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Absolute Power is not an exemplary political thriller. We can avoid comparisons to the several superior thrillers from which it conspicuously borrows--especially the 1987 No Way Out, which featured this film's President, Gene Hackman, as a similarly compromised Secretary of Defense. We ... Read review
Director Clint Eastwood's 1997 box-office hit stars himself as Luther Whitney, a highly ... more
skilled thief who finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time, witnessing the murder of a woman involved in a secret tryst with the US president (played by G...
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Director Clint Eastwood's 1997 box-office hit stars himself as Luther Whitney, a highly ... more
skilled thief who finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time, witnessing the murder of a woman involved in a secret tryst with the US president (played by G...
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Luther Witney planned his last job with his usual meticulous precision. A perfectionist ... more
he is patient and precise carefully avoiding any public acknowledgement of his skill. Silence is essential for Luther who is a master thief. Unfortunately Luth...
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He was where he shouldn't have been and saw what he shouldn't have seen. Now, who will ... more
believe the word of a career thief and ex-con? Who will trust Luther Whitney when he says he saw a woman killed - and that the man responsible for her death is the P...
Ordinary kids with superhero powers in a thrilling comic-book style adventure. With Colin ... more
moving grief-stricken and alone can Victor Cross bring Colin into the Trutopian fold? And as Danny and Renata become increasingly disenchanted with the orders given at Sakkara they begin to question who are their real friends! If you loved the Quantum Propecy and Sakkara you won't be able to put this next installment down.
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Accomplished and amazing - one of the hottest reads around - Daily Mail. Set in Washington ... more
D.C. this fascinating thriller of unparalleled suspense dares to explore an unthinkable abuse of power and criminal conspiracy: a vicious murder involving the US President and a cover-up orchestrared by his zealously loyal Chief of Staff and the Secret Service. But unknown to the President and his lackeys one unlikely witness saw everything. Trapped behind a two-way mirror in a country house in Maryland Luther Whitney a professional burglar witnesses an event that destroys his faith in justice. By the time he escapes pursued by two Secret Service agents a young woman has been sexually assaulted then shot dead. And a breathtaking cover-up has been set in motion. Baldacci's prose is fluent and amazing ...this book is sure to make a killing- The Times. "A high-octane legal thriller. An almost Shakespearian study in the nature of evil - horror in its purest form" - "Spectator".
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Postage & Packaging:£0.00 Availability:Temporarily out of stock - This item will be dispatched as soon as it arrives - We cannot guarantee Christmas delivery...
Prentiss McCabe are the piranhas of the murky celebrity pond, chewing up reality show ... more
rejects and taking chunks out of newspaper editors - all in the name of PR.The PR agency run by Charles, the flamboyant puppet-master and Martin, the old school cynic are second to none in the dark art of repackaging black as white. When every celebrity and MP's indiscretion is a front page exclusive there's no shortage of business. And, if gullible hacks want to grasp every carefully proffered fabrication, well the agency is only too willing to help.1. History Man - TV historian Nigel Harting is to be exposed as a fraud. Can Charles dig up a more tabloid-compatible story?2. Pope Idol - Prentiss McCabe move into religion and try to get the Archbishop of York into the top job.3. Tory Woman - Mission impossible? Joanne Standing, shadow spokes-bore for work and pensions is looking for a glamorous re-launch.4. Mr Fox - What was the Health Secretary really up to on Hampstead Heath? And has Charles met his match in the PM's Press Secretary?5. Country Life - The Real Country Union and Gareth Hunt tests Charles' belief that he can spin the unspinnable...6. Crash and Burn - Charles' strategy to save the career of a comedian is as unethical as it is shocking.
Luther Witney, a perfectionist master thief, plans to retire on the proceeds of one last ... more
job and that is stealing jewels and cash from one of the US's most wealthy businessmen. Things become complicated when the businessman's unfaithful wife turns up on the scene of the crime with her drunken lover. Their love soon turns to violence but the lover is none other than the President of the United States...
Thriller - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Timothy West, Neil Morrissey, Tara Fitzgerald, Annette Crosbie, Pauline Quirke, Rob Brydon, Denise Van Outen, John Thomson, Kevin Whately, David Suchet
Production Year: 2002 - Thriller - Director: Bharat Nalluri, Rob Bailey, Andy Wilson - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Matthew MacFadyen, Keeley Hawes, David Oyelowo, Peter Firth, Jenny Agutter, Lisa Faulkner
Absolute Power is not an exemplary political thriller. We can avoid comparisons to the several superior thrillers from which it conspicuously borrows--especially the 1987 No Way Out, which featured this film's President, Gene Hackman, as a similarly compromised Secretary of Defense. We can also shrug off the umpteen affronts to logic in the scenario (by William Goldman, based on the novel by David Baldacci), the better ... ...Clint Eastwood has invested the movie, as both director and serenely self-possessed star.
