Skunkyrate Gripping story with well-crafted characters

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

KnotStronger This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Caryl It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

AwokeEnrightened Charles Bronson, mired in crappy B action flicks in the 1980's, decided to take this made-for-HBO flick to stretch his acting chops. He should have just made another "Death Wish" movie, instead. Based on a true story set in 1969, Bronson plays United Mine Workers union official Jock Yablonski. He fawns over union president Tony Boyle (Wilford Brimley), who is made out to be a ruthless crook immediately. As Jock and his wife Margaret (Ellen Burstyn) coast through life, a mine accident claims the lives of eighty people. Boyle arrives in the grieving West Virginia town and defends the coal company over the miners.Yablonski is almost run out of town, and decides he has had enough. He announces his candidacy for the union presidency, and begins campaigning. Boyle then orders a hit on his former friend.The film shifts gears and introduces us to Paul (Robert Schenkkan), a house painter with a lot of guns and a huge ego. Paul is married to the oversexed Annette (Ellen Barkin), who is probably carrying on behind Paul's back. Annette's father Silous (Hoyt Axton) comes to Paul with a job- kill Yablonski and collect ten thousand dollars. Annette uses her feminine wiles to convince Paul, and he hires local petty criminal Claude (Maury Chaykin) to help.With the campaign in full swing, both sides are confident about victory. Boyle's side is more confident since he has stuffed the ballot box, winning in a landslide. Yablonski decides to challenge the election, and his death becomes more important to Boyle and his gang. Paul hires another killer Buddy (Keanu Reeves), and the trio decide to carry out their plan.With a good cast and confident direction, this film really should have hit its mark. Unfortunately, it never seems to get momentum going, as the central plot about the campaign takes a back seat to the killers' subplot.The staged campaign speeches are, well, stagey. The crowd scenes never move, and Boyle is so evil right away, the election's outcome is never in doubt. Bronson tries, but his dramatic scenes are just like other action films he has done, except he does not pull out a gun. Burstyn is wasted in the dutiful wife role, I have a feeling stronger writing would have bolstered her part.The best performance here? Writer/actor Robert Schenkkan as Paul. He turns Paul into such a desperate loser, he would be pitiful if his actions were not so despicable. One creepy scene has him humping a sleeping Annette to calm his urges, and Annette obviously knows what a little oral sex will do to better her station in life.Claude and Buddy are also disgusting creatures, there are plenty of opportunities to kill Yablonski but Claude chickens out. Claude and Paul make the trip to the Yablonski's country house so often, they know where to stop for gas.Claude, Paul, and Buddy eventually cross over into "funny" territory, and that is where the film finally lost me. The final violent scenes show the trio bumbling like the unfunny "I Love You to Death," but the humor is completely wrong here. Barely an hour and a half, "Act of Vengeance," a generic name that could serve as a "Death Wish" subtitle, never grabs its audience and proves to be an exercise in predictability, despite the excellent work of Robert Schenkkan. (* *) out of five stars.

