Good start, but then it gets ruined

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

CIA director Maxwell Danforth (Burt Lancaster) does a deal with the Soviets and let them kill agent Laurence Fassett (John Hurt)'s wife. Fassett is unaware of the deal and is tracking down Soviet agent Omega. He tells TV personality John Tanner (Rutger Hauer) that his friends are all working for Omega. Tanner and his friends are gathering for the weekend. Fassett sets his home up with surveillance. Tanner tries to send his wife Ali (Meg Foster) and son away but they are almost kidnapped. Tanner's friends include his TV producer Bernard Osterman (Craig T. Nelson), plastic surgeon Richard Tremayne (Dennis Hopper) and his coke-snorting wife Virginia (Helen Shaver), and stock trader Joseph Cardone (Chris Sarandon) and wife Betty (Cassie Yates).This story is a mess and the execution doesn't solve anything. Director Sam Peckinpah's last feature film is full questionable things. It's too many to list. Even his action sequences are badly done. He overuses his trademark slow motion shots which seems very dated. Other action directors have pass him by. Then there is the plot. It's not simply plot holes but more about motivations. I don't understand why Fassett is doing what he's doing. It's all quite a mess.

The Osterman Weekend was Sam Peckinpah's farewell film and as a final fadeout doesn't measure up to Ride The High Country, The Wild Bunch or Junior Bonner. But it seems to have its supporters.A Robert Ludlum spy novel is something I would think would appeal to a Sam Peckinpah as his kind of screen material. But he did adapt it as best he could to his own style.John Hurt is quite the puppetmaster here and he's planning some big time revenge for the CIA killing his wife whom they suspected of being a Soviet agent. None other than Burt Lancaster who as the head of the Central Intelligence Agency takes out of mothballs his characterization of James Mattoon Scott the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from Seven Days In May.But part of that scheme is to use sensationalist TV newscaster Rutger Hauer to convince three friends of his and their wives to spend a weekend with him. The six are Craig T. Nelson, Chris Sarandon, and Dennis Hopper and wives Helen Shaver, Cassie Yates, and Meg Foster. It all starts out nice, but pretty soon the house which has every room bugged becomes a killing ground soon enough.I don't want to go into more detail as this does take quite a turn and neither Hurt or Lancaster have clean hands. And the people spending time on that Osterman weekend aren't Boy and Girl Scouts.Sam Peckinpah gets a pair of violence ballets into the film, first with a fight sequence between Hauer and Nelson and later a long involved sequence in a swimming pool where Hauer and Nelson are held prisoner there by machine gun fire until a most interesting rescue.I'm willing to bet that Ludlam's original story was far more cerebral than what Peckinpah gives us. Still for admirers of this director this should satisfy them.

Action movie in Peckinpah style with tension , intrigue , thrills , gushing blood and violence . The one weekend of the year you won't want to miss. The host of an investigative news spectacle (Rutger Hauer,first major character in a Hollywood movie played by Dutch actor) is assigned a dangerous mission As TV show hosted by television journalist John Tanner is called "Face to Face" and he is convinced by a CIA operative (John Hurt was second billed) that the friends (Chris Sarandon , Dennis Hooper , Craig T Nelson) and wives (Helen Shaver ,Cassie Yates) he has invited to a weekend party are Russian spies from a secret organization . The name of the Soviet spy network was "Omega".This actioner and suspenseful movie tells a convoluted and complicated tale of vendetta , espionage and treason . Interesting but slightly boring spy film , including an overly complex and confusing script , even though at times it is admittedly engrossing . The picture was made and released about eleven years after its source novel of the same name by Robert Ludlum had been first published in 1972 . Sam Peckinpah was fired as director during post-production. Others were Convoy and Ride the High County . When he refused to re-edit Osterman weekend after it was screened for a test audience and met with a confused and extremely mixed reaction. Producers took over the editing with the assistance of the editor , drastically altering opening and ending sequences. Mediocre and dark cinematography by John Coquillon , in fact , the picture involved a considerable amount of filming at night. It was filmed at a 1950s ranch located in upper Mandeville Canyon in the Hollywood Hills , it was a property once owned by Robert Taylor and has been frequently been known by the names the "Taylor Estate" . Anti-climatic soundtrack by Lalo Schifrin composed by means by synthesizer . Director Don Siegel, long time friend and mentor to Sam Peckinpah, recommended Lalo Schifrin as the film's composer. Schifrin had scored five of Siegel's movies ; composer Lalo Schifrin had to sit by Sam Peckinpah's sick bed in order to spot the film and decide which scenes did or did not need music. Final film of director Sam Peckinpah. The picture was also Peckinpah's big "comeback movie", it was his first in five years, his last film having been at the time Convoy back in 1978 . The movie is also Peckinpah's only feature film of the 1980s decade . The production shoot for this film ran for fifty-four days . Director Sam Peckinpah was in ill-health throughout the shoot as the long-term toll of his drug and alcohol abuse suggested to many in the production that he was dying. Peckinpah after beginning as a writer , was soon involved in TV Westerns at the peak of his popularity ; shooting series just like ¨¨The Westener¨, ¨Gunsmoke¨and most popular ¨Rifleman¨, moving into films by 1961 when he made nice impression with ¨The deadly companions¨, ¨Ride the High Country¨ , Major Dundee¨ and his best picture ,Wild Bunch¨ . After that , he concentrated on nail-biting and tougher-than-tough action films just like ¨The getaway¨, ¨Convoy¨, ¨the ¨killer elite¨ and this last movie ¨Osterman weekend¨ . The final title as violent and nice as anyone the Western or wartime genre has given us .

The last hurrah of legendary maverick director Sam Peckinpah was a cynically interesting, but unsatisfying accomplishment. Taken off Robert Ludlum's novel, and penned by Alan Sharp. This tight and calculated adaptation on the intrusiveness of media manipulation and surveillance for personal gain effectively exposes the dark corrupted underbelly, and the paranoia that follows it within the Cold War era. It's quite a topical subject. The complex script can feel convoluted, but the lean and nervous layout pulls you in. Appearances can deceive, and it becomes a real relationship tester between the characters on just who's behind the puppet work. The drama within these moments work well, and draw you in as the characters begin ask questions about each other, and their motives. Although the more I think, and concentrated on the plot details. The more I seemed to question the story's progression, and outcome. Sure it compels, but it leaves some niggles.Leading the way is a very solid showing by the ensemble cast of character actors. Rutger Hauer' superbly uneasy, but patriotically brave lead performance heads up the cast. John Hurt builds quite a good turn, in getting you suspicious about his CIA character. The three men that are under the microscope are brilliantly played by a twitchy Dennis Hopper, hasty Chris Sarandon and a spiritually calm Craig T. Nelson. Showing up in strong support are the ladies too. Meg Foster ably holds her own with a hard-nose turn. Her eyes are beautifully striking. Helen Shaver is lively seductive and lewd, as Hooper's cocaine addict wife and Cassie Yates is prominently good. Burt Lancaster's small, but controlled performance lends well too.Peckinpah's structured direction features a lot of his recognizable staples. Like his precisely polished set-pieces of slow-mo (no one else does it better) to the kinetic camera-work and the poetic-like violence. It's beautiful to watch, and quite suspenseful. However sometimes it just felt like an uneven balance between what the writer wanted, and Peckinpah visualised. Technically the film was competently executed, but seemed a little cold. Lalo Schifrin's fantastic music score is experimentally saucy, and eerie with some delicate acoustic touches.Intellectually too smart for its own good? Maybe, but this paranoia political thriller does keep one watching until the end.