The Fourth Angel (2001)

A mesmerizing thriller!

From time to time, certain films emerge from the quotidian triviality (and this is one of them) to engage us from the first shots, to make we live with those personages the fatalism of his dramatis personae, leaving our accustomed positions of simple spectators.

When an airplane is taken by a group of terrorists, the correspondent stage of control rescue operation will be out of control, and the mess will be reigning and so, the abominable, repudiated and nasty event will concluded with the blood spill of fifteen innocent victims. Among them, three were linked with a magazine editor - his wife and two daughters -. This awful nightmare will become an inexhaustible search of justified punishment around the surviving kidnappers; but when the fine threads of the power have turned in, these kidnappers are set free, due legal artifices.

As you may guess, this abominable state of things are far to remain undamaged, and the long arm of the revenge will begin to grow, reaching levels of cosmic justice.

Vibrant performances of Jeremy Irons and Forrest Whitaker (what a knockout acting!). There is no any possible reason for you to miss this intriguing thriller, one of the most remarkable in years.

A cult movie from its instantaneous release!

August 8, 2006

Cheap and politically biased

It is very disturbing how moviemakers serve rotten political purposes. After the bombing of Serbia, the Serbs (old US and British allies from WWI and WWII) are suddenly the "bad guys". The name Karadan Maldic obviously hints at the Bosnian Serbs Radovan Karadzic and Radko Mladic. This is a direct insinuation. What a pity to see prominent actors as Jeremy Irons sell themselves so cheap. Jack wants to ensure justice for his family, but he does big injustice to a whole nation. December 11, 2005

JEREMY BOND?

THE FOURTH ANGEL is a slow-moving, cerebral movie, which features Oscar winner Jeremy Irons as an avenging angel. While one can certainly sympathize with this journalist who loses a wife and two daughters to terrorists, it's hard to accept the stoic Irons in this action hero role. Director John Irvin (Ghost Story) keeps the pace efficient, but the movie loses a lot of its punch on a convoluted and sometimes hard to follow script. Forrest Whitaker uses his nice guy persona to efficiently play an FBI agent who ends up helping Irons in his quest for justice, and Jason Priestley flashes his blue eyes convincingly as an arrogant CIA agent, and we even have Charlotte Rampling in a basically useless role. Overall, though competent filmmaking is evidenced, the casting of Irons stretched my credibility a little too much. March 15, 2005

Ordinary Thriller Featuring Irons, Whitaker, & Rampling

The title of "The Fourth Angel" refers to the Revelation, but the whole content of the filck has little to do with the Bible. It is about Jack Elgin, a British magazine editor whose wife and daughters are killed by hijacking terrorists. Now Jack turns an avenger to gun down all those responsible for the deaths of his beloved.

It sounds familar, and it is familiar. But the point is its casting for Jack is played by Oscar-winner Jeremy Irons, who is getting more and more character actor as seen in "Dungeons and Dragons" and "The Time Machine." In this film, thankfully, he avoids hammy acting, delivering pretty a decent one.

The problem is, I think, that casting itself, however. I don't beleive in the idea of one-man army (especially when formerly he was a man in suit) who can eliminate the trained terrorists. If it is Arnold or Sly, well, that's another story, but the guy who can play the love of Lolita so convincingly cannot play such kind of part.

More intersting is the supporting actors. Forrest Whitaker appears as FBI investigator while Jason Priestley is clad in suit, posing arrogantly like any gvernment agents are required to do on screen (which is incredibley shot in widescreen). But the most surprising part is the inclusion of Charlotte Rampling who is still gorgeous. It is always good to see her, and hear her say "Matey" to Irons' hero on yachet, but she is not required to do much.

And the story is clumsily told (though it goes fairly smooth), and the awkward conclusion is saddled with most heavy-handed flashbacks that would question the intention of the film. There's little action that thefilm can boast of, and the shoot-out scenes (too brief) are not well conducted. Some good ideas are there, like showing a pretty daughter of a terrorist, but that doens't amount ot much because the film somehow forgets about it in the course of its 90 minutes running time. Regardless of the urgent matters about terrorism suggested here with its serious tone, this film fails to deliver, deliver whatever it wants to. September 28, 2003

After disturbing opening, becomes ridiculous...

This movie was dropped from U.S. release after Sept. 11th. It should have been dropped for just being dumb. After a traumatic opening sequence where Irons loses his family in a hijacking, the movie spirals into unbelievable twists as Irons tracks down those responsible. Honestly, after the past few years, can anyone believe that finding terrorists is this easy? Makes you wonder what Irons and Whitaker are doing with their careers and confirms (for those who doubted) that Jason Priestly can't act. August 25, 2003

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