"The Enemy"

This Saturday night, Channel 7 is running what the Phantom likes to call a “hybrid film”: one of those films that tries to combine several genres. In the case of “The Enemy,” those genres are:

• The military action film (see my post on “Freedom Strike” for other examples)
• The “uh-oh I made a boo-boo and it’s my moral responsibility to fix it” film, like this film or that film.
• The “official we’ll send in to help you will be of the opposite gender so you can conveniently fall in love” film. Happens all the time to folks like Tom Cruise and Mike Myers.

When enough of the right elements are in place (good director, good screenplay, good cast), a “hybrid film” can actually be pulled off with beautiful results (for example: “His Kind of Woman” – part violent film noir, part exotic locale romance, part satirical comedy).

Based on the trailer, what I’ve read about this film, and the folks involved, I doubt “the Enemy” yields the same beautiful results.

In this film, a chemist who once created a bio-toxin disappears and it’s up to his son and a CIA agent to both rescue the father and create an antidote to the poison before madmen use it.

Personally, I think they’d all have an easier go of it if they just called ”Captain America” in, but that’s another movie.

So on to the cast. You’ve got Luke Perry as the hero, a long way from the streets of ”Beverly Hills 90201” (this film was shot in Germany – doubling for Quebec!!!); and Olivia d’Abo, well beyond the wonder years of her career. But the supporting cast is much more interesting. Start with one of the Bonds, Sir Roger Moore, who has become kind of a self-parody in recent years but is so good-natured about it you enjoy being in on the joke. Tony-award winning Tom Conti has been a steady presence in films since the1960s. German actor Horst Bucholz is probably most noted for his role as Chico, the Mexican youth eager to be a gunman in the classic western, ”The Magnificent Seven.”

There are a group of fine people out there in internet-land who meticulously study films just to see if they can spot mistakes, then post those goofs on the Internet Movie Database. Well, thanks to those anonymous gaff-gawkers, you can read all about “The Enemy”’s flubs here.

Scott Weinberg over at the Apollo Movie Guide website gives a review of this film that confirms the film is exactly what the Phantom expected from the trailer. You can read it by clicking here. Or simply go by this single sentence from the review, which seems to sum it all up:

“For fans of movies you can talk through and still follow perfectly, “The Enemy” is worth a look.”

View the trailer here:

visit videodetective.com for more info

Or watch the entire film on WABC-TV Channel 7 on Saturday, April 26th at 11:35 PM… if you dare!