'The Tailor of Panama' is a ham-fisted attempt at satire that only manages to fumble and stumble over its own large concept and inept script. There are shades of 'Dr Strangelove...' James Bond and 'All The President's Men'. Bits and pieces of tired-out anti-American, anti-military dribblings, sugar-coated in glossy cinematography of Panama City, looking like every other American city that popped up in the 80s and 90s. A city that is as anonymous and non-descript as this mess of a movie.
Not even Geoffrey Rush's fine acting can save this turkey from boring the viewer to sleep. The script is clichéd and choppy, the attempts at clever satire fall flat as day-old, cheap champagne. There is gratuitous sex that fails to titillate and pseudo-violence and threatening "thugs" who fail to alarm or disgust. Failure is the operative word for this dreadful movie.
I admit I was expecting much more from John Boorman, one of my favorite directors, and John LeCarré, one of the best writers of the English language in the past 50 years. So the disappointment was acute when I realized that this movie wasn't going to amount to much more than one those adolescent Leslie Nielsen "big gun" show-cases made more than 20 years ago for the teen-age crowd.
'The Tailor of Panama' has a half-complete feel to it. The characters are like cartoon creatures who run around exhibiting lots of angst and tragedy only to be dropped down a hole, to use one of LeCarré's favorite phrases, and forgotten. The ending comes all of a sudden, as if half the third act had been excised, after a drooping second act.
Lots of money obviously went into this pile of offal. I wonder if the money might have been better spent on the third world "victims" of tyranny this movie purports to support, rather than giving a nice holiday for the film-makers in Panama City and environs.
Pierce Brosnan plays a vile anti-hero who neither conjures up total disgust or invokes all-out laughs, which Leslie Nielsen, to his credit, could always do.
This movie is neither clever, intelligent or exciting and is a complete waste of time.
Not one of Boorman's, or LeCarré's, finest hours, to say the least.
See for yourself, but rent don't buy.
Not even Geoffrey Rush's fine acting can save this turkey from boring the viewer to sleep. The script is clichéd and choppy, the attempts at clever satire fall flat as day-old, cheap champagne. There is gratuitous sex that fails to titillate and pseudo-violence and threatening "thugs" who fail to alarm or disgust. Failure is the operative word for this dreadful movie.
I admit I was expecting much more from John Boorman, one of my favorite directors, and John LeCarré, one of the best writers of the English language in the past 50 years. So the disappointment was acute when I realized that this movie wasn't going to amount to much more than one those adolescent Leslie Nielsen "big gun" show-cases made more than 20 years ago for the teen-age crowd.
'The Tailor of Panama' has a half-complete feel to it. The characters are like cartoon creatures who run around exhibiting lots of angst and tragedy only to be dropped down a hole, to use one of LeCarré's favorite phrases, and forgotten. The ending comes all of a sudden, as if half the third act had been excised, after a drooping second act.
Lots of money obviously went into this pile of offal. I wonder if the money might have been better spent on the third world "victims" of tyranny this movie purports to support, rather than giving a nice holiday for the film-makers in Panama City and environs.
Pierce Brosnan plays a vile anti-hero who neither conjures up total disgust or invokes all-out laughs, which Leslie Nielsen, to his credit, could always do.
This movie is neither clever, intelligent or exciting and is a complete waste of time.
Not one of Boorman's, or LeCarré's, finest hours, to say the least.
See for yourself, but rent don't buy.