Reviews (533)

Fun and Meaningful
I'm surprised by all the negativity this movie has produced, by the "fans" and at its initial run at the box office; truth is, I love this film and I found it to be quite entertaining and downright heartfelt at times. This new installment to the Star Trek universe marks the long-awaited return of the Next Generation crew -- and during a time when we are subjected to truly the worst of the franchise ('Voyager', and somehow even worse, 'Enterprise'), it was the perfect time to hail the return of this beloved cast of characters. The writing is top-notch by John Logan (who helped pen 'Gladiator' and 'The Last Samurai'), allowing the characters to finally grow and develop after a rather poor ninth movie ('Insurrection'). While, it's not the best of the series of now ten films, it is certainly one of the top four, providing action and intrigue at every turn.

The extras on the DVD are great, providing viewers with a pretty extensive look at how the film was made and several deleted scenes -- one or two I think should have made the final cut. This DVD is a must-have for anyone who enjoys science fiction films.

Nemesis plays well on TV, despite its flaws....
Star Trek: Nemesis, the 10th (and possibly final) feature film based on Gene Roddenberry's seminal science fiction TV franchise, isn't as bad a Trek film as some would lead one to believe. Sure, it isn't as good or satisfying as Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, but then again that film had Nicholas Meyer at the helm, which gave the Original Series' cast a worthy farewell.

Noted film editor-turned-director Stuart Baird isn't Nick Meyer, who gave his two Trek chapters its clever mix of Horatio-Hornblower-in-the-stars, literary allusions (Dickens and Melville in The Wrath of Khan and Shakespeare in The Undiscovered Country) and some outsider's irreverence to counter the first, flawed Star Trek film's pondering pretentions of grandeur. But as a Trek outsider, Baird attempts to tell a dramatic tale which pits Capt. Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and the Enterprise-E crew against Shimzon (Tom Hardy), a human who has been a slave on the Romulans' sister planet Remus and has become Praetor of the Romulan Empire in a deadly coup d'etat. Cunning, ruthless and brimming with resentment, Shimzon is not only a fierce warrior and a veteran of the Dominion War, he's also Picard's clone.

For all its perceived flaws, Nemesis somehow plays better on the small screen than it does in the multiplex. It feels more natural watching this at home on a DVD player; screenwriter John Logan is an admitted Star Trek fan and blended elements from Star Trek II (which this movie's plot bears a similarity to in various respects) with an above-average Data-and-Picard episode from The Next Generation. After all, Nemesis revolves around Picard and Data (Brent Spiner, who, with Logan and producer Rick Berman, co-wrote the story); each finds a mirror image of himself -- Picard/Shimzon and Data discovers his flawed prototype B-4 -- and each is forced to deal with his "evil" twin.

At the heart of the story, Nemesis is also about family and the many transitions families go through in life. We first see the Enterprise family celebrating the long-awaited "conjugation" between Cmdr. William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) and ship's Counselor Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis), who, like children leaving home for college, are leaving the Enterprise for the USS Titan, Riker's first command. We follow the crew on this final trek across the stars, only to watch as they mourn the loss of a cherished comrade.

Star Trek: Nemesis' special effects are excellent, and Baird's experience as both an editor (Superman: The Movie) and director gives the action sequences a kinetic energy absent from the previous film, Insurrection. The score by noted composer Jerry Goldsmith is also outstanding. (Brent Spiner fans who know the actor is also a gifted singer should find his rendition of Irving Berlin's "Blue Skies" as a very enjoyable bonus.)

The Paramount Widescreen Collection DVD is above average considering it's not a 2-disc "Collector's Edition." It not only has a crisp digital transfer and clear sound, but it has audio commentary by Baird, deleted scenes and a handful of "making-of" documentaries.

Good but not great.
This final outing of the 'next generation' crew is one of the better films in the franchise but not the best.
On the plus side it offers some excellent action scenes and SFX and we finally get to see the enigmatic Remans who are being led by a clone of Picard. A lot of the story threads that have continued throughout the T.V. series and prior films are also tied up, such as Deanna and Will Riker finally marrying, Riker getting a command etc.
However, the film is not perfect. Data discovers a 'brother' on another planet but there is no indication of why/how he get there and this thread is never fully explored. Picard's clone seems obsessed with Deanna at one point...why??
This film works on a pure entertainment level but don't expect any complexity in it. It is like a marshmallow...a lot of bulk but not a lot of substance.

A Very Sad Farewell
Star Trek: TNG happens to be the best among all Star Trek Series EVER for me and growing up with this series on the sideline, it has been a part of my life. And they have come to their very last production of that series with this very sad farewell movie. I came out watching this movie with this familiar tugging in my chest, like you have when you are attending a funeral of a very close relative or friend.

This movie started with the most anticipated wedding of Riker and Troi, yes it is about time! While on their way to Troi's home planet, for the traditional naked wedding, they encounter a strange signal from an unknown source, which turns out of be a broken up android who looked like Data and it is not Data's evil brother. Trying to fix him, they continue course back to their original destination until Janeway (yes, yuck lol) contacted Picard about some political associated meeting and Picard agreed to help.

Arriving to some strange planet, Picard meet an unusual encounter with the leader, who looks exactly like him when he was way way way younger, who ironicly, is an exactly clone of Picard, and he extremely wants Picard bad. This is where the adventure really starts.

Gosh! I can't believe this is the end of TNG.

Don't listen to the critics....
This movie was released during the first Lord of the Rings maina a few years back. How did they expect to do going up against a blockbuster like that? It is a good film. It has space battles and a antagonist that would have made a good two part episode. It's all in the expectations...you are not watching the Matrix when you see a Star Trek movie. It's about a cast of characters we've been watching for seven seasons and three movies...it's not the loser that critics say it is... ... Read more

Reviews (60)

The best airborne action film since Airport
I don't watch a lot of "contemporary action" flicks, but this one is really good. To me, its scenario of a jetliner being used as a weapon of terror has an eerie prescience that lends a touch of horror and plausibility that its makers, back in 1996, probably didn't anticipate. Kurt Russell plays Dr. Donald Grant, a think-tanker who, through a series of plot twists, finds himself, along with a technical engineer (Oliver Platt) and a special-forces team (John Leguizamo, Joe Morton, B. D. Wong, Whip Hubley), secretly boarding a 747 that has been hijacked by a fanatic Islamic terrorist (David Suchet) and his band--most of whom don't have a clue about his secret agenda, a nerve-gas bomb whose presence Grant has deduced from his studies of the perp. Their mission: find and disarm the bomb and take down the terrorists before they can slaughter the entire East Coast. With the help of a stewardess (Halle Berry) and a plainclothes air marshal (Richard Riehle), they do both, only to find that the pilots have been killed and Grant, who's never flown anything bigger than a single-engine Cessna, must get the damaged liner down safely. The tension keeps ratcheting up steadily as complications are tossed into the Americans' path: the loss of their leader (Steven Seagal) and much of their equipment, an injured team member (who happens to be its bomb expert), the discovery of failsafes on the bomb and a sleeper agent aboard who can set it off manually, and a flight of combat jets prepared to shoot the plane down. Even after you've viewed it once, you'll still find yourself jamming your foot on the brake in the last few minutes as the crippled liner makes a long terrifying slide through ranks of parked small craft and into an earthen berm. A wild ride and one that any lover of nonstop action should enjoy.

A lot of fun if you don't take it too seriously
A group of fanatic middle east terrorists hijacks a US-bound airliner, holding its crew and passengers hostage and demanding the release of their leader - a fearless mastermind of terror brazenly seized by US special forces in a daylight raid. We soon learn, from a brilliant civilian analyst named Grant (Kurt Russel) that the hostage bid is actually a clever smokescreen - that the airliner is actually loaded with a highly potent nerve gas, perhaps enough to end life as we know it on America's east coast. Without any proof, the US government has the choice blasting the plane into oblivion to end a threat it could never prove, or allowing the plane to reach US airspace, where it will disperse its deadly cargo. Instead, a tricky plan is chosen - use a stealth transport with a special airlock to insert a team of special forces onto the plane, to retake it and disarm the bomb.

