Michael Crichton was never much of a director, for all his talent and intelligence - he wasn't up to his writing. This was his directorial debut - an ABC Movie of the Week based on his terrific John Lange novel called Binary. Reading that you can see the film - it's tight, sparse, lots of dialogue. There is some internalised stuff - the battle of wits between the hero and villain- but that should be easy to dramatise.
Crichton actually didn't write the script of this, some guy called Robert Dozier did. The script's okay - it's more the handling.
There's lots of men hanging around in dark suits - brown and grey. But Crichton can't really milk the key moments. Occasionally he does such as when Ben Gazzara realises that he's part of the plan.
It is a very good cast - Ben Gazzara as the hero, EG Marshall as the baddy, Martin Sheen as an associate of Marshall. Marshall is fine but Gazarra is disappointing with his thick set glasses and walking around with hands in his pockets. Joseph Wiseman is really good though as a professor
The last half is better than the first and it's fine compared to other films of this type just not as good as the book.
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