7cb1d79195 A merc is hired by the FBI to track down a powerful recluse criminal. A woman is also trying to track him down for her own personal vendetta.
Michael Winner's films aren't complete without a lot of blood, and this one has enough to fill a bucket or two.<br/><br/>James Coburn is the retired hitman who comes back in to kidnap a certain Karl Stegner, a mysterious and very wealthy man wanted by the IRS and various other federal agencies.<br/><br/>Coburn teams up mainly with OJ Simpson, with some dubious assistance from Sophia Loren, and we have a 70s high-tech sort of caper. Lots of gadgetry, most of it explosive, large quantities of double-crossing and shooting, plenty of pretty shots of the Caribbean from floating gin palaces, and a plot of such ludicrous over-complexity that it's silly.<br/><br/>It was obviously immense fun to make: several very large houses get burned down, bulldozed and otherwise trashed. As do various means of transportation. With lots of explosions and shooting.<br/><br/>It's implausible and it's almost impossible to understand why anyone would do what these people do, but apparently this is what they do. Bullets fly and things blow up.<br/><br/>There is an awful lot of frenetic activity, constantly accompanied by the sound of gunfire with regular scenes of conflagration.<br/><br/>Did I mention that there's a lot of shooting and explosions in this? In case I didn't, there is, as well as a very confusing plot.<br/><br/>It's not a very good movie.
'Fire Power' is typical of a lot of 70's thrillers which rely more on plot and character than the Jerry Bruckheimer extravaganzas that we get nowadays. In a nutshell, Sophia Loren's husband is murdered because he is a witness to the drug dealings of a powerful drug lord who lives in the Caribbean. Loren suggests that James Coburn, her former lover and bounty hunter, be the man to head down to the Caribbean to catch her husband's murderer. Along the way, there are lots of plot twists and turns- for example, whose side is Loren really on? And indeed, Who is really this mysterious drug lord? <br/><br/>Michael Winner was a director of numerous 70's thrillers, most famously with Charles Bronson (The 'Death Wish' films). He is a competent director who was dismissed by critics because his films were overtly violent and straight forward in their execution. The film probably has too many plot twists and characters, with the action changing from the Caribbean to the U.S too often and confusingly. The film is certainly not boring and you do get the glamorous Loren and the always good Coburn on screen together which can't be a bad thing.<br/><br/>Overall, a little too ambitious for its own good but if you are a fan of 70's films and thrillers in particular then this one is worth searching for. A Region 1 DVD release will hopefully appear some time in the near future.