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Live Wire (1992) More at IMDb Pro »

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20 comments in total

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12 out of 15 people found the following comment useful :-
Kinda cool, 6 September 1999

Author: Cross18 from Maine

While I was channel surfing one uneventful Tuesday Evening, I came upon this Pierce Brosnan actioner. Since their was really nothing else on, I decided to give it a try. I was not disappionted. Brosnan plays Danny O'Neal, an easily aggrivated FBI Bomb Squad agent who is assigned to protect a sleazy Senator (Ron Silver). The Senator is being threatened by a group of revenge driven terrorists who have invented a liqued explosive that caused people to explode when ingested. I know, that sound kinda cheesy, but the movie pulls it off nicely. The character tension and the invigorating action sequences make this a cool film.

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7 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
The very definition of good-dumb fun, 20 January 2004
Author: davideo-2 from United Kingdom

STAR RATING:*****Unmissable****Very Good***Okay**You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead*Avoid At All Costs

Danny O'Neill (Pierce Brosnan) is a bomb disposal expert.He's your typical cynical,hard-bitten good guy type,chewing on a cigar and uttering hard-edged one liners.Not only that,he's got the typical good guy set up.His young daughter's been killed in a tragic swimming pool accident,he's getting stick from his superiors for his unorthodox approach to his job and his wife Terry (Lisa Eilbacher) has left him and has started seeing smarmy senator Frank Traveres (Ron Silver).His life is about to get a whole lot worse,though,when a nasty piece of work by the name of Mikhail Rashid (Ben Cross) and his sidekick Al-red (Tony Plana) start putting explosive devices in the drinking water of politicians and eventually get plans to start targeting the rest of society as well.

In an action role he was to take on a few years before his debut as Bond,Brosnan manages the tough,swaggering good guy role reasonably well,as effective and convincing as he needed to be.Cross can always be relied on to deliver the goods in terms of presence as a good guy or bad guy respectively,but here his part is very poorly written and not given much meat to chew on at all.It's with the action that the film comes alive though,with one or two rollicking good sequences that you will have to see to believe.It certainly ain't with said performances or even the story which,by the end,is stewing so deeply in it's own preposterousness you can practically hear it gurgling.

But,hey,if it wasn't so silly,maybe it wouldn't have been such fun.That,and a surprisingly and ultimately pleasantly compact running time make Live Wire a genuine piece of no-brainer entertainment to savour.

Sit back,switch your brain off and enjoy.****

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5 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Who blew up a senator without leaving a trace? Can the emotionally damaged hero identify the killers and their secret before someone else dies?, 17 October 2005

Author: Randall Cameron from Sana'a, Yemen

Another film with several good elements that manages to fail, chiefly because of weaknesses in the story.

Good cast in Pierce Brosnan and Ben Cross -- they must have needed the money to take the job.

A key "science fiction" element is not really believable, but this is a Hollywood thriller, so if you accept it, you could enjoy the story.

There are many good one-liners, and the interactions between the protagonists and various minor characters are believable and entertaining. The pace is reasonable, and some degree of suspense is maintained, with some stock "thriller" elements.

Brosnan's character and his personal problems are well developed and make him sympathetic, and he plays his part well.

The film is also mercifully short.

BUT -- two major holes in the story killed it for me: 1. A political background (the reason the story is happening) is mentioned, but not really explained in terms of motives. Two minutes dialog could have filled in the holes and added a lot in terms of believability.

2. The villain's character is not developed at all. What motivates him (other than money?) Ben Cross does what he can with a lousy script (not much). And his name, Mikhail Rashid (I think never actually mentioned in the film - a Tatar father and Russian mother) seems intended to exploit negative racist stereotypes (Russian = corrupt mafiosi; Arabic name = terrorist). He seems like a cartoon, Bond-esquire villain without the glitz. With Ben Cross, they could have written a complex, nuanced, even sympathetic villain, and this would have improved the story immensely.

I gave this 5 out of 10 -- not painfully repulsive, but there are better ways to spend your time.

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4 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
Brosnan at his best., 1 September 1999
Author: MODMAN from Rochester, NY

Long before his stint as James Bond, Pierce Brosnan did make some darn good movies. One of them is 'Live Wire'. Director Christian Duguay (The Hitchhiker series) has done a brilliant job in making Brosnan's entry into the world of action as smooth as possible. Brosnan plays Danny O' Neill, an Irish bomb defusion specialist working for the FBI's anti-terrorist division. The movie is a cat and mouse game between Brosnan's old adversary from the IRA and Brosnan himself. The IRA terrorist is out to make his millions from corrupt politicians and their wrongful ways. Ron Silver plays a Senator under threat and Brosnan is called in to protect him. The movie also intertwines Danny O' Neill's separation from his wife due to her alleged affair with the Senator (Ron Silver). All these make for very intriguing drama and fast paced yet "intelligent" action. Worth a rental definitely.

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Which color do you like -- the red or the green?, 27 November 2007

Author: Robert J. Maxwell (rmax304823@yahoo.com) from Deming, New Mexico

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Action/thriller about Pierce Brosnan as a troubled but wisecracking FBI explosive expert. There's really nothing much new here, but what you see is pretty well done. It's just another professional genre piece.