Up until then, "ED" is content to be a generic, enjoyable yet eventually forgettable action movie involving airplanes and "reel bad arabs" (Hey, I didn't make that up - some guy wrote a book about stereotyping arabs, and somebody else recommended that instead of this flick, as if the audience of one and the other's readership overlap that much). This flick came out in March - not quite the time when people are lining up at the box office. Though not a bad movie, it somehow manages to approach what we all love as the "so bad, we love it" category. Something funny happens midway through though - you realize that you're watching a parody (probably unintentional, but why spoil the fun?) with plenty of violence, but still one that isn't quite right enough to take seriously. Steven Seagal plays the intrepid head of the special forces, but he's dispatched early on, leaving his team to shoulder the task of ending the flying seige. You really know something's wrong when, while describing the plan, Seagal suddenly but calmly tells the military brass and the political heads involved that what he really wants is Kurt Russel's character (tuxedo and all) to come along for the trip. The script suggests he's laughing inside at Russell who'll have to face these bloodthirsty terrorists alone, but he's more likely laughing at us. The flick lards it up further in its choice of miscasting - adding BD Wong and John Leguizamo in as footsoldiers in Seagal's crack outfit. Finally, in what may be a nod to all of those "Airport" flicks of the 70's (okay, so there were only 3 of them), the flick climaxes in the single least-convincing airplane crash-landing ever depicted on the modern screen. (This is perhaps the strongest proof that the flick was intentionally parodying action movies: years earlier, a cosmetically altered 707 was used to brilliantly and chillingly simulate a crash landing 747 in "White Nights"; another 707 was dispatched in speed - certainly they could have done more than used models ala something by Sid and Marty Croft) I'm conservative, but ED hadn't had me scamper around frothing about "arab terrorists", nor did I look at this flick in a new light because of September 11. (I've seen far worse arabs in other films, while this one hints that most of the hijackers were out of the loop about the plan to dump nerva gas on the east coast.) Instead, it's a welcome diversion from more self-conciously serious action movies, even if you'll forget most of it (even Donald Trump's ex, Marla Maples as a flight attendant, or the late JD Walsh as a senator) the next day.

Excecutive Decision (1996)
Director: Stuart Baird
Cast: Kurt Russell, Steven Seagal, Halle Berry, John Leguizamo, Oliver Platt, Joe Morton, David Suchet, Len Cariou, B.D. Wong, Marla Maples Trump.
Running Time: 135 minutes.
Rated R for violence and language.

Although it is a formula that has been used time and time again, "Excecutive Decision" succeeds just as well, if not better, than the "hostage-takes-over-plane-so-action-hero-has-to-come-to-rescue" genre predecessors because of wonderful performances, an in-depth and enjoyable script, and top-tier direction from rookie Baird. Very simliar to 1992's "Passenger 57" staring Wesley Snipes, but with more emphasis on the supporting cast instead of one central star.

Kurt Russell stars as a United States government expert on Middle East terrorism who finds himself out of his office and on a die-or-die mission with gung ho commando Steven Seagal and Co. when an American airliner is taken hostage while in midair. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), Seagal is killed about a half an hour into the film, allowing Russell to take full command of the film. With the help from gorgeous flight attendant Halle Berry, Russell is able to learn about the situation and guide his great supporting players John Leguizamo, Oliver Platt, and Joe Morton as to how they need to approach the dangerous situation.

If there is one major drawback of the film, it is that "Executive Decision" is fairly fairfetched and predictable at the same time--the anti-terrorist crew actually gets onto the plane while it is in the air and without the terrorists knowing--come on! But despite some of its logical fallouts, it is a film that makes up for it with a superb lead role, fine performances from Platt as a brainiac and Leguizamo as a rough-and-tough go-getter, and a gut-wrenching, thrill-ride (literally) of a finale. A nice directorial debut. One of the better action films of the mid 1990's and is on par with other plane thrillers such as "Con Air".

Better Than I Expecter
While this movie seems just mediocre at the start, partially due to the hero role that Steven Seagal is put into, after the first twenty minutes it greatly improves. When the James Bond like scientist proves Seagal's character wrong we finally see that this movie has hope. Once Seagal's character falls to his death at 30,000 feet, the movie loses its stigma of just another action movie and opens a new avenue to the remaining characters. This then forces Russell's character into a lead position, allowing him to gain respect by one of the nation's top military strike teams. What really made this movie seem interesting was how it veered from the original action movie storyline, to a suspense action movie. Overall, this is a movie that I can, surprisingly, watch time and time again.

i need a lobotomy
another terrorist movie....another waste of video.
the lead terrorist played by xxx is pretty good.....but thats about it.
when the guy is in a neckbrace and trying to explain the bomb?.....is a bomb for the rest of the vid...this movie sucked and if you buy it?.....your taste in movies is rated zero stars.
burn it ... Read more

Amazon.com

An ultimately futile attempt to make lightning strike twice, this so-called spinoff from 1993's blockbuster The Fugitive avoids the label of "sequel" by forging ahead without the first film's star, Harrison Ford. The idea is to showcase the return of Tommy Lee Jones in his Oscar-winning role as tenacious U.S. Marshal Sam Gerard, this time testing his mettle against a covert government operative (Wesley Snipes) accused of murdering two secret service attachés. Unfortunately, Jones and the entire cast have been trapped in a rambling plot, and the underdog status that made Ford such a compelling hero is sacrificed to an evenly matched and eventually tiresome game of cat and mouse, with a villain whose identity is far too predictable. With no dramatic buildup and several superfluous characters to distract its focus, the film's momentum plays out like a rote exercise compared to the high stakes of the earlier film. --Jeff Shannon ... Read more

Reviews (56)

"U.S. Marshals" has its moments but ultimately unsatisfying
The idea of making "U.S. Marshals" was not a bad idea. After all, Tommy Lee Jones had won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as Chief Deputy Marshal Samuel Gerard in "The Fugitive," basically because he stole every scene he was in, whether it was with Harrison Ford or somebody else. Not only was this was one of those "roles of a lifetime" for Jones, there was also the fascinating dynamic between Gerard and his eccentric cadre of assistants. So putting together a sort of "sequel" around these characters made sense, as well as giving the film its title. The only question them would be coming up with a script.

The screenplay by first time screenwriter John Pogue follows the lead of "The Fugitive" by having Gerard suddenly find himself in the pursuit again of an innocent man (not that this becomes clear to Gerard until late in the film). The key differences from the first film is that the character being pursued, played by Wesley Snipes, is some sort of government super spy instead of a naive doctor, and Gerard is saddled with a government special agent, played by Robert Downey, Jr. The story line has to do with an international intrigue where not only Gerard does not know what is going on, but the audience is left in the dark as well. Then, to add insult to injury, this time it is Snipes that is doing the scene stealing.

Ultimately, I think it is the convoluted plot that gets in the way of this film working as well as "The Fugitive." This is a film that should be about the characters, especially the rest of Gerard's groups, but instead you keep trying to figure out what is really going on. In fact, this time around that question ends up overwhelming Gerard's attempts to track down people. Besides, "U.S. Marshals" is one of those films where the big surprise twist does not surprise anybody. This is why the film ends up being so unsatisfying, which is unfortunate because if this film had clicked it could have been a decent little franchise. But instead of focusing on the characters there was a concerted effort to try and top "The Fugitive" which only ends up making it something of a mess, which is why this movie ends up being so unsatisfying, Besides, we had such high expectations for these characters and cast.

...Ive Never Seen the Fugitive...
After I saw "The Client" w/Tommy Lee Jones in 1994, U.S. Marshals appealed to me as it did to probably anyone else watching it...Tommy Lee Jones WAS the star. The good thing about this sequal is that it takes off from it's own feet, without relying on events that took place during the first movie. Jones and his all-star team are out to get a Federal fugitive (Wesley Snipes) who is accused of killing two agents in cold blood. Snipes, proclaiming his innocents, runs from the Marshals while chasing yet another focus of the manhunt to clear his name. Ironically, the one man responsible for this whole scenerio is harbored unknowingly under the wing of the law. The plot is easy to follow, unlike puzzle movies like "The Saint" (which a friend made me suffer through years ago), which was so overdone in this 'spy' kinda thing that you couldn't even follow the plot line at all. Robert Downey Jr. makes a guest appearance on the Marshals squad, the star-packed cast is like an insurance policy for the movie which relys on the award-winning talents of the actors if the plot fails with some people. Up-to-date and smart 'cowboys and Indians' flick, plenty of great acting and one hell of a cast.

