Grimerlana Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Raymond Sierra The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

blanche-2 Aidan Quinn stars with Donald Sutherland and Ben Kingsley in "The Assignment," a 1997 film directed by Christian Duguay. This film did not seem to be in theaters for very long, or to make any money. I suspect after a few days in the theater it went right to video.Quinn plays Lt. Cmdr. Annibal Ramirez, who is arrested and held by Mossad, who believe he is the assassin/terrorist Carlos the Jackal. Once his identification has been verified, he is allowed to leave. He is then visited by Jack Shaw (Donald Sutherland) who wants him to impersonate Carlos in order to convince the Russians that Carlos has come over to the CIA in exchange for money and a sweet deal, so that they will kill the real Carlos. It involves months of training, and finally, Annibal is ready. There are a few things he and his trainers hadn't counted on...one is that as time goes by, Annibal finds it harder and harder to escape Carlos' identity and reclaim himself.Really good movie, very suspenseful and exciting, with a wonderful performance by Aidan Quinn as both Carlos and Annibal. The movie really keeps you on the edge of your seat, especially the last scenes. Some excellent effects, locations, and car chases.Quinn I seem to remember came to fame in a film about AIDS, "An Early Frost," and I also recall that Tina Sinatra was blown away by his bone structure and wanted him to play her dad in "Sinatra" The Music Was Just the Beginning." Movie stardom never really hit him, but he has had a prolific career playing a variety of roles, and is now a regular on "Elementary." In "The Assignment," he again reminds us of his excellence and versatility as an actor. Donald Sutherland does a great job as Annibal's handler, Shaw, who wants Carlos not only for the CIA's reasons but also because in France, Carlos slipped by him at a restaurant and bombed it.Ben Kingsley, another fantastic actor, hands in his usual well thought-out performance as a Mossad agent. The man who played Gandhi so magnificently I find is often in roles that are really beneath his abilities, which is a shame, though he certainly manages to keep busy. And there are some brilliant roles in there too.Highly recommended, a thrilling movie.

sol1218 ***SPOILERS*** A bit overcomplicated and confusing spy thriller involving US Navy Lt. Commander Cuban born Annibal Ramirez, Adian Quinn, who's recruited with a little bit of arm twisting by the CIA and Israeli Mossad to play the part of Carlos the Jackel in that Annibal is the spitting image of the notorious assassin. Behind all this cloak and dagger stuff is Paris CIA Director Jack Shaw, Donald Southerland, who has it in Carlos for strictly personal reasons! That's when back in September 1974 Carlos, disguised as a 1960's type of hippie, slipped right through his fingers and ended up blowing up a Paris café with Shaw, who survived the blast, being in it!Shaw with the help of Mossad Agent Amos,Ben Kingley, teach Ramirez all about Carlos' quirks and habits as well as his style, rough to the point of almost killing his partner, of lovemaking and send him out to Libya in a plot to have him make his backers, the Soviet KGB, think that he's about to turn on them and join the other side": The USA and its Western allies! This all has Ramirez end up killing a number of French Secret Agents, who raided his love nest, who mistakenly think that he's Carlos. Carlos himself in thinking he's being set up has one of his henchman Japanese assassin Koj, Von Flores, travel to Paris to knock off his girlfriend Agnieska, Liliana Komorowaka, who mistook Ramirez for himself whom Carlos feels betrayed him to the French Secret Service. Ramirez together with Shaw and Amos who just happened to be in Paris at the time of Agnieska's murder is later confronted by Koj who realizes, by Ramirez not knowing the right code word, that he isn't Carlos who then takes him, with a gun pointed in his gut, to a airport mens-room in order to knock him off! It's then that Amos comes to Ramirez's rescue by not only taking out the surprised Koj but taking a bullet or two for him at the same time!***MAJOR SPOILERS*** Meamwhile the KGB smells a rat in Carlos in him suspected of working for American intelligence,the CIA, and raid his pad outside East Berlin in order to take him in for questioning. This lead to a free for all shootout at Carlos', who was buff naked at the time, love pad where he's later run down by Ramirez who together with his boss Shaw were outside watching the whole spectacle. With both Carlos & Ramirez slugging it out Shaw not knowing which is which ends up shooting and seriously wounding the wrong man, Ramirez, with Carlos, now with his clothes on, getting away! The film ends in a confusing note with Ramirez now fully recovered from his wounds back in the states reunited with his wife and young son and Carlos now a man not only without a country but wanted by his former employers the KGB who've got a 50 million dollar or ruble contract out on him. We've still got a big surprise coming at the end the movie that's not at all lacking in surprises but by the time it hits us were just too numb or punch-drunk,in all the surprises we've already seen, to both notice or appreciate it!

lastliberal The only photo that exists of Carlos the Jackals is a grainy one taken a half mile away. Lt. Cmdr. Annibal Ramirez (Aidan Quinn) looks like the man in the photo. and Jack Shaw, C.I.A (Donald Sutherland) wants him to set a trap.Ramirez becomes Carlos with the help of Shaw and Mossad agent Amos (Ben Kingsley). He goes about screwing Carlos' women (Céline Bonnier & Liliana Komorowska), and he doesn't attract Carlos, but a whole lot of people who want to kill him thinking he is Carlos. What a job! This film is one of the better action thrillers as it is not a "star vehicle," but a great group of actors who create a believable story.And, I may add, gives us pause at the end.

buiger A rather good action thriller, but I would have preferred if it was a little more realistic. They tried in some places to go for it, but not all the way (probably for commercial reasons). It's a pity really, since this is a well made movie, but one that had the potential to be much more. If they had made it more realistic, and by that I mean with less James Bond-like shoot-outs, less beautiful women, less funny communists, etc... this motion picture could have been excellent. They just had to use more of the truth and they would have made something much better. The screenplay does cunningly use small parts of the truth in constructing the fiction that this film really is, but this is not nearly enough. I do not believe that they should have made a documentary, but a little less 'artistic creativity' would have actually been 'more' in this case.In other, the camera and sound are also not exceptional which further detracts from the viewing pleasure. All in all, an above average movie, but nothing more.