There is the corrupt senator (Ron Silver) who's made a fortune from a crooked arms deal. There is the freelance explosive artist (Ben Cross) who has learned how to make an explosive substance out of something that looks, acts, and tastes like water until it is activated by stomach acid, when it throws the victim into fits and turns him into a monster bomb. (!) The senator has been making love to Brosnan's wife, which causes Brosnan to drink too much, but they get together at the end, and there is an African-American sidekick who manages to analyze the explosive water, and when Brosnan is cornered by the evildoers in the senator's kitchen he saves himself by making bombs out of ordinary household substances like Vaseline, acetone, alcohol, arugela, salt, pepper, and a touch of marjoram, and -- well, you can guess the rest. It's interesting to watch a human drink a glass of water, fall into an epileptiform seizure, burst his eyeballs with blood, and blow up, leaving only bits and pieces of flesh and shards of bone behind to mark his passing.

Pierce Brosnan is a lightweight actor but a likable one. If Ron Silver were more intense he'd be a black hole. Ben Cross is the kind of villain who -- well, here's a scene. Cross is hurrying through his laboratories and the man who invented the secret explosive is scuttling along beside him, reminding Cross that he hasn't been paid yet. Cross says something like, "Yes, you're right. I owe you." Then he borrows a pen to write a check and, instead, stabs the natterer to death right through the apricot. Near the end, another henchman is stupid enough to claim he's done his job and is leaving now. Right. Cross plugs him in the back. There's no reason for any of this, except to provide a few more colorful deaths, as if there weren't enough.

You might find it satisfying if you're in the mood, but I doubt you'll be surprised at much that happens.

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Not too bad for a low-budget movie..., 2 August 2005

Author: snowshoe5603 from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

This was one of Pierce Brosnan's earlier outings as Danny O'Neal, an explosives expert with the FBI. When two U.S. Senators are assassinated by a bomber, Brosnan and his partner are stumped: Where are the pieces of the bomb? Where is the trigger?

I saw this the first time on one of the pay channels not long after it was released, mostly because Lisa Eilbacher (whom I've had a crush on since forever) was in the cast. I liked this movie because I was intrigued by the plot. How were they making bombs out of PEOPLE, for God's sake?

Good performances by Ben Cross and Brosnan as the bad guy and the hero, respectively. Ron Silver is also slimy as ever as a crooked senator, and Lisa Eilbacher rounds out the cast as Brosnan and Silver's love interest (did I mention that I'm nuts about her?).

So, if you're looking for a way to kill 90 minutes or so without having to work too hard at following the plot rent this. I found this again in the cheap section at the local rental store. It was well worth the $1.00 rental price.

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3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
One of my favorite movies!, 21 August 2005

Author: Speed_Demon from Germany

I don't want to give anything away of the content of the movie, so all I can say: I just love Pierce performance in it, the melody of the main theme, also the story of Pierce' character. Additionally, the movie is very suspenseful most of the time. I can understand why people find it's not such a good movie. Personally, 'though I know it's not the best movie ever made, I love it.

If you ask me: Give it a try! I don't think you will regret having watched it, and maybe you'll even like as much as I and some other people do.

Luckily, a DVD has been released some time ago. The DVD quality is quite good, and luckily both full and widescreen versions are included. For 4:3 TVs, I'd recommend to watch the fullscreen version as you can see more at the top and bottom.

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4 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Great movie, lots of action, unique twist on a tried and true formula!, 9 November 2001

Author: Daryl17 (mwracing57@hotmail.com) from Bakersfield, California

If you are a Pierce Brosnan fan, you must see this. This movie allows you to see Pierce Brosnan play a character that is not so James Bondian. The cast is great, and the story is the typical "hero saves the day" type. Unlike most terrorist type movies, the writers cleverly chose a weapon of destruction that is atypical and unique. I highly recommend this movie for action, good story, good characters, and entertainment in general. Not your run-of-the-mill action movie.

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5 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
oddly enjoyable, 30 July 1999

Author: Cross18 from Maine

I came upon this film while channel surfing on an uneventful Tuesday evening. Being that I am both a fan of Pierce Brosnan and action movies, I gave it a chance. And let me tell you, I was not disappionted. Pierce portrays Danny O'Neil, a temperamental FBI bomb squad agent. O'Neil must protect a Senator from a group of terrorists who have invented a kind of liquid explosives that destroy the victims from the inside out. I know, the premise does sound kinda cheesy, but the film itself is quite entertaining. With plot twist (the Senator had an affair with O'Neil's wife) and invigorating action sequences, I would recommend this film to anybody.

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2 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Ron Silver gets his due, 14 May 2007

Author: lastliberal from Florida

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I do not like Ron Silver. I don't like his politics and I don't like his characters. When he gets it, I am happy. This movie made me very happy for two reasons: he has the absolutely worst haircut in the world, so I get to laugh at him throughout, and he gets his just desserts.

He plays a sleazy Senator who is on the take and screwing with Danny O'Neill's (Pierce Brosnan) wife (Lisa Eilbacher). O'Neill is an FBI agent specializing in bombs. Not a great job by Brosnan, but the bomb in the film is one of the best parts as it is an original and gruesome device.

Did I mention that Silver gets what's coming to him? Yes!

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