Falls a bit short...
Supposed to be a sequal to the amazing movie 'The Fugitive'...it falls a bit short in comparison.
Tommy Lee Jones is still as sassy as ever in U.S. Marshals - but it's a bit too predicable.
Still has some good suspense - which I do enjoy.

good sequel to a great movie
though it doesnt have the title The Fugitive 2...it takes another look at a wanted man who is framed for a murder he didnt committ...good and solid performances by Tommy Lee Jones(The Fugitive, The Hunted), Robert Downey, Jr.(Gothika, In Dreams) and the awesome Wesley Snipes(Blade 1 and II, ZigZag)...this came out in the same year his smash Blade did....and I always say..hey, thats the movie Snipes did before he did Blade...cool..anyway. the plane crash is good, chase scenes are good and the finale is down right Downey deadly..though lacking in some parts it picks it up with energy..for the fans of the stars or for whoever like The Fugitive with Harrison Ford. also starring Irene Jacobi(1995's Othello remake), Tom Wood(The Fugitive and Under Siege), Joe Pantoliano(The MAtrix, The Fugitive, Memento), Daniel Roebuck(Money Talks, Final Destination), Kate Nelligan(The Cider House Rules, Wolf), LaTanya Richardson(Lone Star,The Super), Michael Paul Chan(Spy Game, Batman Forever), Patrick Malahide(The Long Kiss Goodnight, The World Is Not Enough) and Rick Snyder(The Generals Daughter, The NEt)

So Much Like the Fugitive
They could have named this one the Fugitive II and gotten away with it. There was a slight lack of originality, but the spectacular cast pulls it off. Overall the movie was good. Tommy Lee Jones does a wonderful job and Robert Downey, Jr. was memorable as well. The comic relief was a must and was appreciated as it helped counterract the amazing suspense level present. I think I will add this one to my collection. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Steven Seagal gets killed during the first 20 minutes of this enjoyable thriller, so the movie scores points for ingenuity because it immediately improves when you realize that Seagal's role is just a heroic cameo. That leaves Kurt Russell to star as an American intelligence expert who (due to Seagal's untimely demise) finds himself leading a strike force against Islamic terrorists who have seized in-flight control of a 747 jetliner with 400 passengers. It's not all that different from Air Force One, but the formula story perks right along with considerable suspense as Russell's cohorts (Oliver Platt, Joe Morton) try to defuse a chemical bomb that could wipe out (you guessed it) the entire Eastern seaboard. John Leguizamo plays one of the U.S. commandos attempting to stop the violent hijackers, and Halle Berry costars as a flight attendant who risks her life to assist Russell's rescue team. As action movies go, Executive Decision marked an impressive directorial debut for veteran film editor Stuart Baird. --Jeff Shannon ... Read more

Reviews (60)

A great way to spend a little more than two hours.
Terrorists hijack a jumbo jet with over 400 passengers. Terrorist expert Dr David Grant (Kurt Russell) believes that the terrorists have nerve gas bombs on board and therefore, they can't let the plane enter US airspace, since the nerve gas could probably destroy the entire Washington DC. And they don't want to shoot them down, since that would lead to a big scandal. Instead, they send up a special military unit, led by Lieutenant Colonel Travis (Steven Seagal), to get on board the jumbo jet and take control over it. This turns out to be even more difficult than they had thought.

This is an action thriller that unfortunately doesn't seem as unrealistic now as it would've done some months ago, and some people would maybe prefer not to watch it because of the recent attacks. On the other hand, it could be interesting to watch because of that. Either way, it's a very good and well made movie. It's not so different from Air Force One and if you liked that one, you'll probably like this one and vice versa.
Steven Seagal's role is actually quite small, he's out of the movie after approximately half an hour, or even less, and you don't miss him. Kurt Russel, Oliver Platt, Halle berry and the other actors are good.

If you like quality action movies, here is one that will keep you at the edge of your seat for a little more than two hours. I really liked it!

A lot of fun if you don't take it too seriously
A group of fanatic middle east terrorists hijacks a US-bound airliner, holding its crew and passengers hostage and demanding the release of their leader - a fearless mastermind of terror brazenly seized by US special forces in a daylight raid. We soon learn, from a brilliant civilian analyst named Grant (Kurt Russel) that the hostage bid is actually a clever smokescreen - that the airliner is actually loaded with a highly potent nerve gas, perhaps enough to end life as we know it on America's east coast. Without any proof, the US government has the choice blasting the plane into oblivion to end a threat it could never prove, or allowing the plane to reach US airspace, where it will disperse its deadly cargo. Instead, a tricky plan is chosen - use a stealth transport with a special airlock to insert a team of special forces onto the plane, to retake it and disarm the bomb.

Up until then, "ED" is content to be a generic, enjoyable yet eventually forgettable action movie involving airplanes and "reel bad arabs" (Hey, I didn't make that up - some guy wrote a book about stereotyping arabs, and somebody else recommended that instead of this flick, as if the audience of one and the other's readership overlap that much). This flick came out in March - not quite the time when people are lining up at the box office. Though not a bad movie, it somehow manages to approach what we all love as the "so bad, we love it" category. Something funny happens midway through though - you realize that you're watching a parody (probably unintentional, but why spoil the fun?) with plenty of violence, but still one that isn't quite right enough to take seriously. Steven Seagal plays the intrepid head of the special forces, but he's dispatched early on, leaving his team to shoulder the task of ending the flying seige. You really know something's wrong when, while describing the plan, Seagal suddenly but calmly tells the military brass and the political heads involved that what he really wants is Kurt Russel's character (tuxedo and all) to come along for the trip. The script suggests he's laughing inside at Russell who'll have to face these bloodthirsty terrorists alone, but he's more likely laughing at us. The flick lards it up further in its choice of miscasting - adding BD Wong and John Leguizamo in as footsoldiers in Seagal's crack outfit. Finally, in what may be a nod to all of those "Airport" flicks of the 70's (okay, so there were only 3 of them), the flick climaxes in the single least-convincing airplane crash-landing ever depicted on the modern screen. (This is perhaps the strongest proof that the flick was intentionally parodying action movies: years earlier, a cosmetically altered 707 was used to brilliantly and chillingly simulate a crash landing 747 in "White Nights"; another 707 was dispatched in speed - certainly they could have done more than used models ala something by Sid and Marty Croft) I'm conservative, but ED hadn't had me scamper around frothing about "arab terrorists", nor did I look at this flick in a new light because of September 11. (I've seen far worse arabs in other films, while this one hints that most of the hijackers were out of the loop about the plan to dump nerva gas on the east coast.) Instead, it's a welcome diversion from more self-conciously serious action movies, even if you'll forget most of it (even Donald Trump's ex, Marla Maples as a flight attendant, or the late JD Walsh as a senator) the next day.

Excecutive Decision (1996)
Director: Stuart Baird
Cast: Kurt Russell, Steven Seagal, Halle Berry, John Leguizamo, Oliver Platt, Joe Morton, David Suchet, Len Cariou, B.D. Wong, Marla Maples Trump.
Running Time: 135 minutes.
Rated R for violence and language.

Although it is a formula that has been used time and time again, "Excecutive Decision" succeeds just as well, if not better, than the "hostage-takes-over-plane-so-action-hero-has-to-come-to-rescue" genre predecessors because of wonderful performances, an in-depth and enjoyable script, and top-tier direction from rookie Baird. Very simliar to 1992's "Passenger 57" staring Wesley Snipes, but with more emphasis on the supporting cast instead of one central star.

Kurt Russell stars as a United States government expert on Middle East terrorism who finds himself out of his office and on a die-or-die mission with gung ho commando Steven Seagal and Co. when an American airliner is taken hostage while in midair. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), Seagal is killed about a half an hour into the film, allowing Russell to take full command of the film. With the help from gorgeous flight attendant Halle Berry, Russell is able to learn about the situation and guide his great supporting players John Leguizamo, Oliver Platt, and Joe Morton as to how they need to approach the dangerous situation.

If there is one major drawback of the film, it is that "Executive Decision" is fairly fairfetched and predictable at the same time--the anti-terrorist crew actually gets onto the plane while it is in the air and without the terrorists knowing--come on! But despite some of its logical fallouts, it is a film that makes up for it with a superb lead role, fine performances from Platt as a brainiac and Leguizamo as a rough-and-tough go-getter, and a gut-wrenching, thrill-ride (literally) of a finale. A nice directorial debut. One of the better action films of the mid 1990's and is on par with other plane thrillers such as "Con Air".

Better Than I Expecter
While this movie seems just mediocre at the start, partially due to the hero role that Steven Seagal is put into, after the first twenty minutes it greatly improves. When the James Bond like scientist proves Seagal's character wrong we finally see that this movie has hope. Once Seagal's character falls to his death at 30,000 feet, the movie loses its stigma of just another action movie and opens a new avenue to the remaining characters. This then forces Russell's character into a lead position, allowing him to gain respect by one of the nation's top military strike teams. What really made this movie seem interesting was how it veered from the original action movie storyline, to a suspense action movie. Overall, this is a movie that I can, surprisingly, watch time and time again.

i need a lobotomy
another terrorist movie....another waste of video.
the lead terrorist played by xxx is pretty good.....but thats about it.
when the guy is in a neckbrace and trying to explain the bomb?.....is a bomb for the rest of the vid...this movie sucked and if you buy it?.....your taste in movies is rated zero stars.
burn it ... Read more

Reviews (533)

Fun and Meaningful
I'm surprised by all the negativity this movie has produced, by the "fans" and at its initial run at the box office; truth is, I love this film and I found it to be quite entertaining and downright heartfelt at times. This new installment to the Star Trek universe marks the long-awaited return of the Next Generation crew -- and during a time when we are subjected to truly the worst of the franchise ('Voyager', and somehow even worse, 'Enterprise'), it was the perfect time to hail the return of this beloved cast of characters. The writing is top-notch by John Logan (who helped pen 'Gladiator' and 'The Last Samurai'), allowing the characters to finally grow and develop after a rather poor ninth movie ('Insurrection'). While, it's not the best of the series of now ten films, it is certainly one of the top four, providing action and intrigue at every turn.

