Matrixston Wow! Such a good movie.

Softwing Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

Phonearl Good start, but then it gets ruined

Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Unathanthium Z Violence solves everything in this ham-fisted film. A bunch of left wing lunatics plan to end all war by potentially killing loads of Scots. In a nod to fairness they give the inhabitants of the Scottish town some 18 hours or so to evacuate before they demand the government drop a nuclear bomb on the area. Being left-leaning myself I couldn't countenance such an action without informing the RSPCA as well to ensure that no animals are hurt in this absurd attempt to force world peace on us all.Our rabid right wing government, that Thatcher one remember, is in this situation because these lefties have a bunch of old men and their over-powdered wives at their mercy in the American Embassy. These lefty terrorists aren't real lefties because they shoot up CND signs at target practice so even those with a penchant for peace can take succour in the knowledge that these terrorists aren't really representative of the CND brigade.Inevitably the SAS, the hard men of choice after their riotous escapade in the Iranian Embassy a few years before, are called in. Lewis Collins, auditioning for a role at Madame Tussauds, infiltrates the gang by seducing the main female terrorist played by frizzy haired Judy Davis. This is done so easily you marvel at the lack of ineptitude when it comes to actually plotting the taking of the Embassy. Even though Collins is discovered to be untrustworthy by the group they still take him along, in reality they'd have executed him. Their securing of the Embassy is neatly done but they have no idea how to hold the place successfully. Why didn't they bring gas masks, tear gas was hardly a new invention, did none of them foresee it being used? Again their inefficiency when the SAS break in is startling. There seems to be no plan for such an event. It then becomes a turkey shoot. Not one SAS man is shot so that the action lacks any tension as terrorists are blown away in seconds.There's no emotional depth to the film. Collins never once flinches as he dispatches his former comrades. Did he develop no emotional attachment to any of the terrorists besides Davis? We know he has emotions because at the end he fails to blast Davis to hell, his commanding officer does it for him, rebuking him for his lax response in the face of death.There's some comedy, albeit not scheduled I imagine. The hilarious exchange between Widmark and Davis is as profound as the film dares to get. It's the usual argument between the left and right over nukes. Simplistic it is but then if you listen to politicians you realise that you can't really expect debates so deep they'd leave Noam Chomsky dizzy. Sadly that sort of exchange is what you'd get if you left Jeremy Corbyn and Theresa May locked in a room for three hours with the sole topic of Trident to argue over. More light relief is applied when there is a meeting at a hall attended by a thousand or so pacifists. It descends into a riot, strangely not caused by the anachronistic band who sound like a turgid offshoot of Thin Lizzy. Obviously the Redskins weren't available. It's like 2- Tone or punk never happened.This film makes more missteps than a three-legged elephant in a dance hall.

Tweekums This film may open with a CND peace march but things don't stay peaceful for long; one of the marchers is shot through the mouth by a sniper using a crossbow! It appears he may have been undercover as the security services clearly believe that a terrorist organisation is using a peace organisation called The People's Lobby as a front. In order to infiltrate the group it is arranged for SAS Captain Peter Skellen to be thrown out of the regiment so he can pretend to be sympathetic with the groups' cause. His approach is as subtle as a brick; he goes to an event put on by the lobby, walks up to its leader; Frankie Leith and proceeds to seduce her! He tells her that he is ex-SAS and she thinks he could be of use to them despite the objections of other members. By the time it comes for them to strike she is less sure but as the group has taken his wife and baby daughter hostage she is she he will do as he is told.Their immediate target is the house of the US Ambassador; he his hosting a dinner attended by the British Foreign Secretary, the US Secretary of State and the general in charge of Strategic Air Command... Frankie believes that with these hostages the authorities will have no choice but to give in to their demands. She informs the authorities that if the hostages are to survive a nuclear missile must be fired at the submarine base at Holy Loch... as the Secretary of State points out she is clearly insane. With such a crazy demand it is only a matter of time before the building is stormed by the SAS.This isn't a great film but it is a lot of fun; early action nicely introduces the key characters and grabs the viewers attention but after that is slows down somewhat until the terrorists get round to seizing the Ambassador's house. Things then get tense until it is time for the raid and that is the sequence that really makes the film worth watching. SAS Troopers abseil down from their Scout helicopters and land on the roof; these troops then lower themselves to the balcony before entering through the windows; meanwhile two more troops crash trough the windows and shoot terrorists while dangling beneath a helicopter! This action may have been a little exaggerated but anybody who has seen the news footage of the SAS raid on the Iranian Embassy will find it easy to believe. Lewis Collins was just right in the role of Skellen and Judy Davis was great as Frankie. The films main weakness was clearly the terrorists' demand; nobody would seriously believe they could force anybody to fire a nuclear missile and these characters all seem to think the plan will work... not one suggests it might not work! Still there is enough action to forgive this fault.

Gregster-5 It was 1982; Britain had Thatcher, America had Reagan. The Falkland war had just past and there was a strong vein of nationalism within the UK. With that backdrop, we have "Who Dares, Wins" (AKA Final Option). It's too easy to dismiss this movie as a piece of right wing propaganda, but I think that's too simplistic. It was a film scripted in Los Angeles with the usual oversimplification that only the British film industry could carry off, and so was somewhat detached from UK reality, with cardboard cutout terrorists and macho army guys. Lewis Colins, a then well-known UK actor from the TV series the professionals, which had ended production by that time, was cast as the hero. He's more than up to the task, but what a waste of other cast members (Judy Davis, Widmark, etc.).A contemporary TimeOut review described it as "something to offend everyone" - that sums it up.

Thorsten-Krings This is actually a pretty bad film. The ideology is not as perverse as in those films Collins made later. However, my main misgivings about the film are that it is implausible and quite frankly boring for a long time. The whole concept of an ex-SAS man joining terrorists for no particular reason isn't very convincing and you can't help wondering why a group of highly organized terrorists (who later become pretty clueless) fall for it. The film starts with a pretty powerful scene but then meanders for quite a long time building up towards the great finale. Overall, I think Who dares wins could have been an interesting 45 minutes episode of The Professionals but the story doesn't carry a feature film. Although reasonably successful at the time this film initiated the demise of Collins' career who in the eighties mainly made cheap and dubious soldier-of-fortune or army films. Pity, because he actually is quite a versatile actor but at the end of the day Martin Shaw chose his roles more carefully and has a career that's still successful.