Deterrence

Rating:
Summary: this movie stunk
Review: Saddam Hoosane's son makes war and advances on Kuwait no less while the president gets stuck in a diner during a bad snowstorm.

Rating:
Summary: Intelligent stage play for strategists
Review: Statistically, only 5% of the population is predisposed to enjoy the process of strategy. The movie Deterrence is a crafty, devious gem targeted squarely at that minority.

The joy of this type of film is that the audience's intelligence is leveraged, not diminished. It's assumed that viewers can keep pace as strategic option are rapidly surfaced, evaluated, and discarded. Jargon is used contextually, never dumbed down or explained; thus audiences get the feeling that they're witnessing the elite at work. Viewers are challenged to identify, not with action, but with the thinking process of a leader faced with extraordinary constraints, and with plenty of conflicting advice.

If all this sounds good, then Deterrence is a film for you. As is always the case with such movies, the format is a well-scripted stage play on a single set. There are no SFX; everything rests on the talent and on the expressive intelligence of the actors. The crew of Deterrence rises to the occasion, especially Kevin Pollack, who distinguishes himself with quiet assurance as the interim President who launches nuclear war on Iraq.

In conclusion, this is not a film for everyone, and especially not for action lovers. On the other hand, Deterrence should please the thinking crowd -- David Mamet fans, for instance. Those viewers who appreciated the more strategic and devious episodes of the TV series La Femme Nikita, should also give Deterrence a try.

Rating:
Summary: Engrossing & fast-paced
Review: The President (excellently portrayed by Kevin Pollack) takes shelter from a blizzard in a small diner & has to deal with the murderous actions of the son of Saddam Hussein.

Does this mean the start of WWIII?

This is a very 'taut' film and I'm glad that I located it. I only heard of it from a preview on another rental tape.

It moves along without any dull moments & some neat twists. However, there were two things about it that stick out as being the worst parts. First, Sean Astin's character. When he was speaking to the President and using racist words, I was really disgusted. The President was too.

Secondly, it seemed hard to hear everything. At many times, we have the TV news broadcaster saying things that you'd want to hear. Meanwhile, there is other important talk between the President and his advisors. You want to hear both, but each is speaking loudly and quickly -- very hard to follow.....

Rating:
Summary: Fanciful plot developments but well done
Review: The Vice President has become President by appointment a la former President Ford. He has been President only four months, and is campaigning for election for the first time in his own right. In Colorado during primary season, a blizzard maroons him and his small entourage in a diner. Then, stuff hits the fan in another part of the world possibly presaging major nuclear calamity. How does he handle it?

That is the plot premise and the story unfolds well-acted and grippingly. It was like a book one can not put down. There are numerous byplays - the Secret Service and the people in the diner, the President and his staff, the Prez and foreign heavies, the press, and so forth. A low-budget affair, shot almost entirely in that diner and with nil whiz-bang special effects, writing and acting carry the day.

Yes, what happens in this tale stretches the imagination, and only for that reason do I give this film four stars vice five. Still, if you like stories which grab and hold you, this compact film is worth your time.

Rating:
Summary: Good Acting, Good Directing, Good Movie
Review: The year is 2008, and it's an election year. It is also a year where the Blizzard to end all Blizzards hits a small town in Colorado. As the film starts (in Black and White I might add) we find ourselves in a small diner populated only by 3 customers, a waitress, and its owner. In walks the President of the United States, his staff, and security just to get out of the storm (we now switch to color). While watching the televised returns, a special bulletin advises that Sadam Hussane's son has invaded Kuwait (damn that family never learns....).

There is a cameraman from a CNN-type network with the President and with the aid of electronic uplinks, the president is able to make a speech to the US, and the world. We learn that our conventional military is no where near it's 1991 size or strength, and what there is of our military is stuck in Korea. So the President lays it on the line to the population of Baghdad. Either Baghdad's military stops immediately, the leader turns himself in to a US embassy within 1.5 hours....or he drops a thermonuclear device on Baghdad. Sort of your simple every day fix.

For what happens next buy/rent the movie. It is a great watch with a great twist at the end that you don't see coming. Kevin Polack is great in this movie as the President of the United States. You see him in a performance that you have never seen him in before. This is a dramatic movie with some humorous moments. Polack's line relating to a sharp shooter out in the blizzard had me on the floor!

From the time you come into the Diner, you never leave. It is a one-set movie very much like 'TWELVE ANGRY MEN'. Very well done.

In my entire life, I can count on both hands the number of films that I have watched more than once. I rented this film and watched it 3 times over the weekend, rented it again, and expect to go out tonight to get the film again. Each time I find something new that I missed the first time. For example JUNE LOCKHART gets pretty good billing in the opening credits. The second time I watched I noticed the credit but never saw her in the film. During the 2nd viewing I realized that June plays a member of the Presidents staff and you only hear her voice on via the telephone.