The extras on the DVD are great, providing viewers with a pretty extensive look at how the film was made and several deleted scenes -- one or two I think should have made the final cut. This DVD is a must-have for anyone who enjoys science fiction films.

Nemesis plays well on TV, despite its flaws....
Star Trek: Nemesis, the 10th (and possibly final) feature film based on Gene Roddenberry's seminal science fiction TV franchise, isn't as bad a Trek film as some would lead one to believe. Sure, it isn't as good or satisfying as Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, but then again that film had Nicholas Meyer at the helm, which gave the Original Series' cast a worthy farewell.

Noted film editor-turned-director Stuart Baird isn't Nick Meyer, who gave his two Trek chapters its clever mix of Horatio-Hornblower-in-the-stars, literary allusions (Dickens and Melville in The Wrath of Khan and Shakespeare in The Undiscovered Country) and some outsider's irreverence to counter the first, flawed Star Trek film's pondering pretentions of grandeur. But as a Trek outsider, Baird attempts to tell a dramatic tale which pits Capt. Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and the Enterprise-E crew against Shimzon (Tom Hardy), a human who has been a slave on the Romulans' sister planet Remus and has become Praetor of the Romulan Empire in a deadly coup d'etat. Cunning, ruthless and brimming with resentment, Shimzon is not only a fierce warrior and a veteran of the Dominion War, he's also Picard's clone.

For all its perceived flaws, Nemesis somehow plays better on the small screen than it does in the multiplex. It feels more natural watching this at home on a DVD player; screenwriter John Logan is an admitted Star Trek fan and blended elements from Star Trek II (which this movie's plot bears a similarity to in various respects) with an above-average Data-and-Picard episode from The Next Generation. After all, Nemesis revolves around Picard and Data (Brent Spiner, who, with Logan and producer Rick Berman, co-wrote the story); each finds a mirror image of himself -- Picard/Shimzon and Data discovers his flawed prototype B-4 -- and each is forced to deal with his "evil" twin.

At the heart of the story, Nemesis is also about family and the many transitions families go through in life. We first see the Enterprise family celebrating the long-awaited "conjugation" between Cmdr. William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) and ship's Counselor Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis), who, like children leaving home for college, are leaving the Enterprise for the USS Titan, Riker's first command. We follow the crew on this final trek across the stars, only to watch as they mourn the loss of a cherished comrade.

Star Trek: Nemesis' special effects are excellent, and Baird's experience as both an editor (Superman: The Movie) and director gives the action sequences a kinetic energy absent from the previous film, Insurrection. The score by noted composer Jerry Goldsmith is also outstanding. (Brent Spiner fans who know the actor is also a gifted singer should find his rendition of Irving Berlin's "Blue Skies" as a very enjoyable bonus.)

The Paramount Widescreen Collection DVD is above average considering it's not a 2-disc "Collector's Edition." It not only has a crisp digital transfer and clear sound, but it has audio commentary by Baird, deleted scenes and a handful of "making-of" documentaries.

Good but not great.
This final outing of the 'next generation' crew is one of the better films in the franchise but not the best.
On the plus side it offers some excellent action scenes and SFX and we finally get to see the enigmatic Remans who are being led by a clone of Picard. A lot of the story threads that have continued throughout the T.V. series and prior films are also tied up, such as Deanna and Will Riker finally marrying, Riker getting a command etc.
However, the film is not perfect. Data discovers a 'brother' on another planet but there is no indication of why/how he get there and this thread is never fully explored. Picard's clone seems obsessed with Deanna at one point...why??
This film works on a pure entertainment level but don't expect any complexity in it. It is like a marshmallow...a lot of bulk but not a lot of substance.

A Very Sad Farewell
Star Trek: TNG happens to be the best among all Star Trek Series EVER for me and growing up with this series on the sideline, it has been a part of my life. And they have come to their very last production of that series with this very sad farewell movie. I came out watching this movie with this familiar tugging in my chest, like you have when you are attending a funeral of a very close relative or friend.

This movie started with the most anticipated wedding of Riker and Troi, yes it is about time! While on their way to Troi's home planet, for the traditional naked wedding, they encounter a strange signal from an unknown source, which turns out of be a broken up android who looked like Data and it is not Data's evil brother. Trying to fix him, they continue course back to their original destination until Janeway (yes, yuck lol) contacted Picard about some political associated meeting and Picard agreed to help.

Arriving to some strange planet, Picard meet an unusual encounter with the leader, who looks exactly like him when he was way way way younger, who ironicly, is an exactly clone of Picard, and he extremely wants Picard bad. This is where the adventure really starts.

Gosh! I can't believe this is the end of TNG.

Don't listen to the critics....
This movie was released during the first Lord of the Rings maina a few years back. How did they expect to do going up against a blockbuster like that? It is a good film. It has space battles and a antagonist that would have made a good two part episode. It's all in the expectations...you are not watching the Matrix when you see a Star Trek movie. It's about a cast of characters we've been watching for seven seasons and three movies...it's not the loser that critics say it is... ... Read more

Reviews (60)

The best airborne action film since Airport
I don't watch a lot of "contemporary action" flicks, but this one is really good. To me, its scenario of a jetliner being used as a weapon of terror has an eerie prescience that lends a touch of horror and plausibility that its makers, back in 1996, probably didn't anticipate. Kurt Russell plays Dr. Donald Grant, a think-tanker who, through a series of plot twists, finds himself, along with a technical engineer (Oliver Platt) and a special-forces team (John Leguizamo, Joe Morton, B. D. Wong, Whip Hubley), secretly boarding a 747 that has been hijacked by a fanatic Islamic terrorist (David Suchet) and his band--most of whom don't have a clue about his secret agenda, a nerve-gas bomb whose presence Grant has deduced from his studies of the perp. Their mission: find and disarm the bomb and take down the terrorists before they can slaughter the entire East Coast. With the help of a stewardess (Halle Berry) and a plainclothes air marshal (Richard Riehle), they do both, only to find that the pilots have been killed and Grant, who's never flown anything bigger than a single-engine Cessna, must get the damaged liner down safely. The tension keeps ratcheting up steadily as complications are tossed into the Americans' path: the loss of their leader (Steven Seagal) and much of their equipment, an injured team member (who happens to be its bomb expert), the discovery of failsafes on the bomb and a sleeper agent aboard who can set it off manually, and a flight of combat jets prepared to shoot the plane down. Even after you've viewed it once, you'll still find yourself jamming your foot on the brake in the last few minutes as the crippled liner makes a long terrifying slide through ranks of parked small craft and into an earthen berm. A wild ride and one that any lover of nonstop action should enjoy.

A lot of fun if you don't take it too seriously
A group of fanatic middle east terrorists hijacks a US-bound airliner, holding its crew and passengers hostage and demanding the release of their leader - a fearless mastermind of terror brazenly seized by US special forces in a daylight raid. We soon learn, from a brilliant civilian analyst named Grant (Kurt Russel) that the hostage bid is actually a clever smokescreen - that the airliner is actually loaded with a highly potent nerve gas, perhaps enough to end life as we know it on America's east coast. Without any proof, the US government has the choice blasting the plane into oblivion to end a threat it could never prove, or allowing the plane to reach US airspace, where it will disperse its deadly cargo. Instead, a tricky plan is chosen - use a stealth transport with a special airlock to insert a team of special forces onto the plane, to retake it and disarm the bomb.

