Cebalord Very best movie i ever watch

Unlimitedia Sick Product of a Sick System

Casey Duggan It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Ella-May O'Brien Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

teddyryan The idea for Rod Lurie's first feature film is a good one - the President is trapped in the boonies and must deal with a nuclear crisis. And, DETERRENCE certainly has some very play-like charming elements - small setting, clash of characters, localized tension, etc - that make it a passable watch. Not to mention, it does a wonderful job of portraying news/mass media as the film's crisis unfolds.Unfortunately, although the writing is informed, tip-top, and clever, I think the casting falls short.Let's start with the President played by Kevin Pollak. I felt this was a bad casting choice by Lurie. In addition to his noticeably short height and Napoleonic demeanor, Pollak lacks the presidential aura of either a Martin Sheen or Michael Douglas. Therefore, no matter what interesting dramatic conflicts arise for President Emerson during the story, I can't help but wish someone was playing him.Also, there's a few patrons/employees of the diner that are very one note - you'll notice this was you watch.Ted's Grade: C+/B-

mark-4401 As for a movie, technically, it was great.Well written script, that started very innocently and quickly snowballed into a nightmare. It is strange that the entire movie was shot on one stage... the diner... but yet at the same time sent you around the world.Acting was good and believable with even a bit of humor sprinkled in.The thought that ordinary every-day citizens could sit over the President's shoulder in the middle of a crises is interesting. Which ones of us have never said.... "If I were there, I would have told the President this or that"? So the movie was was technically well done.After watching it today I have a sick feeling in my stomach. Although well done, it was very irresponsible. The U.S. drops a nuclear bomb on a city, destroying it and it's citizens. Though some discomfort with the decision is shown by the President, ultimately he is made out to be some sort of hero. Don't get me wrong... I feel that some sort of retaliation would be in order... but the use of nuclear weapons as a preemptive strike is something that can never be done by a peaceful civilization. And to make a movie about it... that in many ways glorifies it... is irresponsible.I think it interesting that this movie was made almost 10 years ago. Where since a President (George W. Bush) was faced with a similar crises, (9-11) and chose to deal with it, without nuclear weapons. To sum it up... an interesting movie, that was well done, but was horrifically irresponsible, and should have never been made. I will copy and paste this over to the forums, as I am sure some will want to reply.

changedname This is one of the absolute WORST movies I have ever seen.It's about nuclear weapons and avoiding World War III, how could they possibly mess it up? The mere mention of a megaton bomb is enough to get most hearts racing. Well I don't know either, but they did.The lead actor, the President CANNOT ACT!!!! In fact nobody in this movie is much good at acting. The whole thing is an unbelievable farce from start to finish.You can see all the stupid ideas they threw in supposed to show how things work and how things go wrong and how they're all human. They are so stupid and they have things that couldn't POSSIBLY take place, that I am unable to find words for it. And every "feeling" that they tried to create is completely transparent and blindingly obvious, it's insulting to our intelligence as much as anything.Suddenly out of nowhere there'd be this close-up and dark music played. The whole film is a joke and I have NO IDEA where all the decent ratings are coming from.

jbf-5 In order for a techno-thriller to work, it must at least be plausible enough for us to be willing to suspend belief. This film has absolutely no feel or understanding of even the most basic features of its subject matter. It tries to fake credibility while throwing around ridiculous non-facts such as a 100 megaton bomb, a B2 stealth bomber being casually tracked by Iraqi radar, a TV communications satellite that somehow is equipped with not only a real time TV camera but one that films ground level shots. When the movie shows a clip of the B2, we instead see an F-117 which looks absolutely nothing like a B2. The super duper satellite (actually just one of a small constellation of satellites the TV network supposedly owns) seems to be able to warp back 50 years at will because it captures familiar black and white footage that is obviously from one of the early H-bomb test in the Pacific Ocean. This is more remarkable still as the explosion is supposed to be taking place in the middle of a desert.The President and his advisors are playing out their full intercontinental nuclear game of brinksmanship in a little over an hour, and yet still have time to chat up the morons repeatedly at length in the diner. For some inexplicable reason the morons, including one gun toting one, have not been sent packing by the Secret Service but instead are allowed to butt into and sidetrack negotiations between heads of state in which tens of millions of lives are at stake. The only moron who is even mildly rebuked is a ludicrous right wing homophobic bigoted anti-Semite cardboard character of the sort only a Hollywood provincial pinhead could believe exists out there in fly-over land.All these features seem to be in the film to give it heft and credibility so that it can go about preaching some kind of demented apocalyptic message to us. In the course of their proselytizing, the films writers have their President off handily incinerate a large city of mostly innocents in order to demonstrate what a peace loving mensch he is.Alfred Hitchcock thought that actors were some of God's dumbest creatures. He obviously never met any of the writers, producers, or director of this film.