Wednesday, March 18, 2020

Movie review - "The Hostage Tower" (1980) **

This should have been good. A story from Alistair MacLean about criminals taking over the Eiffel Tower. Location filming in Paris, including the tower. A cast including Peter Fonda, Maud Adams, Britt Ekland, Douglas Fairbanks Jr, Rachel Roberts, Keir Dullea, Billy Dee Williams.

But it's dumb. Annoyingly dumb. And bad.

It's directed with this dopey bad 70s TV way complete with silly music stings. The handling is far too light. I loved Fairbanks and Rachel Roberts as this duo running a crime fighting organisation but it didn't make sense... they knew Keir Dullea was up to something bad... so got Maude Adams and Billy Dee Williams to go undercover in the group... and went along with it as they took over the Eiffel Tower. Instead of, you know, stopping it.

It's so jokey and light. Keir Dullea's crack tam includes not only Adams and Dee Williams but Peter Fonda who is out for revenge against him. The action isn't that fierce. You never fear for hostage Celia Johnston.

Adams makes a great thief/spy - ideal for this sort of thing. I liked seeing the others.

But this was stupid.

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