Up until then, "ED" is content to be a generic, enjoyable yet eventually forgettable action movie involving airplanes and "reel bad arabs" (Hey, I didn't make that up - some guy wrote a book about stereotyping arabs, and somebody else recommended that instead of this flick, as if the audience of one and the other's readership overlap that much). This flick came out in March - not quite the time when people are lining up at the box office. Though not a bad movie, it somehow manages to approach what we all love as the "so bad, we love it" category. Something funny happens midway through though - you realize that you're watching a parody (probably unintentional, but why spoil the fun?) with plenty of violence, but still one that isn't quite right enough to take seriously. Steven Seagal plays the intrepid head of the special forces, but he's dispatched early on, leaving his team to shoulder the task of ending the flying seige. You really know something's wrong when, while describing the plan, Seagal suddenly but calmly tells the military brass and the political heads involved that what he really wants is Kurt Russel's character (tuxedo and all) to come along for the trip. The script suggests he's laughing inside at Russell who'll have to face these bloodthirsty terrorists alone, but he's more likely laughing at us. The flick lards it up further in its choice of miscasting - adding BD Wong and John Leguizamo in as footsoldiers in Seagal's crack outfit. Finally, in what may be a nod to all of those "Airport" flicks of the 70's (okay, so there were only 3 of them), the flick climaxes in the single least-convincing airplane crash-landing ever depicted on the modern screen. (This is perhaps the strongest proof that the flick was intentionally parodying action movies: years earlier, a cosmetically altered 707 was used to brilliantly and chillingly simulate a crash landing 747 in "White Nights"; another 707 was dispatched in speed - certainly they could have done more than used models ala something by Sid and Marty Croft) I'm conservative, but ED hadn't had me scamper around frothing about "arab terrorists", nor did I look at this flick in a new light because of September 11. (I've seen far worse arabs in other films, while this one hints that most of the hijackers were out of the loop about the plan to dump nerva gas on the east coast.) Instead, it's a welcome diversion from more self-conciously serious action movies, even if you'll forget most of it (even Donald Trump's ex, Marla Maples as a flight attendant, or the late JD Walsh as a senator) the next day.

Excecutive Decision (1996)
Director: Stuart Baird
Cast: Kurt Russell, Steven Seagal, Halle Berry, John Leguizamo, Oliver Platt, Joe Morton, David Suchet, Len Cariou, B.D. Wong, Marla Maples Trump.
Running Time: 135 minutes.
Rated R for violence and language.

Although it is a formula that has been used time and time again, "Excecutive Decision" succeeds just as well, if not better, than the "hostage-takes-over-plane-so-action-hero-has-to-come-to-rescue" genre predecessors because of wonderful performances, an in-depth and enjoyable script, and top-tier direction from rookie Baird. Very simliar to 1992's "Passenger 57" staring Wesley Snipes, but with more emphasis on the supporting cast instead of one central star.

Kurt Russell stars as a United States government expert on Middle East terrorism who finds himself out of his office and on a die-or-die mission with gung ho commando Steven Seagal and Co. when an American airliner is taken hostage while in midair. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), Seagal is killed about a half an hour into the film, allowing Russell to take full command of the film. With the help from gorgeous flight attendant Halle Berry, Russell is able to learn about the situation and guide his great supporting players John Leguizamo, Oliver Platt, and Joe Morton as to how they need to approach the dangerous situation.

If there is one major drawback of the film, it is that "Executive Decision" is fairly fairfetched and predictable at the same time--the anti-terrorist crew actually gets onto the plane while it is in the air and without the terrorists knowing--come on! But despite some of its logical fallouts, it is a film that makes up for it with a superb lead role, fine performances from Platt as a brainiac and Leguizamo as a rough-and-tough go-getter, and a gut-wrenching, thrill-ride (literally) of a finale. A nice directorial debut. One of the better action films of the mid 1990's and is on par with other plane thrillers such as "Con Air".

Better Than I Expecter
While this movie seems just mediocre at the start, partially due to the hero role that Steven Seagal is put into, after the first twenty minutes it greatly improves. When the James Bond like scientist proves Seagal's character wrong we finally see that this movie has hope. Once Seagal's character falls to his death at 30,000 feet, the movie loses its stigma of just another action movie and opens a new avenue to the remaining characters. This then forces Russell's character into a lead position, allowing him to gain respect by one of the nation's top military strike teams. What really made this movie seem interesting was how it veered from the original action movie storyline, to a suspense action movie. Overall, this is a movie that I can, surprisingly, watch time and time again.

i need a lobotomy
another terrorist movie....another waste of video.
the lead terrorist played by xxx is pretty good.....but thats about it.
when the guy is in a neckbrace and trying to explain the bomb?.....is a bomb for the rest of the vid...this movie sucked and if you buy it?.....your taste in movies is rated zero stars.
burn it ... Read more

Reviews (7)

Much better
This is much better than the average action film. It has great acting, a complex and twisted plot, and lots of great suspense and action.Buy it.

A great action drama
Though U.S. Marshals is not as good as its predecessor, The Fugitive, it is still excellent and the plot was super.

awesome!
I actually like this one better than the original. The action and plot were great.

Great
This is a teriffic action film.I suggest you buy it.

Nothing New From The Action Front
We've seen this before, haven't we? Do we look excited, surprised, amazed?

All I've got to say is: This is a typical American action movie. And its ending (»punchline« would be too big a word) is far from unpredictable - you figure out who the bad guy is about ten minutes after he appears for the first time. Easily.

Wesley Snipes plays quite alright, as usual, while Tommy Lee Jones is mediocre. Jones always plays exactly that one and the same role anyway, is this all he can do? ... Read more

Reviews (60)

The best airborne action film since Airport
I don't watch a lot of "contemporary action" flicks, but this one is really good. To me, its scenario of a jetliner being used as a weapon of terror has an eerie prescience that lends a touch of horror and plausibility that its makers, back in 1996, probably didn't anticipate. Kurt Russell plays Dr. Donald Grant, a think-tanker who, through a series of plot twists, finds himself, along with a technical engineer (Oliver Platt) and a special-forces team (John Leguizamo, Joe Morton, B. D. Wong, Whip Hubley), secretly boarding a 747 that has been hijacked by a fanatic Islamic terrorist (David Suchet) and his band--most of whom don't have a clue about his secret agenda, a nerve-gas bomb whose presence Grant has deduced from his studies of the perp. Their mission: find and disarm the bomb and take down the terrorists before they can slaughter the entire East Coast. With the help of a stewardess (Halle Berry) and a plainclothes air marshal (Richard Riehle), they do both, only to find that the pilots have been killed and Grant, who's never flown anything bigger than a single-engine Cessna, must get the damaged liner down safely. The tension keeps ratcheting up steadily as complications are tossed into the Americans' path: the loss of their leader (Steven Seagal) and much of their equipment, an injured team member (who happens to be its bomb expert), the discovery of failsafes on the bomb and a sleeper agent aboard who can set it off manually, and a flight of combat jets prepared to shoot the plane down. Even after you've viewed it once, you'll still find yourself jamming your foot on the brake in the last few minutes as the crippled liner makes a long terrifying slide through ranks of parked small craft and into an earthen berm. A wild ride and one that any lover of nonstop action should enjoy.

A lot of fun if you don't take it too seriously
A group of fanatic middle east terrorists hijacks a US-bound airliner, holding its crew and passengers hostage and demanding the release of their leader - a fearless mastermind of terror brazenly seized by US special forces in a daylight raid. We soon learn, from a brilliant civilian analyst named Grant (Kurt Russel) that the hostage bid is actually a clever smokescreen - that the airliner is actually loaded with a highly potent nerve gas, perhaps enough to end life as we know it on America's east coast. Without any proof, the US government has the choice blasting the plane into oblivion to end a threat it could never prove, or allowing the plane to reach US airspace, where it will disperse its deadly cargo. Instead, a tricky plan is chosen - use a stealth transport with a special airlock to insert a team of special forces onto the plane, to retake it and disarm the bomb.

Up until then, "ED" is content to be a generic, enjoyable yet eventually forgettable action movie involving airplanes and "reel bad arabs" (Hey, I didn't make that up - some guy wrote a book about stereotyping arabs, and somebody else recommended that instead of this flick, as if the audience of one and the other's readership overlap that much). This flick came out in March - not quite the time when people are lining up at the box office. Though not a bad movie, it somehow manages to approach what we all love as the "so bad, we love it" category. Something funny happens midway through though - you realize that you're watching a parody (probably unintentional, but why spoil the fun?) with plenty of violence, but still one that isn't quite right enough to take seriously. Steven Seagal plays the intrepid head of the special forces, but he's dispatched early on, leaving his team to shoulder the task of ending the flying seige. You really know something's wrong when, while describing the plan, Seagal suddenly but calmly tells the military brass and the political heads involved that what he really wants is Kurt Russel's character (tuxedo and all) to come along for the trip. The script suggests he's laughing inside at Russell who'll have to face these bloodthirsty terrorists alone, but he's more likely laughing at us. The flick lards it up further in its choice of miscasting - adding BD Wong and John Leguizamo in as footsoldiers in Seagal's crack outfit. Finally, in what may be a nod to all of those "Airport" flicks of the 70's (okay, so there were only 3 of them), the flick climaxes in the single least-convincing airplane crash-landing ever depicted on the modern screen. (This is perhaps the strongest proof that the flick was intentionally parodying action movies: years earlier, a cosmetically altered 707 was used to brilliantly and chillingly simulate a crash landing 747 in "White Nights"; another 707 was dispatched in speed - certainly they could have done more than used models ala something by Sid and Marty Croft) I'm conservative, but ED hadn't had me scamper around frothing about "arab terrorists", nor did I look at this flick in a new light because of September 11. (I've seen far worse arabs in other films, while this one hints that most of the hijackers were out of the loop about the plan to dump nerva gas on the east coast.) Instead, it's a welcome diversion from more self-conciously serious action movies, even if you'll forget most of it (even Donald Trump's ex, Marla Maples as a flight attendant, or the late JD Walsh as a senator) the next day.

