AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Lollivan It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Mandeep Tyson The acting in this movie is really good.

American_Delight Far from being an irrelevant glimpse of an alternate history that never materialized, the fictional re-invasion of Kuwait by Iraq in "Deterrence" provides a highly relevant alternative to the U.S. approach to rogue states in the world today. With the U.S. fighting two wars and the budget looking grim, it crosses the mind of even the most hawkish among us whether feckless air wars and costly ground wars are worthwhile. The alternative is simple, elegant, and ghastly: a promise to drop a nuclear bomb on our enemy if they do not meet U.S. demands. Imagine if Afghanistan or Pakistan had been told in September 2001 to turn over Bin Laden and Mullah Omar or face the imminent nuclear annihilation of Kabul and Islamabad. Would Bin Laden not have been swinging from the end of a noose ten years ago? It's a compelling and stark bit of realpolitik, suitable for discussions at the café among political intellectuals. But it works well as drama too as we watch Kevin Pollak's character, Walter Emerson, grow in the movie from a mousy, underwhelming "second banana" into a steely, decisive leader. Director Rod Lurie says that ultimately, Pres. Emerson is a villain for making such a heinous threat. Viewers can make up their own minds. Some of the scenes involving the local customers in the diner border on cheesy, awkward, or artificial; but the tension, surprising decisions, and political intrigues played out in this film make it a must-see national security drama.

Theo Robertson Often you have to suspend disbelief in order for a cinematic story to work and I think I'm right in saying all screen writing gurus agree you're allowed to get away with one implausibility/coincidence in your story . In DETTERENCE this would probably mean that the Iraqis would be able to mobilize their entire armed forces without the Americans noticing , allowing the president to trapped in a diner during a snowstorm . I'd be the first to admit that this takes some swallowing but if you watch a film too closely then very few films you see will ever work so let's ignore the unlikeliness of it Unfortunately what happens next is that the audience become more and more aware of factual errors and implausibilities throughout the running time . We're told that Iraq " has sent three divisions ...half a million men into Kuwait " I'm fairly certain that in military circles a division is composed of 8,000 to 10,000 troops not 133,000 as stated here . The President decides to nuke Iraq but since Iraq also has nuclear weapons there's a danger of a nuclear counterstrike . This is the main stumbling block with DETERRENCE because it's impossible to believe the Iraqi regime would ever be allowed to posses such an arsenal . And if that leaves you scratching your head wait till it's revealed at the end that America and France were responsible for supplying the Iraqis with the bomb " so that Iraq wouldn't be able to manufacture its own nuclear deterrent " ! Let me think , America and France will supply Iraq with nuclear warheads and a delivery system so that the Iraqis won't manufacture their own weapons of mass destruction . When you've got something as ridiculously illogical as that in your screenplay then it's easy to miss other factual errors like a B-2 bomber being confused with a F-111 , Baghdad having a population of 12 million people or stock footage of Baghdad being in the center of the Pacific ocean as it's destroyed by a 100 megaton bomb I'm sure writer/director Rod Lurie originally conceived this story for the stage . It's impossible to watch this thinking it's a cinematic movie and alas Lurie has written his characters as stereotypes such as the hick redneck , the angry blackman etc . It's not helped either that the cast give far from compelling performances . Hutton may be excused for slapping his head too often because that's how I reacted to the unconvincing dialogue while Kevin Pollack doesn't come across as being very presidential but that is the point - his character isn't supposed to be presidential at all . But there's far better , more realistic movies similar to this like FAIL SAFE which was made during the cold war where the premise was so compelling because it was frighteningly realistic . Realistic isn't an adjective I can use for DETERRENCE

beades A very strange, ill-directed mess. Starts in black and white, for no evident reason. It includes a waitress character who's supposedly French-Canadian but sounds more like a, oh, Romanian or something. The basic plot -- a presidential candidate marooned in a diner during a Colorado snow storm, finding himself the unexpected commander in chief dealing with a sudden war in Iraq -- is nonsensical and absurd.The acting is appalling throughout -- actors doing the job for the paycheque, under the direction of a hack.This would have been a bad made-for-TV movie.It's an utterly terrible attempt at satire, which turns out a foolish mess.Avoid this crap if you can.

imdke I enjoyed the drama much more than the pedantry. It can be argued that only the certifiable would favor starting a nuclear war. Stanley Kubrick made that clear in STRANGELOVE. At the end, Pollock finally lit his soggy cigar: Is this a veiled reference to Curtis LeMay, another short, cigarred warrior, considered psychotic by many? I must comment on Lurie's statement in the Director's Commentary that nuking Japan, according to historians, was unnecessary, and that the casualty projection (@ one million) rate in an invasion was a cynical overstatement. That may be politically correct and VERY Hollywood, but it fails to consider the condition of our own armed forces and the nation. We, too, were exhausted. It has been said that Admiral Halsey, following the Okinawa invasion, did not think that he could fight any longer and wanted to resign. And he was a pretty tough cookie. I suggest the Mr. Lurie might have been less white whine and brie preachy.