Juggernaut (1974)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Thanks for the memories!

One of the worst movies I've ever seen

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Richard Harris gives a super performance, especially since there's no particular 'kiss-n-chase' factor to this film; Harris does it all in close-up and medium shots, and he's simply excellent the whole time.Goofy elements include a bomber's implausible dexterity to somehow smuggle 5(!) 50-gallon oil drums aboard a cruise-liner, all with an intricately manufactured explosive device contained inside... a wee bit hard to believe. And, of course, there's just no way in hell the vacationing buffoons on board the vessel can be taken off the ship without their being fed to the sharks. Omar Sharif is fine as a rather nervous sea captain, and playing the part of his mistress, Shirley Knight is absolutely ravishing, but have you seen her lately? She's a big fat pig (Here she comes now! Quick! Hide the cookies!).Very good film, good suspense, but several digressively flat periods intermittently slow things down to a guppy's pace. Still, highly recommended.

For the most part, the bomb disposal and the attempt to discover the bomber was moderately interesting, if a bit disjointed. Richard Harris performed adequately, but, of course, he was playing himself. Omar Sharif was wasted as the captain, most of the other adults had no reason for being there, and there were the two requisite "adorable" children thrown in for God knows what. The children's mother never knew or cared where her darlings were; I can only assume that they were the children of the producer, thrown into the picture as an act of good will. The entire film dragged for the middle hour, trying to establish some chemistry between the players and failing utterly, before finally producing one short burst of excitement, then petering out entirely.If you like Richard Harris, then, by all means, watch this. If not, don't waste your time.

Richard Lester directed this mad-bomber saga with such a cold, jaded eye, one might assume his approach totally unsympathetic or indifferent. Instead of being heartless, Lester is actually straightforward and compact, and the film is very involving. A transatlantic ocean-liner with 1200 people aboard no sooner leaves England's port then a genius-psychotic alerts the ship's representative that 7 booby-trapped bombs are set to go off in a matter of hours if he's not paid a fortune in ransom. Getting the bomb-experts aboard the ship via parachutes was a great touch--though once they're all in place, the movie has to bide a lot of time until the inevitable wire-cutting gets under way. Still, this is an exciting journey, filmed in bleak, damp colors, and Lester has done a terrific job at scaling down his actors. Omar Sharif (looking sensational in his Captain's uniform) had not been this real and human in years; Richard Harris, though he does his usual drinking and spouting off, successfully portrays the chief bomb-detonator as a swaggering man awash in a series of inconsistencies, acting with focus and tightly-wound energy. Good show! **1/2 from ****

I remember seeing Juggernaut when it first came out in theaters back in 1974 and I was sucked in rather nicely as the tension builds in this film. I'm not sure Alfred Hitchcock could have done better building the suspense.Yet it could have been a lot better. The mastermind behind the plot to extort half a million pounds really doesn't have all that good a motive for what he does. And his actions towards the end of the film when he's caught and the jig is up so to speak, make absolutely no sense.Juggernaut proceeds on many different levels, as his HMS Britannic sails for a cruise from I presume Southampton a bomb threat is phoned into the ship owners from a man identifying himself as Juggernaut. He wants the amount mentioned above or five strategically placed bombs will explode and sink the Britannic along with 1200 passengers and crew.Scotland Yard under Anthony Hopkins looks to find the man, shipowners decide to pay, Captain Omar Sharif finds out and tells the crew and they try to keep the passengers minds off the strange doings on the ship. Special mention goes to Roy Kinnear as the cruise director for that particular job and his performance is great.But primarily the film focuses on Richard Harris and his team of demolition experts. As he's mentioning often enough, he's the best at his job, the champion. He has to be because the stakes are at the highest possible level if he comes in second. And the man he's up against is a brilliant demolitions man himself.According to a recent biography of Harris he was filming Juggernaut in the United Kingdom and flying back to the USA in intervals to film 99 and 44/100 Percent Dead. How his agent got him into that kind of deal God only knows, but I think he did better on the UK side of the pond. Juggernaut is a good suspenseful thriller that probably would have been a lot better with more understandable motivation from the villain's point of view.