This was a pretty decent movie. I purchased an old VHS copy online because the star, Tom Ormeny, was my acting teacher, and a very good one. In this film his performance is liken to that of a Charles Bronson or a Steve McQueen: the entire premise of the film centers on him, so he didn't have to do much but just be a guy who has to survive at all costs and shoot a gun at the heavies and be tough and quietly sexy with the ladies who dig him with a heartbroken chagrin in their eyes. (Personally, I think Tom would be better suited in a character-acting role. And speaking of Charles Bronson, this would have been a good vehicle for him... He definitely could have used it in the eighties when he was married to the Death Wish franchise.) The other characters, like the mob boss who wants him dead, and the two young trigger-happy henchmen (one played by Matt Craven who I always remember from "Meatballs"), do the real acting. They're the ones with something at stake... like half a billion dollars. Ormeny plays a retired CIA operative John Pope (many characters in action films seem to have this name) who, after he is almost killed outside his office, must go from place to place, and find out who is after him (adding to his character a noir-gumshoe quality), and then he must do something about it. The camera-work is incredible. Kudos to whoever the cinematographer is. I loved the long shots and the rolling shots as well. The camera moved with precision, and that's the high point of the film. The synthesizer music is very annoying, and very eighties, and it's too bad because this kind of dated music can often ruin a film like this that doesn't seem, by its looks, to be set in one specific decade. There are many hooks and catches to this movie that will keep your attention. I'm surprised it's such a neglected film, although I'm sure someone like Quentin Tarantino (who has seen almost every crime movie ever made) has probably seen it. It's definitely worth a look, and worth the $.75 cents for a used VHS copy somewhere online.
Review of Agent on Ice
