The Fourth Angel (2003)

That was an excellent one.

Sadly Over-hyped

Brilliant and touching

Best movie of this year hands down!

European magazine editor Jeremy Irons (as Jack Elgin) takes his family along on a flight to India, where he plans to interview the Prime Minister. Unfortunately, the plane is hijacked by a terrorist gang (claimed to be Serbians). It seems like authorities get things under control, but their plan goes awry. A horrible tragedy befalls Mr. Irons and other passengers as they try to escape. When he sees justice is not being done, Irons jumps on a motorcycle and becomes a Super-Vigilante, knocking off terrorists with startling efficiency. Irons is a killing machine as well as a tender family man. Also involved are weighty FBI agent Forest Whitaker (as Jules Bernard) and suspicious CIA agent Jason Priestley (as Henry Davidson). A relatively sedate Charlotte Rampling (as Kate Stockton) dispenses advice and hints at a new family. The plot thickens with stupidity, and it ends with an explosive climax.***** The Fourth Angel (8/15/01) John Irvin ~ Jeremy Irons, Forest Whitaker, Jason Priestley, Charlotte Rampling

The only good thing about the movie is the acting. Everything else is a joke, the plot is full of holes and obviously the creators of the film got drunk one night, then came with the idea of making an action film copying concepts from Air Force One, Jason Bourne and a few revenge films and decided instead of doing such laughable preproduction activities such as RESEARCH and PLOT WRITING, decided to play lottery with a bunch of words written on tiny papers, and then put those together to create this... thing. It would have been a great movie if it was more of a satire, like Hot Shots! and Black Dynamite. Instead they decided to make something serious and the outcome is ridiculous. The acting is very good, but their dialogue is quite crappy and without any real sense. Irons and Whitaker do their best to deliver with emotion the words written by, obviously, a 12-year-old and you just laugh all the way. Their idea of putting the protagonist in dilemmas, where he seeks justice but it can't be delivered because of failed politics, is quite good but again, the people who were behind this messed up everything else.To the good stuff: - Fun fact: The "Serbian" terrorists have neither Serbian names nor do they speak Serbian. There never even was a case of reported terrorism from Serbians. The writer and producer just thought that since they never cared to learn anything about Serbians, then their audience wouldn't have either and they would accept the "Serbian terrorism" story. - Fun fact: Limassol in Cyprus doesn't have an airport - Fun fact: Cyprus is not a desert and neither does it have people wearing jelabias (the white sheets that most Muslims wear) - Fun fact: Terrorism in Cyprus is inexistent.Being from Cyprus, it was actually quite funny to watch how the British thought Cyprus was, considering they are a significant percentage of the tourists visiting the island. Great!Short version: If you want to watch a b-movie for the laughs, then this is not bad actually. If you want to watch a real movie, don't bother.

It's far too easy to heckle and hack away at creative, artistic and financial investments. But this movie is worth seeing just for its assortment of flaws. I haven't seen all the legendary flops on film but this one is certainly "bad" enough to be considered potentially "good". As in all flops though, it demonstrates just how easily so many things can go wrong on one project, so much so that perhaps it deserves the analog "Why Bad Things Happen to Perfectly Good Movies". More things actually had to go wrong to make this the legendary flop it could have been but it did have a good start. It is also worth seeing just to observe how easily the mind wanders when flaws prevail. I have to admit though that I did watch it on television while multi-tasking household chores but I was obviously impressed enough to remember its cryptic title and post this hatchet job, and my sincerest apologies to the cast, crew and producers. And damn-it, I never figured out or could read the addendum how it got its name either.

It's strange that an earnest thespian like Jeremy Irons may have agreed to play this part .There's really nothing new under the sun.The umpteenth tale of revenge -which,as everybody knows, is a dish best eaten cold-No more gangsters and make way for the terrorists .But even if the baddies change,it's the same old song.I would save only one scene: when Irons is about to kill one more guy ,he runs into his little daughter,and begins to think over ,which he apparently didn't do much before:did he only have a thought for his motherless boy?A weird cast does not serve the movie:Jason Priestley 's pretty face is a very bad choice;Forest Whitaker cannot do anything with a hackneyed part.Charlotte Rampling a brilliant actress who could have matched Irons every step of the way is completely wasted.Consolation prize for James Bond's fans:Lois Maxwell(Miss Moneypenny) appears as the grandma.