Excecutive Decision (1996)
Director: Stuart Baird
Cast: Kurt Russell, Steven Seagal, Halle Berry, John Leguizamo, Oliver Platt, Joe Morton, David Suchet, Len Cariou, B.D. Wong, Marla Maples Trump.
Running Time: 135 minutes.
Rated R for violence and language.

Although it is a formula that has been used time and time again, "Excecutive Decision" succeeds just as well, if not better, than the "hostage-takes-over-plane-so-action-hero-has-to-come-to-rescue" genre predecessors because of wonderful performances, an in-depth and enjoyable script, and top-tier direction from rookie Baird. Very simliar to 1992's "Passenger 57" staring Wesley Snipes, but with more emphasis on the supporting cast instead of one central star.

Kurt Russell stars as a United States government expert on Middle East terrorism who finds himself out of his office and on a die-or-die mission with gung ho commando Steven Seagal and Co. when an American airliner is taken hostage while in midair. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), Seagal is killed about a half an hour into the film, allowing Russell to take full command of the film. With the help from gorgeous flight attendant Halle Berry, Russell is able to learn about the situation and guide his great supporting players John Leguizamo, Oliver Platt, and Joe Morton as to how they need to approach the dangerous situation.

If there is one major drawback of the film, it is that "Executive Decision" is fairly fairfetched and predictable at the same time--the anti-terrorist crew actually gets onto the plane while it is in the air and without the terrorists knowing--come on! But despite some of its logical fallouts, it is a film that makes up for it with a superb lead role, fine performances from Platt as a brainiac and Leguizamo as a rough-and-tough go-getter, and a gut-wrenching, thrill-ride (literally) of a finale. A nice directorial debut. One of the better action films of the mid 1990's and is on par with other plane thrillers such as "Con Air".

Better Than I Expecter
While this movie seems just mediocre at the start, partially due to the hero role that Steven Seagal is put into, after the first twenty minutes it greatly improves. When the James Bond like scientist proves Seagal's character wrong we finally see that this movie has hope. Once Seagal's character falls to his death at 30,000 feet, the movie loses its stigma of just another action movie and opens a new avenue to the remaining characters. This then forces Russell's character into a lead position, allowing him to gain respect by one of the nation's top military strike teams. What really made this movie seem interesting was how it veered from the original action movie storyline, to a suspense action movie. Overall, this is a movie that I can, surprisingly, watch time and time again.

i need a lobotomy
another terrorist movie....another waste of video.
the lead terrorist played by xxx is pretty good.....but thats about it.
when the guy is in a neckbrace and trying to explain the bomb?.....is a bomb for the rest of the vid...this movie sucked and if you buy it?.....your taste in movies is rated zero stars.
burn it ... Read more

Reviews (60)

The best airborne action film since Airport
I don't watch a lot of "contemporary action" flicks, but this one is really good. To me, its scenario of a jetliner being used as a weapon of terror has an eerie prescience that lends a touch of horror and plausibility that its makers, back in 1996, probably didn't anticipate. Kurt Russell plays Dr. Donald Grant, a think-tanker who, through a series of plot twists, finds himself, along with a technical engineer (Oliver Platt) and a special-forces team (John Leguizamo, Joe Morton, B. D. Wong, Whip Hubley), secretly boarding a 747 that has been hijacked by a fanatic Islamic terrorist (David Suchet) and his band--most of whom don't have a clue about his secret agenda, a nerve-gas bomb whose presence Grant has deduced from his studies of the perp. Their mission: find and disarm the bomb and take down the terrorists before they can slaughter the entire East Coast. With the help of a stewardess (Halle Berry) and a plainclothes air marshal (Richard Riehle), they do both, only to find that the pilots have been killed and Grant, who's never flown anything bigger than a single-engine Cessna, must get the damaged liner down safely. The tension keeps ratcheting up steadily as complications are tossed into the Americans' path: the loss of their leader (Steven Seagal) and much of their equipment, an injured team member (who happens to be its bomb expert), the discovery of failsafes on the bomb and a sleeper agent aboard who can set it off manually, and a flight of combat jets prepared to shoot the plane down. Even after you've viewed it once, you'll still find yourself jamming your foot on the brake in the last few minutes as the crippled liner makes a long terrifying slide through ranks of parked small craft and into an earthen berm. A wild ride and one that any lover of nonstop action should enjoy.

A lot of fun if you don't take it too seriously
A group of fanatic middle east terrorists hijacks a US-bound airliner, holding its crew and passengers hostage and demanding the release of their leader - a fearless mastermind of terror brazenly seized by US special forces in a daylight raid. We soon learn, from a brilliant civilian analyst named Grant (Kurt Russel) that the hostage bid is actually a clever smokescreen - that the airliner is actually loaded with a highly potent nerve gas, perhaps enough to end life as we know it on America's east coast. Without any proof, the US government has the choice blasting the plane into oblivion to end a threat it could never prove, or allowing the plane to reach US airspace, where it will disperse its deadly cargo. Instead, a tricky plan is chosen - use a stealth transport with a special airlock to insert a team of special forces onto the plane, to retake it and disarm the bomb.

Up until then, "ED" is content to be a generic, enjoyable yet eventually forgettable action movie involving airplanes and "reel bad arabs" (Hey, I didn't make that up - some guy wrote a book about stereotyping arabs, and somebody else recommended that instead of this flick, as if the audience of one and the other's readership overlap that much). This flick came out in March - not quite the time when people are lining up at the box office. Though not a bad movie, it somehow manages to approach what we all love as the "so bad, we love it" category. Something funny happens midway through though - you realize that you're watching a parody (probably unintentional, but why spoil the fun?) with plenty of violence, but still one that isn't quite right enough to take seriously. Steven Seagal plays the intrepid head of the special forces, but he's dispatched early on, leaving his team to shoulder the task of ending the flying seige. You really know something's wrong when, while describing the plan, Seagal suddenly but calmly tells the military brass and the political heads involved that what he really wants is Kurt Russel's character (tuxedo and all) to come along for the trip. The script suggests he's laughing inside at Russell who'll have to face these bloodthirsty terrorists alone, but he's more likely laughing at us. The flick lards it up further in its choice of miscasting - adding BD Wong and John Leguizamo in as footsoldiers in Seagal's crack outfit. Finally, in what may be a nod to all of those "Airport" flicks of the 70's (okay, so there were only 3 of them), the flick climaxes in the single least-convincing airplane crash-landing ever depicted on the modern screen. (This is perhaps the strongest proof that the flick was intentionally parodying action movies: years earlier, a cosmetically altered 707 was used to brilliantly and chillingly simulate a crash landing 747 in "White Nights"; another 707 was dispatched in speed - certainly they could have done more than used models ala something by Sid and Marty Croft) I'm conservative, but ED hadn't had me scamper around frothing about "arab terrorists", nor did I look at this flick in a new light because of September 11. (I've seen far worse arabs in other films, while this one hints that most of the hijackers were out of the loop about the plan to dump nerva gas on the east coast.) Instead, it's a welcome diversion from more self-conciously serious action movies, even if you'll forget most of it (even Donald Trump's ex, Marla Maples as a flight attendant, or the late JD Walsh as a senator) the next day.

Excecutive Decision (1996)
Director: Stuart Baird
Cast: Kurt Russell, Steven Seagal, Halle Berry, John Leguizamo, Oliver Platt, Joe Morton, David Suchet, Len Cariou, B.D. Wong, Marla Maples Trump.
Running Time: 135 minutes.
Rated R for violence and language.

Although it is a formula that has been used time and time again, "Excecutive Decision" succeeds just as well, if not better, than the "hostage-takes-over-plane-so-action-hero-has-to-come-to-rescue" genre predecessors because of wonderful performances, an in-depth and enjoyable script, and top-tier direction from rookie Baird. Very simliar to 1992's "Passenger 57" staring Wesley Snipes, but with more emphasis on the supporting cast instead of one central star.

Kurt Russell stars as a United States government expert on Middle East terrorism who finds himself out of his office and on a die-or-die mission with gung ho commando Steven Seagal and Co. when an American airliner is taken hostage while in midair. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), Seagal is killed about a half an hour into the film, allowing Russell to take full command of the film. With the help from gorgeous flight attendant Halle Berry, Russell is able to learn about the situation and guide his great supporting players John Leguizamo, Oliver Platt, and Joe Morton as to how they need to approach the dangerous situation.

