In 1997, George Clooney was a TV star making his leap to the big screen. Plenty of naysayers waited for him to flop and fall short of the movie star charisma needed for success. 25 years later, we know how that turned out and his big screen debut THE PEACEMAKER still holds up well as an action-packed thrill ride.
Clooney is US Army Colonel Thomas Devoe, a brash, shoot first, ask questions later man-of-action on the trail of ten missing nuclear weapons.
He’s paired with Dr. Julia Kelly (Nicole Kidman) an expert not only on those WMDs, but also on the renegade Russian General and the unhinged terrorist targeting the USA.
Marcel Iures (Pirates of the Caribbean) is powerful as Dusan, a man devastated by loss and committed to taking out as many innocent lives as possible in retaliation for the loss of his family.
Large-scale action sequences abound, including a full-scale train to train transfer of ten nuclear weapons and a fast paced car chase through the thin streets of Europe. But Director Mimi Leder (Deep Impact) saves the best for last with a half hour chase through Manhattan as Dusan walks through New York City with a backpack nuke, heading toward a huge meeting at the United Nations.
Clooney and Kidman play well off each other and form a great team, chasing those nukes around the world in helicopters, jets, Mercedes and on foot. Clooney’s absolute hair trigger as the clock ticks down provides plenty of suspense and more than a few well delivered comic asides. He did almost all his own stunts fearlessly, including rappelling out of a helicopter and all his own driving.
Doubling its $50 million budget globally, the film got Clooney’s film career back on track after the serious flop “Batman and Robin” nearly killed it.
Hans Zimmer’s music score is terrific, the visuals of the night vision equipped Russian soldiers on the nuke train and Clooney riding that jeep through the air all add up to a solid thriller.
THE PEACEMAKER gets a B. The explosive finale will leave you winded.
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