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Review: 'The Peacemaker' - It's largely a guy thing
October 3, 1997
Web posted at: 11:29 p.m. EDT (0329 GMT)From Reviewer Paul Tatara
(CNN) -- "The Peacemaker," a pretty darn cool techno-thriller starring George Clooney and Nicole Kidman, is the first film from the much-ballyhooed DreamWorks SKG, a little company starring a guy named Steven Spielberg.
I'd be willing to bet things are a bit tense around the DreamWorks offices right now, seeing how they'll likely be judged a washout if they don't manage to seize control of the hearts, minds and pocketbooks of all human life forms the world over. Not later, mind you, but now.
What I like best about "The Peacemaker" is that it has all its commercial parts in working order, but it isn't as safe as it may seem at first glance.
First-time director Mimi Leder and screenwriter Michael Schiffer have concocted a nuclear terrorism story line that owes far more to something like "Clear and Present Danger" than it does "The Terminator." When the stakes are this high, that can be viewed as one gutsy move.
The movie isn't anywhere near perfect, but it just keeps rolling along at a steady clip, with Clooney and Kidman looking about as good as you can look while being fired upon by crazed, thermonuclear device-toting Bosnians.
Kidman: a greyhound in heels
If you don't completely buy something (like, for instance, Kidman's highly unique Ameristralian accent), something else will be along in a minute to take its place. There are explosions, of course, but not as many as you would think, and our heroes never even kiss each other.
The next thing you know they'll be displaying actual grief when some of their cohorts die in a highly dangerous raid. Wait a minute! That happens, too!
Film trailer
Clooney, not surprisingly, plays a cocky Army colonel who's something of an expert on the ins and outs of worldwide illegal arms trading.
Kidman is a presidentially appointed superior who doesn't know as much about this kind of thing as George does, but still can speak Russian, read satellite photographs, spits out techno-jargon, and can run like a greyhound while wearing high heels.
No shortage of action
One of the main twists in the movie is supposed to be that Clooney has trouble taking orders from a woman, but who cares.
Everything Kidman makes him do is neat guy-stuff, like climbing in a helicopter and chasing down a truck full of stolen nuclear warheads before it reaches the Russian border. It's not like she's forcing him to apply hand lotion.
I've liked Clooney from the first time I saw him on "ER," although, for no good reason, I seldom watch the show.
Like Harrison Ford, he's handsome in an old-fashioned movie star way, and even when he's walloping some poor son-of-a-gun into submission, he seems like the kind of guy you might want to sit down and have a beer with. In this film, he's a GI Joe with a sense of humor, and, up until I was about 9 years old, I couldn't have imagined a better vocation. I'm not 9 anymore, of course, but for two hours, what the hell.
Clooney's a head case
My one complaint, and it may very well develop into a major one if he doesn't cool it, is that the man simply cannot keep his head still. His noggin bobbles around like he's one of those spring-loaded ceramic ballplayers that you buy at the stadium. A couple of times I thought he was going to juke Kidman out her chair. A leading man should not require his audience to load up on Dramamine.
The story takes place all over the world, with sequences in Germany, Macedonia, France, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.
I don't even know where Macedonia is, but the changes in scenery keep things interesting when the action drags a little.
One of my favorite scenes takes place in Vienna, where Clooney uses a Mercedes as a smash-up derby vehicle, repeatedly slamming into several cars that have been chasing him and Kidman around the city. Clooney is great here, because he doesn't even bother to grimace during the chaos. He looks like someone with a severe inner-ear infection trying to parallel park.
The final sequence takes place on the east side of Manhattan, right around the United Nations building.
Clooney and a team of snipers are trying to nail the head terrorist before he sets off a bomb and obliterates the surrounding area (Including my neighborhood! Get him, George! Get him!). Leder shows a steady hand in building tension here, with clear sniper shots suddenly being blocked by cute little girls and the like. Clooney also gets to run across the tops of cars and taxis mired in a traffic jam. I assume Kidman's heels wouldn't be able to grip.
Then there's the topper. I'm a collector of goofy movie moments, and "The Peacemaker" contains just about the best one I've seen this year. Clooney and a bunch of armed commandos burst into a hotel room where they hope to find the bad guy. He's not there, but Clooney reaches down and touches a fried egg that's laying on a plate by the bed.
"It's still warm," he alarmingly announces, and everyone goes barreling out of the room.
This sort of thing is the only joy I get in my life.
"The Peacemaker" is violent in a nuclear bomb kind of way, but a couple of people also get shot at point-blank range. A little bit of bad language. Very small children, or chickens, may be frightened by the fried egg incident. Rated R. 122 minutes.
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