Hey what more can I say.....I liked it, and I believe that you will too.

Enjoy-it's a good 'watch'.

Rating:
Summary: Hollywood: pay attention!
Review: There's no wild car chases in this film. No high-tech special effects, no nubile teenage girls or vampires or serial killers. Gee, no wonder no one went to see this film!

And that is such a shame. "Deterrence" is one of those films that sets no grandiose expectations, so when you finally see it, you will be caught like a deer in headlights -- and by the time the final credits roll, you will be emotionally drained.

Almost like a stage play, "Deterrence" is set entirely in a roadside diner in rural Aztec, Colorado. American President Emerson is doing some last-minute campaigning for the primaries before the polls close when he and his entourage are trapped by a ferocious blizzard. They seek shelter in the diner.

Emerson is not an elected president. He was the VP until the sitting president -- an extremely popular one -- passed away. Now, he's seeking his party's nomination and to be voted in on a mandate from the people.

The movie is set in 2007 and the political climate of the world has changed dramatically. The Middle East is no longer considered a hot bed of unrest. Saddam Huessen has passed away and his son now rules Iraq. However, relations between Japan and China are tense, as well as things on the Korean peninsula. China just may be on the verge of invading Japan. Consequently, most of America's armed forces are stationed in that part of the world, not the Middle East.

While holed up in the diner and following election results on TV, the President receives word that the young Huessen has led a Republican Guard force of a half-million troops into Kuwait and has taken over. He's now poised to invade Saudi Arabia and has both chemical and biological weapons at the ready. The US, with its troops now out of the Gulf, will need nearly 10 days to respond. That's way too long. They need someone there now!

One other thing: I didn't want to reveal this, but another reviewer already did (and I say shame on them because it's a critical plot point): President Emerson is Jewish. This isn't revealed until halfway through the movie. Add this to the fact that he's not an "elected" president and you can image the obstecles he faces as he tries to negotiate with the Arabs.

Kevin Pollack, a wonderful stand-up comic and occasional actor plays the role of the president. (You may recall Pollack's terrifc performance in "The Usual Suspects.") This role should be a defining moment in his career and if there was any justice in the world, he'd receive an Oscar nomination. His performance is very measured and touched with such great nuance it's startling. Pollack's Emerson is a man of great integrity and strength, now facing a choice no human being should ever be forced to make. In fact, one of the citizens stranded in the diner charges, "You've got no right to do this!" But Pollack, as Emerson, repsonds, "No, you're wrong. I'm the ONLY one who has the right to do this!"

To do what? Ahhh - to say would be to give away too much of the plot. But the moral questions that confront this president leave you checking your own compass and I found my stomach twisting into knots on occasion.

Timothy Hutton gives a wonderfully manic performance as Emerson's mercenary Chief of Staff and Sheryl Lee Ralph is fine as the National Security Advisor.

As I said, though all the action takes place in the diner, there are enough subplots, twists, turns and surprises to keep you welded to your seat waiting breathlessly to see what happens next.

This is not a movie one can watch casually. It requires full attention because most of the story is told through David Mamet-like dialogue, delivered by the actors in brisk, staccato bursts. If you miss anything, some plot points may be hard to conceive, but let me assure you: this is a marvelous screenplay -- crisp and tight. There's no plot holes and everything that happens is frighteningly plausable.

One previous reviewer complains about the fact that the "big" secret revealed at the end of the film was known only to the president and not his staff. He thinks that seemed implausable.

What he apparently missed was this: This "secret" was told to Emerson while he was STILL vice president. It was told to him by the president while on his death bed. Emerson and the president, whose shoes he is trying to fill, were very close. It was a mentor/protege-type of relationship.

As the movie develops, it becomes clear that Emerson, due to the odd political position he finds himself in, does not entirely trust his staff and is a man more likely to make his own decisions. When he finally reveals the breathtaking climatic "secret" in the closing moments of the film, we definitely say, "Oh, wow!" rather than, "Oh, puhleese!" I thought to myself, "I would have kept that secret away from these guys too!" Additionally, there is one rather major hint at one point during the film that points to the President's secret, though you won't realize it till the film is over. I will say this: it involves the French (now who would have guessed that?!).

"Deterrence," while packed with suspence, crackling dialogue and outstanding performances, is definitely a thinking-man's film. And I guarantee you will be thinking about it for days!

Rent it... video tape or DVD, it doesn't matter. Chances are, you will then want to buy it and add it to your collection.

Rating:
Summary: Hollywood: pay attention!
Review: There's no wild car chases in this film. No high-tech special effects, no nubile teenage girls or vampires or serial killers. Gee, no wonder no one went to see this film!

And that is such a shame. "Deterrence" is one of those films that sets no grandiose expectations, so when you finally see it, you will be caught like a deer in headlights -- and by the time the final credits roll, you will be emotionally drained.

