Memorable, crazy movie

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

In Paraguay, Barry Kohler (Steve Guttenberg) is tracking a group of Nazis. In Vienna, Nazi hunter Ezra Lieberman (Laurence Olivier) dismisses Kohler's discovery and tells him to go home. Kohler continues his investigation and finds Dr. Josef Mengele (Gregory Peck) arrive with plans to kill 94 seemingly ordinary 65 year old men from around the world. The Nazis kill Kohler while he's on the phone with Lieberman. Lieberman continues Kohler's investigation and discovers striking resemblance of the victims' adopted sons. The children are all clones of the Hitler whom Mengele hopes to scientifically recreate.I expected better. It's surprising how slow and prodding this movie is. The compelling aspect of the movie is the sinister plan. However it reveals too much of it too early and the plan is kind of silly making Mengele a Bond villain. On paper, it sound appealing to have an old master actor as a heroic lead. On film, the movie suffers from a lack of pace and tension. No matter how much Peck camps it up as a Nazi villain, this is an intriguing but slow thriller.

I saw this movie when it first came out and I really enjoyed it. Compared to today's more authentic period pieces, it might not stand up that well… yes, the accents are pretty bad, for example… but all things considered I thought it was well done and I've seen it several times, the most recent being just last night. I loved the foreshadowing in the scene where one of the cloned boys lets Olivier's character into his house and is reflected an infinite number of times by the hallway mirrors… it appears to be nothing more than an odd directorial choice the first time through, but for those of us who know what's coming, it's a very clever device.The dam scene was very intense and from the Trivia notes I gather it was a real dam, not a special effect. Very striking sequence in a very interesting location.I didn't follow the bit about the dog's birthday… maybe that led somewhere in the book, but if it was explained in the film I must have missed it. There were a few other awkward moments here and there (I did chuckle at the cloning expert who could reproduce DNA at the drop of a hat yet demonstrated his high-tech theories and technique using a chalkboard and a film projector), but all in all I'd recommend this movie. Intriguing idea that translated very well to film, with a classic cast the likes of which we'll probably never see again.

If Hollywood starts turning out movies this good again, then maybe they will solve their problems with declining ticket sales.This movie grabs you from the opening scenes and keeps grips on you until the end. It makes me want to dig up the original novel (Ira Levin, Rosemary's Baby and a long list of others) and read it.I watched this on DVD the first time, which is the way to go. I've only seen scratchy versions chopped up by TV commercials before now. The DVD version looks like it's been taken off the master prints. It does not have the scratches and other defects of a circulation print.I knocked off a star because of Gregory Peck's congenital inability to master foreign accents and some continuity errors. These minor flaws are easy to ignore. Hollywood should learn from it past successes, and this is one.

"I confess that I am prejudiced," Kristl said as she turned to Henry.She had to blink a few times before she refocused, because the lights had flooded the theater and temporarily blinded them. Henry had yet to fix that. He meant for the light to gradually increase in strength with the music, but instead it suddenly bathed in a blinding white light. He had however managed that the music would start softly and then rise to an acceptable level. Acceptable meant that they both could hear each other. Normally they would start talking when the credits started to roll, but on request of Kristl they had sat in silence until the black at the end of the credit roll would show. "Why is that? Because it is an old movie?""No... It is because it got some of the best actors from around that time in it. Laurence Olivier, James Mason and Gregory Peck. I can not help to like movies which contain the latter two. I am a bit so-so on Olivier, but he is considered by most to be one of the best actors to date.""Is it insulting when I say that it's an old men movie?""It depends on what you intend. Is an old man movie, something bad? It is true, that it is a remarkable movie in that way. It stars people who are well into the sixties.""Yeah. That fight at the end had something funny. Those two old men beating each other up. ""Oddly enough, I found that struggle quite unsettling. Shocked me more than fights from action movies. Maybe because I had not expect it.""And bloody to.""So.. no scantily clad ladies waving swords about.. did you like it?""It was okay. The story has an interesting angle. Actually you know what the bad guys are doing and how, but you don't know why. And you follow Lieberman, Olivier that is, trying to figure it out. I bet a lot of people figured it out halfway through..I didn't. Although it wasn't much of a surprise in the end..""Only an very implausible plot. It is impossible to recreate the same conditions that shaped the people in the early twenty century, in the second half. The world was just completely different. Just to name a few important changes: you got cars, airplanes and television. This alone changed the world. Totally impossible.""Yeah, but fun.Besides, maybe they thought: let's give it a try.""If you are a fanatic you do not even to think that. You just do it..""Right. And Nazis are fanatics… just look at Raiders of the Lost Ark…""Yes.. or you can be a scientist obsessed with a project.""Like Mengele.""A fanatic and a scientist.. a dangerous combination. They can make the world go boom just because they want to.""And it is fun just seeing them old actors act. Peck seems very there in every scene he is in. And his boisterous overbearing personality contrasts with the down on his luck old Olivier. Yet these Nazis can not touch the vulnerable Olivier because then other people will get on to them. Publicity has its advantage," Krisl said.Henry nodded."It is a nice movie.. based on a story of Ira Levin. Yet again.""And there was this German guy in it.""You noticed?""Yeah.. that guy from that German movie we once saw. Der himmel uber Berlin.. and the one that played Hitler in Downfall.""Bruno Ganz.""Ah, that is his name?""Yes.""Another movie about Nazis and that Hitler guy.""It is an infinite source for stories," Kristl nodded."Yeah.. he sure casts a long shadow over Germany.""It is a sad thing… It sure is." Kristl sighed."We call that..FUBAR!" Henry laughed.www.meritcoba.com