Sorry, this movie sucks

Best movie of this year hands down!

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

This was the third film Clint Eastwood directed and starred in, I had no idea what it would involve, and apparently it was rejected by Paul Newman, despite low ratings I was going to give it a try. Basically art history professor and collector Jonathan Hemlock (Clint Eastwood) is a retired government assassin, formerly of a secret government agency called "C2", since his retirement he has a collection of twenty-one rare masterpiece paintings, paid for by the previous assassinations he carried out. But he is forced into one last assignment by his former employee Dragon (Thayer David), an albino ex-Nazi confined to semi-darkness and kept alive by blood transfusions, he wants Hemlock to carry out to work on two more "sanctions", a euphemism for officially approved killings. The sanction is to avenge the death of another government agent, code name Wormwood (Frank Redmond), to kill the two men responsible, Hemlock refuses and insists he is retired, but Dragon threatens to expose his art collection to the IRS. Hemlock agrees to carry out the first assassination for $20,000, double his usual fee, but he refuses to do the second, and the money is stolen by C2 courier Jemima Brown (Vonetta McGee), who seduced him. Hemlock knows that Dragon sent Jemima, Dragon agrees to pay him back, $100,00 plus expenses, if he will complete the sanction, his target is a member of an international mountain climbing team that will attempt to climb the north face of the Eiger mountain in Switzerland. Hemlock tried to ascend the Eiger twice himself, but failed, Draggon cannot confirm the target's identity, but knows that he has a limp, to help Hemlock prepare, he travels to Arizona to train at climbing school, run by his old friend Ben Bowman (George Kennedy), there he gets back into shape, and also gets help from an attractive Native American woman named George (Brenda Venus), later revealed to be Bowman's daughter. There Hemlock also encounters his old enemy Miles Mellough (Jack Cassidy), a former ally from the military who betrayed him, Mellough tries and fails to have Hemlock drugged, Hemlock later lures Mellough and his bodyguard, the bodyguard is shot while Mellough is left in the sun to die. Hemlock is ready to ascend the Eiger, he joins a climbing party at the Hotel Bellevue des Alpes at Kleine Scheidegg, headstrong and condescending German member Karl Freytag (Reiner Schöne) has planned a route up the mountain. The men begin to ascend the mountain, but weather conditions become poor, a French climber is struck by rocks and dies, and later Freytag and the Austrian climber Anderl Meyer (Michael Grimm) fall to their deaths, Hemlock is saved while dangling alone. Bowman and a rescue crew make their way to help, Hemlock notices Bowman limping as he approaches, he recognises he is the target, despite his reluctance to trust him, Hemlock allows Bowman to pull him to safety. On the train returning to Kleine Scheidegg, Bowman to being involved with "the other side" years ago, and his involvement with Mellough, Bowman tries to mend the relationship between him and Hemlock, in the end Hemlock decides to lie to Dragon and tell him that all targets were assassinated, Jemima questions this, while Bowman leaves. Also starring Heidi Brühl as Mrs. Montaigne and Jean-Pierre Bernard as Montaigne. Eastwood does his usual grouchy act fine, Kennedy is alright, and David only seen in red coloured rooms is interesting, but I agree with critics, this is one of the weakest of Eastwood's self-directed films, the first half was sort of interesting, then it tries to be like a James Bond style adventure, some of the mountain climbing drama got my attention, but overall I found the film fairly boring and predictable, a dull and disappointing spy thriller. Adequate!

This movie has one thing in its favor, really only one, but it is good: The mountain climbing scenes. They are positively first rate. The fact that Eastwood did his own stunts, and this was done before all modern digital effects, makes this a masterpiece in mountain climbing film making.The script, however, is downright terrible. The whole setup makes no sense at all. Also, the action as well as interaction considering the hero's old enemy Miles (Jack Cassidy) isn't particularly interesting, and neither is the early buildup of the movie. The heroes conflict with the organization feels slapped-on. Oh, and the scene where George (Brenda Venus) flashes her assets on the mountain is downright silly.But the mountain climbing, including the early ones with Eastwood and Kennedy, are wonderful. So I give the stunts and climbing scenes a 10 and the script... well, a 3 maybe.Thereby this movie lines up with Jackie Chan's "Operation Condor" as a movie that you don't watch for the plot, but for the great visuals.

Clint Eastwood both directed and stars in this spy-type thriller as a classical art teacher, collector, and professional assassin(!) named Jonathan Hemlock who has been called upon to come out of retirement to avenge the death of a friend and former colleague, which leads him to a mountain climbing group as the prime suspects, helped by its guide(played by George Kennedy) who must climb the treacherous Eiger mountain to uncover the truth... Failed attempt at a thriller only has attractive scenery to compensate for the poorly plotted and overlong story that moves quite slowly, cluttered with too many bizarre characters. A real misfire from Eastwood.

The complete lack of political correctness seems to have endeared this film to some and made them overlook its obvious flaws. The characterisation is weak, the plot rambling and the action sequences largely confined to the last and most interesting portion of the film, the only part which actually takes place on the Eiger. It is a pity that the film takes so long to get here and with so many unnecessary digressions (and much silliness), for the mountain sequences (although not as compelling as they could have been) are easily the most convincing part of this so-so thriller.Clint Eastwood plays Hemlock a lecturer with a secret sideline in adventure. In this respect he is like a prototype for Indiana Jones only he's much darker. While Jones merely tries to redeem lost artifacts for the benefits of mankind (and therefore is an unreservedly good character), Hemlock murders people in cold blood to enlarge his own private hoard of expensive artworks. It is therefore difficult to really care whether he succeeds or fails.It actually becomes more difficult to relate to him as the movie progresses. After he leaves his former friend (a camp homosexual wonderfully played by the much missed Jack Cassidy) to die an agonising death in the desert, any sympathy I had for him disappeared. And of course there is the question left 'hanging' (sorry for the pun) at the end as to whether Hemlock has intentionally 'sanctioned' (ie murdered) several innocent people on the Eiger.Apart from such nastiness there is also a great deal of silliness of a formulaic kind. 'Dragon' is Hemlock's boss- he's an albino with an aversion to light who for some inexplicable reason is the head of the American spy network (how did that happen exactly?) He seems to belong to the world of Austin Powers. His sidekick is Pope another crudely drawn caricature. As indeed is Jemima Brown the sort of over-sexed black chick who were frequent in the early 70s blaxplotation cinema. The scenes where she beds Hemlock only to steal his money is one of the many unnecessary detours.