Customer Reviews

Icon

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Being a Swayze fan and being sad about his health, and now his death, I was looking for some of his work I had not seen. The customer reviews of this movie spiked my interest. It is a very good movie, but it is long so plan the time to watch it accordingly. Swayze's charcter in this movie is similar to his character in his last work, "The Beast", which aired last season on A&E TV (exceptional work). My husband and I watched it together and both enjoyed it. We will keep it in our home media library to enjoy again. I recommend it both as a good movie and to Swayze fans.

It was interesting to see how one person could try and control a country for his own benefit. To try and wipe out the different nationality that he felt did not belong in Russia. how people came together to stop this disaster.

This is a fast paste and interesting TV movie. The intigue and action kept my interest from start to finish. The acting is superb.

Based on Frederick Forsyth's novel "Icon", this Hallmark production has a large and excellent international cast, car chases, gun battles, and the latest in espionage gizmos. What is truly wonderful is the scenic, bustling, city of Moscow used as a backdrop for this story of terrorist activity in connection with political gain, in the midst of a presidential campaign. It is a city we rarely see in current films, and makes this above average TV miniseries a delight to watch.

The sometimes improbable plot is complex with many twists and turns, and concerns 2 candidates for the presidency, Igor Komarov (Patrick Bergin) and General Nikolayev (Joss Ackland), and the devious methods used by one of them to win. Sir Nigel Irvine of the British Embassy (Michael York) gets ex-CIA man Jason Monk (Patrick Swayze in a marvelous performance) to uncover the truth, and he teams up with his old friend Viktor (Steven Spiers) and investigator Sonija (Annika Peterson). Others in the cast include Barry Morse as the current Russian president, Jeff Fahey as a political consultant, and Ben Cross as a thuggish ex-KGB man. Directed by Charles Martin Smith, with terrific cinematography by David Connell and an atmospheric score by Mark Kilian and Daniel Licht, this is a lavish production, and highly entertaining.

The DVD package contains the full 3 hour 2-part miniseries, and comes with 2 discs, 1 with a wide screen version, the other with full screen. Bonus features include "The Making of 'Icon'", which has a short interview with Swayze and otherwise just follows the cast and crew as they are filming, with no commentary. Those who enjoyed Cold War spy thrillers will like this "modern day" film about Russian politics and intrigue

I'm a huge Patrick Swayze fan but this movie is one that you have to keep up with and the ending is a surprise. Great action, mystery type movie. I would add this one to my collection even if Patrick was not in it.

I own just about all of
Patrick Swayze's movies and
this is by far the best.

this dvd arrived on time and was in excellant condition, I would recommendtthis dvd for anyone that likes Patrick Swazye

I had never seen this movie before I purchased it. It was an excellent movie all the way through. I'm a big Patrick Swayze fan and he did a excellent job in this movie.

First of all, yes the main baddie was a Russian, but to bring him down required not only Patrick Swayze's character, Monk, but also the woman agent of the FSB and also Monk's Russian friend. What's more, a Russian general is portrayed as a hero to his country, both past (his refusal to butcher Chechneyans) and in present (he orders the troops not to fire on the demonstrators). Also there were two morally ambiguous to downright evil Americans involved in the plot as well. As for Patrick Swayze being 50, get over it - he handled his action scenes quite well. All in all an enjoyable mini-series from Hallmark/Forsythe.

From the very beginning one can see that it was a very cheap, low budget series or movie, whatever. There're some shots in Moscow but it was cheaper to film in Sofia, Bulgaria, and using Bulgarian actors in Russian roles. Easy, most of them already speak Russian. There's a bomb explosion, a deadly virus stolen and a police ... woman? There's only one important character in the book and that is a British embassy employee, Celia Stone. OK if you want to please the female audience, but you scare the male 'cause skeleton looking Annika Peterson moves around probably with batteries and suffers from bulimia and anorexia at the same time, besides being a pretty bad actress.
There's a so called Black Manifesto stolen in the book, no deadly virus. Who was the idiot who wrote the script? Yes, I know, I saw his name in the end credits, but why on Earth Forsyth accepted the destruction of his book? Yes, there are too many time jumps, but that's what makes it great and filled with suspense. Well, probably it was that old saying that "everybody's got a price".
So, our "hero" is living in Andalusia (wrong, it should be written correctly Andalucia, yes, with a C), by a ... lake? There are no lakes in Andalucia. In the book Jason Monk was stationed at one point in Madrid, Spain, but that is far away from Turks and Caicos in the West Indies. Besides, Michael York didn't manage to portray the old British chap and gentleman Sir Nigel Irvine is supposed to be in the book. The fact that he was born in England doesn't make him suitable for that role. Pity South African born Nigel Green died so many years ago.
No more comments 'cause at this point of the movie I stood up and jerked the DVD out of the player in order to put it in its rightful place ... the garbage.
Buy the book, read it and enjoy the real stuff. Even if the end feels a little bit like a trick pulled out of a hat, it gave me great pleasure and I felt satisfied with it. Kinda poetic justice.