If there is one major drawback of the film, it is that "Executive Decision" is fairly fairfetched and predictable at the same time--the anti-terrorist crew actually gets onto the plane while it is in the air and without the terrorists knowing--come on! But despite some of its logical fallouts, it is a film that makes up for it with a superb lead role, fine performances from Platt as a brainiac and Leguizamo as a rough-and-tough go-getter, and a gut-wrenching, thrill-ride (literally) of a finale. A nice directorial debut. One of the better action films of the mid 1990's and is on par with other plane thrillers such as "Con Air".

Better Than I Expecter
While this movie seems just mediocre at the start, partially due to the hero role that Steven Seagal is put into, after the first twenty minutes it greatly improves. When the James Bond like scientist proves Seagal's character wrong we finally see that this movie has hope. Once Seagal's character falls to his death at 30,000 feet, the movie loses its stigma of just another action movie and opens a new avenue to the remaining characters. This then forces Russell's character into a lead position, allowing him to gain respect by one of the nation's top military strike teams. What really made this movie seem interesting was how it veered from the original action movie storyline, to a suspense action movie. Overall, this is a movie that I can, surprisingly, watch time and time again.

i need a lobotomy
another terrorist movie....another waste of video.
the lead terrorist played by xxx is pretty good.....but thats about it.
when the guy is in a neckbrace and trying to explain the bomb?.....is a bomb for the rest of the vid...this movie sucked and if you buy it?.....your taste in movies is rated zero stars.
burn it ... Read more

Reviews (533)

Fun and Meaningful
I'm surprised by all the negativity this movie has produced, by the "fans" and at its initial run at the box office; truth is, I love this film and I found it to be quite entertaining and downright heartfelt at times. This new installment to the Star Trek universe marks the long-awaited return of the Next Generation crew -- and during a time when we are subjected to truly the worst of the franchise ('Voyager', and somehow even worse, 'Enterprise'), it was the perfect time to hail the return of this beloved cast of characters. The writing is top-notch by John Logan (who helped pen 'Gladiator' and 'The Last Samurai'), allowing the characters to finally grow and develop after a rather poor ninth movie ('Insurrection'). While, it's not the best of the series of now ten films, it is certainly one of the top four, providing action and intrigue at every turn.

The extras on the DVD are great, providing viewers with a pretty extensive look at how the film was made and several deleted scenes -- one or two I think should have made the final cut. This DVD is a must-have for anyone who enjoys science fiction films.

Nemesis plays well on TV, despite its flaws....
Star Trek: Nemesis, the 10th (and possibly final) feature film based on Gene Roddenberry's seminal science fiction TV franchise, isn't as bad a Trek film as some would lead one to believe. Sure, it isn't as good or satisfying as Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, but then again that film had Nicholas Meyer at the helm, which gave the Original Series' cast a worthy farewell.

Noted film editor-turned-director Stuart Baird isn't Nick Meyer, who gave his two Trek chapters its clever mix of Horatio-Hornblower-in-the-stars, literary allusions (Dickens and Melville in The Wrath of Khan and Shakespeare in The Undiscovered Country) and some outsider's irreverence to counter the first, flawed Star Trek film's pondering pretentions of grandeur. But as a Trek outsider, Baird attempts to tell a dramatic tale which pits Capt. Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and the Enterprise-E crew against Shimzon (Tom Hardy), a human who has been a slave on the Romulans' sister planet Remus and has become Praetor of the Romulan Empire in a deadly coup d'etat. Cunning, ruthless and brimming with resentment, Shimzon is not only a fierce warrior and a veteran of the Dominion War, he's also Picard's clone.

For all its perceived flaws, Nemesis somehow plays better on the small screen than it does in the multiplex. It feels more natural watching this at home on a DVD player; screenwriter John Logan is an admitted Star Trek fan and blended elements from Star Trek II (which this movie's plot bears a similarity to in various respects) with an above-average Data-and-Picard episode from The Next Generation. After all, Nemesis revolves around Picard and Data (Brent Spiner, who, with Logan and producer Rick Berman, co-wrote the story); each finds a mirror image of himself -- Picard/Shimzon and Data discovers his flawed prototype B-4 -- and each is forced to deal with his "evil" twin.

At the heart of the story, Nemesis is also about family and the many transitions families go through in life. We first see the Enterprise family celebrating the long-awaited "conjugation" between Cmdr. William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) and ship's Counselor Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis), who, like children leaving home for college, are leaving the Enterprise for the USS Titan, Riker's first command. We follow the crew on this final trek across the stars, only to watch as they mourn the loss of a cherished comrade.

Star Trek: Nemesis' special effects are excellent, and Baird's experience as both an editor (Superman: The Movie) and director gives the action sequences a kinetic energy absent from the previous film, Insurrection. The score by noted composer Jerry Goldsmith is also outstanding. (Brent Spiner fans who know the actor is also a gifted singer should find his rendition of Irving Berlin's "Blue Skies" as a very enjoyable bonus.)

The Paramount Widescreen Collection DVD is above average considering it's not a 2-disc "Collector's Edition." It not only has a crisp digital transfer and clear sound, but it has audio commentary by Baird, deleted scenes and a handful of "making-of" documentaries.

Good but not great.
This final outing of the 'next generation' crew is one of the better films in the franchise but not the best.
On the plus side it offers some excellent action scenes and SFX and we finally get to see the enigmatic Remans who are being led by a clone of Picard. A lot of the story threads that have continued throughout the T.V. series and prior films are also tied up, such as Deanna and Will Riker finally marrying, Riker getting a command etc.
However, the film is not perfect. Data discovers a 'brother' on another planet but there is no indication of why/how he get there and this thread is never fully explored. Picard's clone seems obsessed with Deanna at one point...why??
This film works on a pure entertainment level but don't expect any complexity in it. It is like a marshmallow...a lot of bulk but not a lot of substance.

A Very Sad Farewell
Star Trek: TNG happens to be the best among all Star Trek Series EVER for me and growing up with this series on the sideline, it has been a part of my life. And they have come to their very last production of that series with this very sad farewell movie. I came out watching this movie with this familiar tugging in my chest, like you have when you are attending a funeral of a very close relative or friend.

This movie started with the most anticipated wedding of Riker and Troi, yes it is about time! While on their way to Troi's home planet, for the traditional naked wedding, they encounter a strange signal from an unknown source, which turns out of be a broken up android who looked like Data and it is not Data's evil brother. Trying to fix him, they continue course back to their original destination until Janeway (yes, yuck lol) contacted Picard about some political associated meeting and Picard agreed to help.

Arriving to some strange planet, Picard meet an unusual encounter with the leader, who looks exactly like him when he was way way way younger, who ironicly, is an exactly clone of Picard, and he extremely wants Picard bad. This is where the adventure really starts.

Gosh! I can't believe this is the end of TNG.

Don't listen to the critics....
This movie was released during the first Lord of the Rings maina a few years back. How did they expect to do going up against a blockbuster like that? It is a good film. It has space battles and a antagonist that would have made a good two part episode. It's all in the expectations...you are not watching the Matrix when you see a Star Trek movie. It's about a cast of characters we've been watching for seven seasons and three movies...it's not the loser that critics say it is... ... Read more

Reviews (60)

The best airborne action film since Airport
I don't watch a lot of "contemporary action" flicks, but this one is really good. To me, its scenario of a jetliner being used as a weapon of terror has an eerie prescience that lends a touch of horror and plausibility that its makers, back in 1996, probably didn't anticipate. Kurt Russell plays Dr. Donald Grant, a think-tanker who, through a series of plot twists, finds himself, along with a technical engineer (Oliver Platt) and a special-forces team (John Leguizamo, Joe Morton, B. D. Wong, Whip Hubley), secretly boarding a 747 that has been hijacked by a fanatic Islamic terrorist (David Suchet) and his band--most of whom don't have a clue about his secret agenda, a nerve-gas bomb whose presence Grant has deduced from his studies of the perp. Their mission: find and disarm the bomb and take down the terrorists before they can slaughter the entire East Coast. With the help of a stewardess (Halle Berry) and a plainclothes air marshal (Richard Riehle), they do both, only to find that the pilots have been killed and Grant, who's never flown anything bigger than a single-engine Cessna, must get the damaged liner down safely. The tension keeps ratcheting up steadily as complications are tossed into the Americans' path: the loss of their leader (Steven Seagal) and much of their equipment, an injured team member (who happens to be its bomb expert), the discovery of failsafes on the bomb and a sleeper agent aboard who can set it off manually, and a flight of combat jets prepared to shoot the plane down. Even after you've viewed it once, you'll still find yourself jamming your foot on the brake in the last few minutes as the crippled liner makes a long terrifying slide through ranks of parked small craft and into an earthen berm. A wild ride and one that any lover of nonstop action should enjoy.