Robert J. Maxwell The story of Jock Yablonsky (Charles Bronson) and his family's fight to overturn the corrupt leader of the United Mine Worker's Union, Tony Boyle (Wilford Brimley).It's a curious mixture of strengths and weaknesses. It is, of course, hampered by the plot, which happens to be as true as these "based on a true story" movies get to be. I don't know what conversation Bronson had with his wife (Ellen Burstyn) and his daughter (Carolyne Kava) had before they went to bed on the night of their murders. Nobody does, so the lacunae are filled with plausible exchanges of love and mutual confidence. It heightens the drama anyway. A loving family slaughtered. Suppose they'd had a drunken argument and thrown muffin cups at one another? Not that the assassination itself needs much hype. It's pretty shocking. Three skanks open a window of Yablonsky's well-appointed country house during Christmas, have petty disagreements in whispers, and finally bring themselves to pull the triggers. The air crackles with tension.The dialog isn't in any way offensive, and the acting in general is at least up to par. Bronson gives a laid-back performance, and Ellen Burstyn does the most convincing job of all. Maury Chaykin is excellent as the chubbiest, if not the dumbest, of the three or four hoods, constantly bickering over who gets how much and who shoots first.There are some good scenes too, besides the shocking executions. Here's Maury Chaykin lying in bed in his shorts, smoking, drinking beer, twirling his borrowed pistol around and going BANG as he points it at objects. One of the objects is his exasperated girl friend and there is, how you say, an accidental discharge? He gapes with the uncomprehending expression of some kind of poleaxed steer as she slumps to the floor with a hole in her belly.Another fascinating scene has the leader of the goons, an amateur gun nut, lying in bed with his wife, Ellen Barkin. We've been told he's nuts about her, but she pretends to be asleep while he squeezes her various body parts and gets off by means of what the French call "frottage." But after money is mentioned, Barkin becomes a combination of Delilah and Lady MacBeth. "Come on, honey," she coaxes him, while kissing her way down his ribs, "it won't be so hard. You can kill him in a parking lot." The weakness is in the plot itself, which is stuck with an ordinary tale of a man who is (almost) all good being killed by guys who are (entirely) all bad. The narrative is about how Bronson alienates himself from the leaders of the corrupt union, challenges them in an election, and when the rigged results come in, declares that he's going to challenge the election in court. Bronson starts out as just another high-echelon conniver, one of Brimley's tools. But his conversion to rectitude is quick -- too quick. It took a long time for Eva Marie Saint and Karl Malden to turn Marlon Brando around in "On The Waterfront." Here, it takes about two minutes of screen time.It would also have been interesting to learn just what "corruption" means in the context of union management. Only one hint is given. Nothing is said about "laundered money," and that's something I've always been curious about. I once left a dollar bill in the pocket of some trousers I washed, but aside from that I'm ignorant. A little frustrating.It's strange to see Bronson playing a role like this. He's usually the hero, true enough, but in this movie he gets belted in the stomach and falls to his knees, and at the end he's shot many times. Never once does he make a wisecrack to some overconfident street rat and then clip him on the jaw. There is no speeding car chase, no exploding fireball. Without those things, Bronson is hardly Bronson.

WarpedRecord I'm a big Ellen Burstyn fan, so I'll see anything with her. But I didn't have high expectations for this based on the title (sounds like a Steven Seagal actioner) and the cover artwork (looks like a pulpy B-movie, with Ellen's mug thrown in as an afterthought).Nonetheless, I was pleasantly surprised. Ellen was excellent as always, but Charles Bronson was also terrific, as was a young Keanu (spelled Keannu in the credits) Reeves. But the real revelation here is Wilford Brimley as the union boss. What a great bad-ass! For those used to seeing Wilford harp about cholesterol and diabetes, check this one out. You'll realize how much he's wasting his talent by doing those commercials.This is a moving human drama with fine performances, captivating direction and a compelling, if occasionally clichéd, script. It's an act of triumph. Eight out of 10 stars.

Andrew Eastenegger First of all this, yes this TV films was more like a genuine Bronson film with a great performance. This is one to watch for everybody. I'm 17 and live in the UK and don't get many Bronson films over here considering he made his great career over in before he did in the great US. The only way i can get Bronson films is one Ebay, and i'm nerely complete of all his films, i have all the great 80's films he did apart from this one. (soon hopefully) And i'll have most of all the 70's ones aswell, on dvd on video.. Why isn't this film and all the 80's and most of the early 70's bronson films on DVD like The Mechanic. Come on people that film needs to be on DVD with a Death Wish box set aswell...This film really does work, and as a kid i always wouldn't who that guy was without his mustash, it was the guy nerely unrecognisible. I mean i can tell Bronson in his other 70's films without THE GREAT TASH. Like Hard Times... But in the 80's that was his crown, well and the 70's but without the tash it wasn't really the guy, but still tough.(Like schwarzenegger's crown was his hair like in commando and Clint with his 44 Magnum).People watch this great film, this is superb and fantastic action drama film...