Almost like a stage play, "Deterrence" is set entirely in a roadside diner in rural Aztec, Colorado. American President Emerson is doing some last-minute campaigning for the primaries before the polls close when he and his entourage are trapped by a ferocious blizzard. They seek shelter in the diner.

Emerson is not an elected president. He was the VP until the sitting president -- an extremely popular one -- passed away. Now, he's seeking his party's nomination and to be voted in on a mandate from the people.

The movie is set in 2007 and the political climate of the world has changed dramatically. The Middle East is no longer considered a hot bed of unrest. Saddam Huessen has passed away and his son now rules Iraq. However, relations between Japan and China are tense, as well as things on the Korean peninsula. China just may be on the verge of invading Japan. Consequently, most of America's armed forces are stationed in that part of the world, not the Middle East.

While holed up in the diner and following election results on TV, the President receives word that the young Huessen has led a Republican Guard force of a half-million troops into Kuwait and has taken over. He's now poised to invade Saudi Arabia and has both chemical and biological weapons at the ready. The US, with its troops now out of the Gulf, will need nearly 10 days to respond. That's way too long. They need someone there now!

One other thing: I didn't want to reveal this, but another reviewer already did (and I say shame on them because it's a critical plot point): President Emerson is Jewish. This isn't revealed until halfway through the movie. Add this to the fact that he's not an "elected" president and you can image the obstecles he faces as he tries to negotiate with the Arabs.

Kevin Pollack, a wonderful stand-up comic and occasional actor plays the role of the president. (You may recall Pollack's terrifc performance in "The Usual Suspects.") This role should be a defining moment in his career and if there was any justice in the world, he'd receive an Oscar nomination. His performance is very measured and touched with such great nuance it's startling. Pollack's Emerson is a man of great integrity and strength, now facing a choice no human being should ever be forced to make. In fact, one of the citizens stranded in the diner charges, "You've got no right to do this!" But Pollack, as Emerson, repsonds, "No, you're wrong. I'm the ONLY one who has the right to do this!"

To do what? Ahhh - to say would be to give away too much of the plot. But the moral questions that confront this president leave you checking your own compass and I found my stomach twisting into knots on occasion.

Timothy Hutton gives a wonderfully manic performance as Emerson's mercenary Chief of Staff and Sheryl Lee Ralph is fine as the National Security Advisor.

As I said, though all the action takes place in the diner, there are enough subplots, twists, turns and surprises to keep you welded to your seat waiting breathlessly to see what happens next.

This is not a movie one can watch casually. It requires full attention because most of the story is told through David Mamet-like dialogue, delivered by the actors in brisk, staccato bursts. If you miss anything, some plot points may be hard to conceive, but let me assure you: this is a marvelous screenplay -- crisp and tight. There's no plot holes and everything that happens is frighteningly plausable.

One previous reviewer complains about the fact that the "big" secret revealed at the end of the film was known only to the president and not his staff. He thinks that seemed implausable.

What he apparently missed was this: This "secret" was told to Emerson while he was STILL vice president. It was told to him by the president while on his death bed. Emerson and the president, whose shoes he is trying to fill, were very close. It was a mentor/protege-type of relationship.

As the movie develops, it becomes clear that Emerson, due to the odd political position he finds himself in, does not entirely trust his staff and is a man more likely to make his own decisions. When he finally reveals the breathtaking climatic "secret" in the closing moments of the film, we definitely say, "Oh, wow!" rather than, "Oh, puhleese!" I thought to myself, "I would have kept that secret away from these guys too!" Additionally, there is one rather major hint at one point during the film that points to the President's secret, though you won't realize it till the film is over. I will say this: it involves the French (now who would have guessed that?!).

"Deterrence," while packed with suspence, crackling dialogue and outstanding performances, is definitely a thinking-man's film. And I guarantee you will be thinking about it for days!

Rent it... video tape or DVD, it doesn't matter. Chances are, you will then want to buy it and add it to your collection.

Rating:
Summary: Deterrence- best kept secret in Hollywood`
Review: this is a fantastick movie! I have referred a dozen or so family members, and each has confirmed the superiority of this film. Well-thought out and imaginative, one could only hope our intelligence services are half as creative and smart as the creator of this masterpiece.

Rating:
Summary: Deterrence- best kept secret in Hollywood`
Review: this is a fantastick movie! I have referred a dozen or so family members, and each has confirmed the superiority of this film. Well-thought out and imaginative, one could only hope our intelligence services are half as creative and smart as the creator of this masterpiece.

Rating:
Summary: Did we watch the same movie as the other reviewers?
Review: This is one of the worst movies we have seen in a long time. A totally improbable and unbelievable plot, laughable acting, and a budget that compares with the Blair Witch project. Save yourselves, run for cover!