The title indexes the ironies in a war of nerves between the Leader of the Free World, with all the resources at his disposal, and a lone master criminal who has him dead to rights, and has the ingenuity to outmaneuver him. Eastwood takes this premise as a given, then breezily undercuts it with deadpan comedy. The President is a fool(with notable ... more
Luther Whitney, "one of the great thieves of the world," has broken into a baronial country house outside Washington, D.C., coolly disarmed the alarm with a nanosecond to spare, and set about pilfering the treasures of the master bedroom. Nobody's home, yet suddenly he hears somebody--a drunken couple--stumbling up the stairs. Taking refuge in an alcove behind a one-way mirror, he becomes witness to a mutual seduction that escalates into mutual violence and then shocking murder. He also watches the beginning of a cover-up, because the now-dead mistress of the house was the wife of Washington's most venerable kingmaker, and the drunken lout she brought home is the President of the United States.
Absolute Power is not an exemplary political thriller. We can avoid comparisons to the several superior thrillers from which it conspicuously borrows--especially the 1987 No Way Out, which featured this film's President, Gene Hackman, as a similarly compromised Secretary of Defense. We can also shrug off the umpteen affronts to logic in the scenario (by William Goldman, based on the novel by David Baldacci), the better to appreciate the style, wit, and disarming tenderness with which Clint Eastwood has invested the movie, as both director and serenely self-possessed star.
The title indexes the ironies in a war of nerves between the Leader of the Free World, with all the resources at his disposal, and a lone master criminal who has him dead to rights, and has the ingenuity to outmaneuver him. Eastwood takes this premise as a given, then breezily undercuts it with deadpan comedy. The President is a fool(with notable affinities to the present President.), and his Chief of Staff, the brains behind the cover-up, is a straight-talking, ball-breaking Medusa--a showcase role for the gutsy Judy Davis. As their plot begins to unravel, she and Hackman share a ballroom dance in full view of official Washington that becomes a grotesque parody of the murder--as well as a sardonic riposte to the dance-floor wooing of Michael Douglas and Annette Bening in the Clinton-friendly The American President.
So Clint gets his Republican licks in. But his heart is elsewhere, in the growing mutual admiration between Luther and the cop (Ed Harris) investigating the murder, and in Luther's peculiar but deeply caring relationship with his estranged daughter (Laura Linney), a fledgling D.A. who is also a pawn in the White House game to trap Luther. Luther and the cop--and by all means Clint Eastwood and Ed Harris--play a casual lunchtime conversation that amounts to a droll flirtation
Advantages: Eastwood, Harris and Hackman Disadvantages: Could call the plot into question
...is great and his interplays with Ed Harris are cracking, it moves a good pace and does deliver the goods. I think I'm luck that I haven't read the book cos it seems that most who have didn't like the film.
Absolute power - A must for Clint fans ...
wemstalker 27.01.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Absolute Power (DVD)
Clint Eastwood returns as an actor and director on another thriller regarding shady going ons in the whitehouse.He plays retired jewel thief luther Whitney who plans one last heist at the home of a weathly businessman.Unknown to him the wife of the businessman also uses the home as a place to carry on a affair with the President himself played with steely resolve by Gene hackman.On a planned Luther is interupted by the unexpected arrival of the president ... ...then watches in horror as the president accidentally kills his mistress.The secret service rush onto the scene and then a big cover up begins to protect the president.On departing they realise someone else has observed what has happened by which time luther has already planned his exit.Thus begins a game of cat and mouse as the president plans to kill luther to protect his secret.