A lot of fun if you don't take it too seriously
A group of fanatic middle east terrorists hijacks a US-bound airliner, holding its crew and passengers hostage and demanding the release of their leader - a fearless mastermind of terror brazenly seized by US special forces in a daylight raid. We soon learn, from a brilliant civilian analyst named Grant (Kurt Russel) that the hostage bid is actually a clever smokescreen - that the airliner is actually loaded with a highly potent nerve gas, perhaps enough to end life as we know it on America's east coast. Without any proof, the US government has the choice blasting the plane into oblivion to end a threat it could never prove, or allowing the plane to reach US airspace, where it will disperse its deadly cargo. Instead, a tricky plan is chosen - use a stealth transport with a special airlock to insert a team of special forces onto the plane, to retake it and disarm the bomb.

Up until then, "ED" is content to be a generic, enjoyable yet eventually forgettable action movie involving airplanes and "reel bad arabs" (Hey, I didn't make that up - some guy wrote a book about stereotyping arabs, and somebody else recommended that instead of this flick, as if the audience of one and the other's readership overlap that much). This flick came out in March - not quite the time when people are lining up at the box office. Though not a bad movie, it somehow manages to approach what we all love as the "so bad, we love it" category. Something funny happens midway through though - you realize that you're watching a parody (probably unintentional, but why spoil the fun?) with plenty of violence, but still one that isn't quite right enough to take seriously. Steven Seagal plays the intrepid head of the special forces, but he's dispatched early on, leaving his team to shoulder the task of ending the flying seige. You really know something's wrong when, while describing the plan, Seagal suddenly but calmly tells the military brass and the political heads involved that what he really wants is Kurt Russel's character (tuxedo and all) to come along for the trip. The script suggests he's laughing inside at Russell who'll have to face these bloodthirsty terrorists alone, but he's more likely laughing at us. The flick lards it up further in its choice of miscasting - adding BD Wong and John Leguizamo in as footsoldiers in Seagal's crack outfit. Finally, in what may be a nod to all of those "Airport" flicks of the 70's (okay, so there were only 3 of them), the flick climaxes in the single least-convincing airplane crash-landing ever depicted on the modern screen. (This is perhaps the strongest proof that the flick was intentionally parodying action movies: years earlier, a cosmetically altered 707 was used to brilliantly and chillingly simulate a crash landing 747 in "White Nights"; another 707 was dispatched in speed - certainly they could have done more than used models ala something by Sid and Marty Croft) I'm conservative, but ED hadn't had me scamper around frothing about "arab terrorists", nor did I look at this flick in a new light because of September 11. (I've seen far worse arabs in other films, while this one hints that most of the hijackers were out of the loop about the plan to dump nerva gas on the east coast.) Instead, it's a welcome diversion from more self-conciously serious action movies, even if you'll forget most of it (even Donald Trump's ex, Marla Maples as a flight attendant, or the late JD Walsh as a senator) the next day.

Excecutive Decision (1996)
Director: Stuart Baird
Cast: Kurt Russell, Steven Seagal, Halle Berry, John Leguizamo, Oliver Platt, Joe Morton, David Suchet, Len Cariou, B.D. Wong, Marla Maples Trump.
Running Time: 135 minutes.
Rated R for violence and language.

Although it is a formula that has been used time and time again, "Excecutive Decision" succeeds just as well, if not better, than the "hostage-takes-over-plane-so-action-hero-has-to-come-to-rescue" genre predecessors because of wonderful performances, an in-depth and enjoyable script, and top-tier direction from rookie Baird. Very simliar to 1992's "Passenger 57" staring Wesley Snipes, but with more emphasis on the supporting cast instead of one central star.

Kurt Russell stars as a United States government expert on Middle East terrorism who finds himself out of his office and on a die-or-die mission with gung ho commando Steven Seagal and Co. when an American airliner is taken hostage while in midair. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), Seagal is killed about a half an hour into the film, allowing Russell to take full command of the film. With the help from gorgeous flight attendant Halle Berry, Russell is able to learn about the situation and guide his great supporting players John Leguizamo, Oliver Platt, and Joe Morton as to how they need to approach the dangerous situation.

If there is one major drawback of the film, it is that "Executive Decision" is fairly fairfetched and predictable at the same time--the anti-terrorist crew actually gets onto the plane while it is in the air and without the terrorists knowing--come on! But despite some of its logical fallouts, it is a film that makes up for it with a superb lead role, fine performances from Platt as a brainiac and Leguizamo as a rough-and-tough go-getter, and a gut-wrenching, thrill-ride (literally) of a finale. A nice directorial debut. One of the better action films of the mid 1990's and is on par with other plane thrillers such as "Con Air".

Better Than I Expecter
While this movie seems just mediocre at the start, partially due to the hero role that Steven Seagal is put into, after the first twenty minutes it greatly improves. When the James Bond like scientist proves Seagal's character wrong we finally see that this movie has hope. Once Seagal's character falls to his death at 30,000 feet, the movie loses its stigma of just another action movie and opens a new avenue to the remaining characters. This then forces Russell's character into a lead position, allowing him to gain respect by one of the nation's top military strike teams. What really made this movie seem interesting was how it veered from the original action movie storyline, to a suspense action movie. Overall, this is a movie that I can, surprisingly, watch time and time again.

i need a lobotomy
another terrorist movie....another waste of video.
the lead terrorist played by xxx is pretty good.....but thats about it.
when the guy is in a neckbrace and trying to explain the bomb?.....is a bomb for the rest of the vid...this movie sucked and if you buy it?.....your taste in movies is rated zero stars.
burn it ... Read more

Reviews (56)

"U.S. Marshals" has its moments but ultimately unsatisfying
The idea of making "U.S. Marshals" was not a bad idea. After all, Tommy Lee Jones had won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as Chief Deputy Marshal Samuel Gerard in "The Fugitive," basically because he stole every scene he was in, whether it was with Harrison Ford or somebody else. Not only was this was one of those "roles of a lifetime" for Jones, there was also the fascinating dynamic between Gerard and his eccentric cadre of assistants. So putting together a sort of "sequel" around these characters made sense, as well as giving the film its title. The only question them would be coming up with a script.

The screenplay by first time screenwriter John Pogue follows the lead of "The Fugitive" by having Gerard suddenly find himself in the pursuit again of an innocent man (not that this becomes clear to Gerard until late in the film). The key differences from the first film is that the character being pursued, played by Wesley Snipes, is some sort of government super spy instead of a naive doctor, and Gerard is saddled with a government special agent, played by Robert Downey, Jr. The story line has to do with an international intrigue where not only Gerard does not know what is going on, but the audience is left in the dark as well. Then, to add insult to injury, this time it is Snipes that is doing the scene stealing.

Ultimately, I think it is the convoluted plot that gets in the way of this film working as well as "The Fugitive." This is a film that should be about the characters, especially the rest of Gerard's groups, but instead you keep trying to figure out what is really going on. In fact, this time around that question ends up overwhelming Gerard's attempts to track down people. Besides, "U.S. Marshals" is one of those films where the big surprise twist does not surprise anybody. This is why the film ends up being so unsatisfying, which is unfortunate because if this film had clicked it could have been a decent little franchise. But instead of focusing on the characters there was a concerted effort to try and top "The Fugitive" which only ends up making it something of a mess, which is why this movie ends up being so unsatisfying, Besides, we had such high expectations for these characters and cast.

...Ive Never Seen the Fugitive...
After I saw "The Client" w/Tommy Lee Jones in 1994, U.S. Marshals appealed to me as it did to probably anyone else watching it...Tommy Lee Jones WAS the star. The good thing about this sequal is that it takes off from it's own feet, without relying on events that took place during the first movie. Jones and his all-star team are out to get a Federal fugitive (Wesley Snipes) who is accused of killing two agents in cold blood. Snipes, proclaiming his innocents, runs from the Marshals while chasing yet another focus of the manhunt to clear his name. Ironically, the one man responsible for this whole scenerio is harbored unknowingly under the wing of the law. The plot is easy to follow, unlike puzzle movies like "The Saint" (which a friend made me suffer through years ago), which was so overdone in this 'spy' kinda thing that you couldn't even follow the plot line at all. Robert Downey Jr. makes a guest appearance on the Marshals squad, the star-packed cast is like an insurance policy for the movie which relys on the award-winning talents of the actors if the plot fails with some people. Up-to-date and smart 'cowboys and Indians' flick, plenty of great acting and one hell of a cast.

Falls a bit short...
Supposed to be a sequal to the amazing movie 'The Fugitive'...it falls a bit short in comparison.
Tommy Lee Jones is still as sassy as ever in U.S. Marshals - but it's a bit too predicable.
Still has some good sus