Suddenly

I tried watching this 8 years ago on one of those cheapo public domains DVDs, and had this to say: “I watched about 20 minutes of this and had to stop.  The acting was horrible, even Sterling Hayden… ESPECIALLY Sterling Hayden.  Godawful dialogue too.  Sinatra is supposed to be good in this, but I didn’t have the patience to wait around and find out.”  This time I made it all the way through, and it wasn’t a complete loss.  Sinatra is pretty good, there’s some sharp postwar cynicism and one or two clever plot moments.  But yeah, the other actors are terrible and the script is crap.  Lots of overly patriotic mumbo-jumbo, and the fact that the obnoxious little boy doesn’t get murdered (spoiler alert!) is a huge disappointment.  Why does every hostage drama have to have an obnoxious little boy to fuck things up anyway?  It kind of makes me appreciate Funny Games a little more.  Rating: 4

IMDb