French colonial influence is waning and the…
Veteran journalist "Fowler" (Sir Michael Caine) is coming to the end of his time in Vietnam. Despite the fact that French colonial influence is waning and the Americans are desperate to stop the Communist insurgents, his employers just don't think he needs to be on-site to file his dwindling number of reports. He has a local interest in "Phuong" (Do The Hai Yen) though, and wants to stay put while he organises a divorce from his British wife. To keep his bosses at bay, he organises a trip up country to interview the powerful "General Thé" (Huang Hai) to get the lowdown on what is really happening in the countryside. Coincidentally, he also happens upon the newly arrived "Pyle" (Brendan Fraser) who has come to doctor the increasing number of wounded as this conflict erupts. It does seem a little odd that this man wants to follow "Fowler" on his perilous mission and soon a twist in the tail emerges that uncovers a complicated operation involving the CIA with nobody quite whom they appear to be. The story is told in continuous flashback, so we do know what happens at the end before we get there - though not the cause. What's interesting is trying to find out just how involved, complicit even, the Briton was in that denouement. Some of it was filmed on location which added to the authentic look of the film and there's quite a decent chemistry between an on-form Sir Michael and the usually pretty wooden Fraser as the two men see their friendship gradually disappear in a well paced rear view mirror of mistrust and duplicity.
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★ 6 / 10
Not awful, but I wanted to like it more
Jeremy_Urquhart
Another one to file under "very well made but a little disappointing."First of all: it looks pretty good, as Noyce is a talented visual director. There was one…
Another one to file under "very well made but a little disappointing."First of all: it looks pretty good, as Noyce is a talented visual director. There was one slightly cheesy explosion of a model that looked straight out of a 60s Godzilla film though- those substandard effects don't bother me in old monster movies, but they feel more noticeable in super serious romantic thrillers from the 2000s.Michael Caine is very good, and I like seeing old Michael Caine offered a lead role, because for the last 20 or so years, it feels like he's always a supporting player.
Brendan Fraser is good at first- I know we all stan and love him nowadays, but I do think he felt a bit out of his depth in the film's second half. His character is given more complex things to do as the plot gets more intense, and I didn't think he had the acting chops for it, sorry.Also, the music is as a little overblown, and the female lead very underdeveloped, which made the romance angle a bit underwhelming.
So it moves well, looks mostly nice, and has a strong lead performance, but it doesn't coalesce into something great. Was going to say this is the kind of movie that should be remade, but I guess this version already was a remake?Oh well- remake it again! Give it three strong lead performances, more time to flesh out the lead female role, and maybe don't give away the ending at the start and we'd have something really good (I do think revealing the climax and then flashing back sometimes works, like in Double Indemnity, but here, it just robbed the film of most of its suspense and emotion to be honest).
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★ 7 / 10
Well Made But Too Complex To Be Entirely Cinematic
Theo Robertson
The story starts with the body of American Adrien Pyle , a medical specialist , being found in a river in Saigon . He has been stabbed to death and London…
The story starts with the body of American Adrien Pyle , a medical specialist , being found in a river in Saigon . He has been stabbed to death and London Times journalist Thomas Fowler recounts to the authorities how he knew the man
TQE is a very strange film to comment on simply because I get the feeling that it is based on a very complex political novel by Graham Greene and it's interesting to note how many people on this page have commentated on how well or how badly it has been adapted to screen . It's also interesting to note that it was filmed in the spring of 2001 when George Bush's " war on terrorism " had not happened which clouds the issue more . People on the message boards have written many political threads to tie in with this but it's very interesting that Greene's original novel was written several years before Lyndon B Johnson sent combat troops to South East Asia , so Greene is criticisng American foreign policy in general and an intelligent , cogent way , not so much jumping on the fashionable bandwagon with Michael Moore , John Pilger and George Monbiot so I guess for that he deserves some credit
As a film what makes it so successful is with the casting . Michael Caine as we all know is a living legend and the fact that he has appeared in so many awful movies simply for the money while still retaining prestigious star quality speaks volumes for his talent and as you might expect in this type of role he's superb . What is even more amazing than Caine's performance is that of Brendan Fraser's as Adrien Pyle . I've just remembered how good he was in GODS AND MONSTERS and he's equally as good here as a man who's not what he seems to be . One can't help thinking how well he'd be regarded as an actor if he'd decided to skip THE MUMMY films which unfortunately seems to have prematurely killed his career . Certainly I wasn't reminded of Rick O'Connel while watching this
Where the film falters is - Again - where it shows its literary roots . There's no way you can confuse a Graham Greene novel with a Harold Robbins one , but there's maybe too much of a romantic subplot which gets in the way of the real story and you find your self questioning as to what the main story . Is it the political one or the love triangle ?
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