Eli Danker Movies

Based on John Le Carré's novel by the same name, this story about Charlie (Diane Keaton) a female double agent working between the Palestinians and Israelis, loses some of the excitement and in-depth characterization engendered by the long novel -- mainly because the novel is hard to capture in a two-hour filmed format. But the action itself carries viewers along as Charlie ends up leaving England and her job as an actress in a Brit repertory company to meet Kurtz (Klaus Kinski) in Greece who recruits her as a spy. Charlie later has to handle her own emotions when she gets romantically involved with her Israeli contact (Yorgo Voyagis), though events move her quickly along to a Palestinian military camp near Beirut. Once she has passed herself off as a reliable Palestinian agent and completed her military training at the camp, she goes to Germany to hunt down a Palestinian terrorist (Sami Frey). Filled with a multitude of characters and locations, not to mention camera shots, the intensity of this story is dissipated somewhat by literally and figuratively covering a lot of territory, though the thread of the story itself is never lost. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Under Siege was first telecast in February 1986, a time when the notion of foreign terrorists in America was still speculative fiction. A militant group sets off explosives at US Army bases, then branches out to such civilian targets as crowded shopping centers. FBI director Peter Strauss discovers that these outrages are possibly being orchestrated by Iranian extremists. Despite pressure to take retaliatory action, US President Hal Holbrook continues to preach moderation, until he can be certain of the true source of the attacks. Under Siege was cowritten by Bob Woodward, of All the President's Men fame. Little Rock, Arkansas substitutes for Washington DC in several scenes, including one startling sequence set in the Capitol Building. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In June of 1985, TWA Athens-to-Rome flight 847 was seized by two fanatical, grenade-wielding Hezbollah Moslems. The hijacking was dragged out for 17 days, during which time several of the terrified passengers were beaten and one was killed. Written by Norman Morrill, the made-for-TV The Taking of Flight 847: The Uli Derickson stars Lindsay Wagner as courageous American purser Uli Derickson, whose knowledge of German enables her to communicate with the chief hijacker, a Shiite Lebanese who calls himself Castro (Eli Danker). When the ordeal was over, Derickson was credited with saving many lives and preventing the crisis from becoming far worse than it already was. It is a tribute to Lindsay Wagner's acting talent that, although most of the film's dialogue is spoken in German, the audience never has any difficulty following the story. The Taking of Flight 847 first aired May 2, 1988. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Actress Sondra Locke directed this visceral film noir about undercover cop Lottie Mason (Theresa Russell). A narcotics cop with the LAPD, she works a second shift at night as an undercover vice cop. Lottie works the bars and lures johns into the arms of the law. But her life is in a rut, and she would love to act on impulse like the narcotics and vice personas she adopts daily on the job. During the course of her duties, she begins a romantic relationship with district attorney Stan Harris (Jeff Fahey), who gets her involved with a case he is working on against a drug lord. But Stan is too nice to her, and she bolts from his apartment and into the nearest bar. After a few slugs of whiskey, she decides that for this one time, she will play out the role as a hooker, take a john to her apartment, and take the money. A guy saddles up to her and she goes back to his house. But the man happens to be the same drug kingpin Stan is building his case against. He is soon murdered, and she is left with a dead body and a case with $900,000 in drug money. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Although it claims to be "suggested by an Edgar Allen Poe" story, this British production is basically a remake of Karl Freund's 1932 The Mummy -- but with nude shower scenes. Tony Curtis, in the Boris Karloff role, becomes obsessed with a young blonde woman whom he believes to be the reincarnated spirit of an Egyptian princess. She begins having nightmares, hallucinations, and starts hearing voices, while people around her suddenly start turning up brutally murdered. ~ Brian Gusse, All Movie Guide

The sophomore feature of Israeli director Joseph Pitchhadze, Besame Mucho is a meditation on the nature of love. Set mainly at night in Tel Aviv, the film revolves around a group of characters who are all loosely connected to the theft of a Christian icon from an international crime organization. Besame Mucho was screened at the 2000 Jerusalem Film Festival. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide

After threatening to destroy an entire city block with a super-explosive, the fugitive Sloane (Ron Rifkin) slips through the fingers of the CIA, sparking a heated argument between Sydney (Jennifer Garner) and Kendall (Terry O'Quinn). Meanwhile, Marshall (Kevin Weisman) uses his photographic memory to track down a CIA security leak, little imagining that the trail will lead to the assassin who is posing as Sydney's murdered roommate, Francie (Merrin Dungey). In the climax, Sloane prepares to use the completed Rambaldi device for a terrifying demonstration of wholesale destruction and murder -- while Dixon (Carl Lumbly), feeling betrayed by Sydney and the CIA, refuses to take necessary measures to rescue Syd from the clutches of Sloane's sadistic confederates. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When an uptight federal agent's sexually liberated mother enters into an affair with a man suspected of being involved in an international art-theft ring, it's up to the fresh-faced agent to keep an observant eye on the couple in question in writer/director George Gallo's lighthearted romantic comedy. Colin Hanks, Selma Blair, Antonio Banderas, and Meg Ryan star in a Millennium Films production. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide