"The Peacemaker" review

The Peacemaker (1997)

Directed by Mimi Leder
Writing credits Leslie Cockburn Andrew Cockburn

George Clooney.... Lt. Col. Thomas Devoe
Nicole Kidman.... Dr. Julia Kelly
Marcel Iures.... Dusan Gavrich
Aleksandr Baluyev... General Aleksandr Kodoroff (as Alexander Baluev)
Rene Medvesek....Vlado Mirich

Two movie stars join forces to stop nuclear terrorism. Nicole Kidman is the brilliant nuclear scientist and George Clooney is her gung ho army man sidekick. Nuclear bombs get stolen out of Russia and they must find them. Bullets fly and cars are destroyed. The war in Bosnia gets thrown into the mix as well. Thankfully, two Hollywood stars are on the case.

"The Peacemaker" is a decent action flick. It just gives off a major Hollywood vibe. You know, the nuclear scientist somehow always finds herself in the middle of the action. The two leads have their cutesy sparring back and forth: "Care for some coffee?" Kidman says. "Love some", Clooney replies. "It's over there." Kidman says with a self satisfied smirk on her face. Zing! Clooney interrupts her briefing at the beginning to show how clever he is, etc. I'm not saying Hollywoodisms are bad, it's just blatantly obvious that the movie resides in Hollywood's version of reality.

So while the story is a serious one and takes an unusually somber tone for an action flick, I couldn't get serious about it. I knew I was in good hands with the movie stars fighting evil. Clooney and Kidman will save us. They always do.

SCORE: 3 out of 4 movie stars to the rescue