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If Sylvester Stallone plays the world's number one assassin in this thriller, that must make Antonio Banderas, well, number two. The two are competing to hit the same target for a $20-million payoff, and their challenge takes them from explosion to explosion on a cat-and-mouse chase from Seattle to Mexico. Julianne Moore plays the cagey cat fancier and computer hacker who possesses a stolen computer disc that makes her a prime target for bad guys, and Robert Rath (Stallone) is only too happy to come to her defense. Director Richard Donner handles action sequences with adequate flair and has a good time blowing things up. Banderas has fun with the nonsensical plot, and Moore is enjoyable in one of her big-budget mainstream roles.
--Jeff Shannon
What made Richard Donner's "Lethal Weapon" movies so enjoyable was the over-the-top hysteria of the action scenes. Here Donner goes for a more subdued, artistic pitch, and though the film is well crafted it's a rather drab thriller. Sylvester Stallone plays a hit man who wants to retire (he broods nicely), Antonio Banderas is his up-and-coming rival, and Julianne Moore is a surveillance expert who loves her cat and spies on her neighbors. The plot concerns a computer disk that she is selling, but it's just an excuse for everyone to pick up guns and start shooting. (Since this is an art film, silencers are used most of the time.) A cool languor develops between Stallone and Moore, and Banderas gives a cackling, exuberant performance, but the glum, pensive mood never lifts. -Bruce Diones
Copyright © 2006
The New Yorker