Eastwood has brought togther a very strong cast of excellent actors.Gene ...
harj123 17.08.2004
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Absolute Power (DVD)
I made the mistake of watching this movie after I read the book. The movie left out key characters that really made an interesting plot. The movie just seemed so dry and choppy. Not only did they remove the intricacy of the story line, they totally changed who was killed. I may have liked the movie if I watched it before I read the book, but it just seemed really flat. I have never witnessed a total story rewrite as badly as this one. I was really ...
ros145 23.08.2000
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Absolute Power (DVD)
Advantages: Great plot and performances Disadvantages: Clint is slightly unbelievable
This film, amde in 1997, was a shock when i watched it. I had not previously heard of it and hence did not expect such strong perfomances. Clint Eastwood is a aged burglar who whilst robbing a shouse witnesses a murder. Gene Hackman co stars and when we relaise that the murderer is of some importance we find ourselves led though a maze of intirgue that has echoes of 'Revenge' also starring Gene Hackman.
Clint delevers a strong performance as the ...
jimstrong 12.07.2000
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Absolute Power (DVD)
Advantages: Average = the best i can say about it Disadvantages: Poor performances, poor script, poor film.
Well, I'm not much of a Clint eastwood fan generally, and this film did absolutley nothing to convince me otherwise. In this case I feel it might not be his fault. On the whole, his acting was satisfactory, but the script could quite easily have sent me to sleep. The dialogue was uninteresting, the supporting cast were unexceptionally poor, the supposed tensiona and atmosphere was non-existent. I've read the book, and to be honest I'm not surprised ...
tom2barc 14.07.2000
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Absolute Power (DVD)
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Advantages: Brilliant acting, artistic photography, intelligent, funny. Disadvantages: Not a constant writer.
level of continuity between episodes.
The second point, which I found slightly jarring, was that the episodes finish often when you think they should carry on, when there is still more story that needs telling. This does add to the artistry of the episodes, but can be a little frustrating at times. This is, however, a fairly minor point at just two of the six episodes on the DVD.
The episodes are very deep, and contain far too many references for most people to be able to catch on their first viewing. If you want something to watch in the background, then this is not the DVD for you. It needs a surprising amount of concentration.
On balance, I think this is a wonderful DVD. I have seen it four times since I bought it, and am always finding new things. It was an effort to think of negative aspects of AbsolutePower to balance ...
Advantages: Interesting plot, good acting, makes you think Disadvantages: No special features on DVD (but this was the German version...)
I remember being disappointed with this film when it went on cinema release, I’m still not entirely sure why. Maybe I was expecting another gun-slinging performance by Clint Eastwood, but ‘AbsolutePower’ is a very different proposition to Eastwood films such as ‘Hang ‘Em High’ and ‘Dirty Harry’. The pace is quite slow, although this does not necessarily have to be a bad thing, and the subject matter requires a lot more thought than the black and white, good versus bad plots of his earlier movies.
The plot, which has been criticised in many quarters for stretching the bounds of audience belief, is basically as follows: Eastwood plays the role of Luther Whitney, a professional thief of the highest calibre who has apparently retired from top-level crime. He is seen attending an art class ...
AbsolutePower is about the ruthlessness of people in power. The President believes that everything he does is beyond reproach, including an affair or two. That leads to murder and everyone around him is involved. There is only one witness, a thief named Luther Whitney. They are sure he'll talk, but when? The Secret Service is determined to keep him quiet, but catching a thief isn't always easy.
When I first saw this movie I wasn't expecting anything great. I thought it was just going to be another "corruption-in-the White-house-plot" but it turned out to be rather different.
The plot and subject matter are handled with care and maturity and the direction was dignifying to the source material. This was the second film I saw that Eastwood had directed (after Perfect World) and I was surprised to see that he is as good at directing ...
Luther Witney, a perfectionist master thief, plans to retire on the proceeds of one last job and that is stealing jewels and cash from one of the US's most wealthy businessmen. Things become complicated when the businessman's unfaithful wife turns up on the scene of the crime with her drunken lover. Their love soon turns to violence but the lover is none other than the President of the United States...
"...[A] strong cast, lively rejoinders and moments of discreet panache....Mr. Eastwood's own performance sets a high-water mark for laconic intelligence and makes the star seem youthfully spry..." (New York Times, p.C5, 14/02/1997)
"...Eastwood gutsily stages the extended opening slowly and methodically..." (USA Today, p.4D, 14/02/1997)
DVD Description
In this slick political thriller, an emotionally disconnected, aesthetically refined master thief is out for one final score before retiring to his treasure-lined hideaway. But during a robbery at a mansion near Washington, he witnesses a bizarre sex murder involving the President of the United States. As the president's slimy handlers frantically cover the crime up, the career criminal--and only outside witness--becomes the Secret Service's prime target. His relationship with his estranged daughter hangs in the balance. Adapted from the best-selling novel by David Baldacci.
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