Item: The Peacemaker
Rating: 4
Author: JoBlo

The Peacemaker

May 18th 1998, 12:00am

	Review Date: Director: Mimi Leder Writer: Michael Schiffer Producers: Branko Lustig and Walter F. Parkes Actors: George Clooney as Thomas Devoe, Nicole Kidman as Julia Kelly

Plot:

Russian bad guys steal some nuclear warheads from a train. Good Military Guy Devoe (Clooney), and Nuclear Expert Kelly (Kidman) are the two American wunderkinds appointed to find the warheads and save the world from a possible nuclear disaster.

Critique:

Mostly unexciting, humdrum romp that doesn’t really offer us any real action or suspense until the last half an hour. Set in various international destinations, this jargon-filled strategy session set amongst military folk, nuclear experts and politicians, is the movie equivalent of a long day at the dentist’s office. Warning: There is a lot of talking in this film, and very little action. The special effects are limited to one great nuclear blast at the beginning of the picture, and many redundant explosions throughout the rest of the flick.

Clooney does okay in his wise-cracking, super-Special-Forces dude role, while Kidman literally runs through her part like she’s in a hurry to get to London to film Stanley Kubrick’s EYES WIDE SHUT (6/10) with her husband, Tom Cruise. The rest of the cast just seem like a bunch of people standing around and taking orders from either of the two stars. And coincidentally enough, both stars always seem to be right. How exciting! Yawn.

The last forty minutes finally wakes us from the numbing sensation induced by the film’s first hour and a half delivery (alas, Mrs. JoBlo couldn’t make it all the way through), and does actually deliver some pretty neat suspense, good action, and a centered point of reference. Other than that, this film does not deliver in regards to its “thrills” moniker one bit, and will leave many a thriller fan invariably disappointed. Mind you, if you enjoy films that seem to realistically encapsulate the essence of being part of an actual governmental body of people chasing after bad guys, then you might enjoy most of the talkie-talkies in this film. I did not.

I would like to take this moment to thank those “powers that were” who did forsake us from the otherwise obvious Clooney/Kidman cheap romance. For that, and only that, I thank you.