MovieChat Forums > On Dangerous Ground (1996) Discussion > Don't know where to begin ....

Don't know where to begin ....


I'm a walker for exercise. The only way I keep motivated is by listening to audio books. One of my favorite series over the years has been the Sean Dillon novels by Jack Higgins.

I knew there were no "big-time" films, but thought I had caught glimpses of something in the past, so I checked my library system's resources and found "On Dangerous Ground."

And, oh, my, I don't know where to begin.

The short of it is: Bad, bad, bad.

The longer is:

Rob Lowe was either under the influence of something or the director told him to underplay everything, in every scene, in every line he was to speak. And to walk around like he hasn't a clue there are dangers lurking in the Jack Higgins World. And though you are playing an Irishman, born and bred, and a former IRA enforcer, talk like a southern Californian ... maybe to throw everyone off. In the books, Sean Dillon is someone whom you'd like to have beside you when entering a dark alley. In this movie, I think I'd have preferred Barbra Streisand over Rob Lowe as Sean Dillon.

Ferguson and Bernstein were fine, playing their roles appropriately. The others, protagonists and antagonists, were also fine, even if it was a bit difficult to figure out who they were or who to root for or who was turning against whom.

The directing was pitiful, the pacing excruciating, Rob Lowe's acting (I can't say it enough) invisible, the editing inexplicable, the music complementary (to whatever movie it was written for, because it couldn't have been this one), and on and on.

One highlight of the movie, however, was Mike Wallace's dad playing the Sicilian don.

Jurgen Prochnow is a fine actor who did okay in this. The step-daughter actress probably got the most emoting of the script and made the most of it.

This movie was DOA from scene one, yet, like a train crash, I couldn't shut it down during the five times I reached for the remote. I was waiting for SEAN DILLON to appear. But he never made the scene. Just Rob Lowe playing a zombie that should have been billed as being a sleeper agent.

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