Lumsdal Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

Crwthod A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Staci Frederick Blistering performances.

Thetwocentreviewbot Instead of doing actual writing today I decided to procrastinate and view this 1980s Charles Bronson masterpiece.Here are my two cents...Bronson is a Denver journalist who find him self out for lunch and serial homicide one afternoon. It appears some whackjob lost his gauge on reality and unloaded on an entire Mormon family. Even killing the kids. It does not take a prophet to get the fact no one cares for this .Bronson befriends the Mormon family patriarch and a strange friendship starts. He first tells the man's father who then accuses his own brother. We then hop off to Glenwood Springs , Colorado where the local not so friendly sheriff points Bronson to the farm of the accused brother.After hitching a ride with one of the brothers many cousins , the accused brother accuses the brother who accused him. More back n forth than a washing machine in motion. Bronson doesn't buy it. The tanker truck that suddenly runs them off the road certainly makes the brothers doing it not wash. As Bronson digs deeper he finds the debutante of a very powerful businessman owns the tanker truck company.Back home in New Zion the brother has decided that when it comes to the violent murder of his grand children God can sit judgment out. After organizing his flock he heads to Colorado for a shootout with his brother. Bronsan warns the brother moments before a shootout begins and during the fire fight learns this piece of land has billions of gallons of water under it , that guess what some nearby water company has been dying to get their hands on , even with all the pieces he can't stop both brothers from killing one another .Afterwards , the tanker truck returns with its friends , and demolishes the vehicle Bronson Is leaving in. Back in Denver the chief of police is holding his first fundraiser via his old business partner Fox. After the death of a source and an earlier knife fight with the killer, Bronson comes face to face with the cutthroat again. After a brief struggle we get all the answers.Disclaimer : A Golan - Globas production. That's 80's film speak for B- Rate , but remember without these two you would never know who Chuck Norris is.I have to admit it was a good script no problem with it. The acting could be shaky at times and the direction clearly had a problem with achieving the psychological moods in scenes. There is enough here to pass a Sunday afternoon sometime but not much else.

Scott LeBrun Charles Bronson stars as Garret Smith, a crime reporter for the Denver Tribune. He learns of a horrifying incident, that of the massacre of a Mormon family. This sets off further sparks among two brothers who already have bad blood between them: fundamentalist preacher Willis Beecham (Jeff Corey) and farmer Zenas Beecham (John Ireland). After some digging around, Garret realizes that the two siblings are possibly being manipulated by some other party.As far as the Charles Bronson / director J. Lee Thompson / Cannon Group product goes, this isn't outright terrible, but it isn't as engrossing as their other sleazy offerings (especially "10 to Midnight" and "Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects"). Ultimately, the filmmaking / storytelling is pretty simplistic, which is a shame, as this look at a certain culture could have yielded more interesting results. Bronson plays a more upbeat character than usual, but Garret (or Garr, as friends call him) is still a typical Bronson bad ass who can hand others' asses to them without expending much energy himself. The opening set piece of the killing of innocent women and children is pretty chilling, and there's one action highlight of two big rigs sandwiching a truck in between them. But the ending is rather weak, wrapping up too quickly and producing little satisfaction.Bronsons' supporting cast is pretty damn good: Trish Van Devere, Laurence Luckinbill, Daniel Benzali, Charles Dierkop, Corey, Ireland, Gene Davis (Bronsons' nemesis in "10 to Midnight"), Jon Cedar, Tom Everett, Kimberly Beck, William Phipps. Van Devere is lovely and appealing, and Benzali is quite amusing as the police chief who's being promoted for a run for the mayors' office.At the very least, this offers some gorgeous scenery and a rousing music score by Robert O. Ragland.Six out of 10.

Coventry Try and beat THIS for an opening sequence! Images of women amiably chatting and young children peacefully playing in the morning sun get barbarically interrupted when suddenly a shady figure holding a shotgun comes driving up to the house. Without speaking one word, the man unhesitatingly butchers the women (one pregnant one) before turning towards the children and shooting them too. The latter killings occur off screen but the footage is nonetheless shocking considering the madman's emotionless modus operandi. This bit of content represents the promising beginning of a compelling and highly suspenseful – albeit flawed – thriller starring the almighty Charles Bronson in an unconventional (at least, for him) role. Charlie depicts a journalist of the Denver newspaper who sinks his teeth into the circumstances surrounding the tragic massacre and stumbles upon a story bigger than he bargained for. The murders initially appear to be a dramatic consequence of a long-running vendetta between a separated family of Mormons, but our courageous reporter gradually uncovers a convoluted and inhumanly cruel conspiracy which concerns – of course – eminent politicians and wealthy businessmen. I honestly expected to find a slightly higher rating and more positive-toned reviews for "Messenger of Death" around here to be honest. Admittedly the evolution of the storyline is rather predictable and the eventual settlement is too tame, but the film definitely maintains a high tempo and a good number of sequences are very tense and literally action-packed. Charles Bronson tries his hardest to come across as a plausible journalist, but there are definitely some problems regarding his character. Bronson isn't exactly known as the most talkative actor in Hollywood; a trademark that usually fits his regular roles of mercenaries ("The Mechanic", "Violent City") and tormented avengers (the "Death Wish" franchise) very well. But even here his number of speeches and dialogs are kept to an absolute minimum, which isn't normal when you're a reporter. Moreover, in spite of his 'normal' job and life-style, he still wipes the floor with professional hit men and stunt-drives his way out of an assassination attempt! Since when do Denver journalists receive training in martial arts and defensive driving? The remote Colorado filming locations, as well as the largely unfamiliar traditions of Mormon families, add up to the ominous atmosphere but still director J. Lee Thompson ("Cape Fear", "The Guns of Navarone") doesn't use up the full potential of these terrific. "Messenger of Death" is an interesting film, to say the least, and it deserves a bit more appreciation from Bronson fanatics as well as fans of suspense films in general.

Jan Willem Wilkens Messenger of Death gives us a fast-paced and very efficient directed action movie (Thompson cuts the crap and always is completely to the point) with Bronson in quite a different sort of role (as a matter of fact, he kills nobody in the movie even acts as peace-keeper in some way) playing a journalist from Denver. One wonders if Cannon were only interested in getting the video rented when they came up with this title, especially in the context of the poster. People who think that Bronson himself is the Messenger will be disappointed, people interested in a decent story will pass this on for all the wrong reasons. The music score is great, the plot-twist okay and the scenery makes for something completely different after seeing Charlie death-wishing in the Big City gutters. And before I forget : Bronson's side-kick is played by the beautiful and great actress Trish van Devere. I only remember her from a Columbo episode long, long ago. Wasn't that 'Make me a perfect Murder ?'