Something is awry with this movie, so that it doesn't rate very high in my book. But what is it about "Warhead" (aka, "Prisoner in the Middle") that earns it no better than 4 stars? It has a good amount of war-type action. There's an air of suspense about what will happen next. The cast mostly seem to fit. And, although the plot is really wild, it could be acceptable as a Hollywood twist. I say, 'could,' because everything else would have to be quite good about the film. But it isn't. And, it isn't just one thing, but lots of smaller pieces that seem out of whack. Let's start with the wild plot – a U.S. Air Force bomber has mechanical problems flying above Jordan and accidentally drops a nuclear warhead. So, someone pushed a bomb door and release button accidentally. OK, but not before someone else put a parachute on the bomb? Or do we now drop all our bombs by parachute – so they don't hit too hard? But, as I said, we could accept all the wild background if everything else fell into place. But it doesn't.
David Janssen's role as U.S. Air Force Colonel Tony Stevens doesn't quite seem to fit. Even officers in the U.S. Air Force of that time did not grow full heads of wavy hair with long combed back sideburns. He looked as though he came right out of civilian life, or off the streets of Hollywood or New York. When his secret mission starts, we see him floating in the sky under a full military parachute, then standing on the ground and wrapping his chute to hide it. I know we're not supposed to think too much about the details left out of movies, but this scene with no dialog raised some questions in my mind. What airport in Israel did he take off from? Or what air base was there where he wouldn't have been noticed? What type of airplane could have gone unnoticed and flown just a few miles inside Jordanian territory to drop a parachutist?
So, next we see him in desert terrain, afoot on a one-man mission, at least some miles outside friendly Israeli territory, and he isn't wearing a hat to protect him from the sun. He doesn't have at least a canteen of water, a compass or any apparent survival gear. Yet he does have an electronic device to guide him to the bomb and a satchel with papers on the bomb that he will need to disarm the bomb and remove the detonator. But wait, he's still in his tan tourist suit – slacks and travel shirt-jacket that he wore in the opening scene near Jerusalem's Western Wall. And not a hair of his head is out of place. Throughout the whole film, Janssen seemed out of place. Had he ruffled his hair a bit, wore boots and a hat, and acted with a little intensity, he would have been much more believable.
There were many other goofs in this film that lowered it to a class below "B" level of movies.
David Janssen's role as U.S. Air Force Colonel Tony Stevens doesn't quite seem to fit. Even officers in the U.S. Air Force of that time did not grow full heads of wavy hair with long combed back sideburns. He looked as though he came right out of civilian life, or off the streets of Hollywood or New York. When his secret mission starts, we see him floating in the sky under a full military parachute, then standing on the ground and wrapping his chute to hide it. I know we're not supposed to think too much about the details left out of movies, but this scene with no dialog raised some questions in my mind. What airport in Israel did he take off from? Or what air base was there where he wouldn't have been noticed? What type of airplane could have gone unnoticed and flown just a few miles inside Jordanian territory to drop a parachutist?
So, next we see him in desert terrain, afoot on a one-man mission, at least some miles outside friendly Israeli territory, and he isn't wearing a hat to protect him from the sun. He doesn't have at least a canteen of water, a compass or any apparent survival gear. Yet he does have an electronic device to guide him to the bomb and a satchel with papers on the bomb that he will need to disarm the bomb and remove the detonator. But wait, he's still in his tan tourist suit – slacks and travel shirt-jacket that he wore in the opening scene near Jerusalem's Western Wall. And not a hair of his head is out of place. Throughout the whole film, Janssen seemed out of place. Had he ruffled his hair a bit, wore boots and a hat, and acted with a little intensity, he would have been much more believable.
There were many other goofs in this film that lowered it to a class below "B" level of movies.
