Live Wire (1992)-Pierce Brosnan (2)

Director: Christian Duguay

Stars: Pierce Brosnan, Ron Silver & Ben Cross

Genre: Action/Drama/Thriller

MPAA Rating:  R (strong violence and sensuality and for language)

Running Time: 85 Mins

Tagline: "Your body is 93% water... no one is safe"

Synopsis:

{According to IMDB}

"Danny O'Neill is a bomb disposal expert assigned to a case where terrorists have developed an "invisible" liquid explosive which is activated within the human body. The target of the terrorists are US senators, one of which is having an affair with Danny's wife"

Discussion

So one night I was looking around my movie collection and I realized I hadn’t seen this Brosnan Oldie. So into the DVD player went “Live Wire”; a movie where intelligence is thrown out the window and replaced with lackluster action. This is one of those movies that attempts to present itself as a “smart thriller” yet fails to deliver real thrills. However I have to admit, for the entire length of the film I was entertained, even if the majority was ludicrous.   The movie was entertaining, mostly, for how unrealistic it was.

Brosnan plays Danny O’Neil: Bomb disposal expert working for the F.B.I.  His persona is of a typical cool guy who looks like a mean badass.  His day begins defusing a bomb from a woman’s car; it seems her boyfriend wanted her dead, so the guy placed the bomb below the chick’s car. O’Neil manages to quickly defuse it and give the chick a real cheesy one liner “wear panties next time” After this scenario we find out O’Neil has a restraint order from his wife (which he doesn’t obey) it seems both are going through a hard time after the passing of their daughter, that drowned in a pool. Somehow O’Neil seems more concerned about the passing of his child then his wife…I sometimes wonder if the girl is from his previous matrimony…but it wouldn’t make sense because we see the event occur in a flashback, in the house where he lives with his current wife..Mhhm

So, the real deal isn’t the wife issue, it’s “Human Bombs” that are exploding about. It seems somehow, someone has found a way to create a liquid that looks just like water, be an actual explosive. After drinking the liquid...KABOOOM! So,the man behind the chaos is Ben Cross (The Unholy), he plays the head baddie, and with him is Tony Plana (Half Past Dead) together they are extorting politicians into giving in into the sicko’s plan. One by one, a senator, a judge, and another Senator who is banging O’Neil’s dumb wife are being blackmailed, they dont obey...you know what occurs. I swear, I cannot emphasize how dumb the woman was, sleeping with both men (husband and senator) and not giving a rat’s ass about her husband’s needs or issues. Anyway, I just didn’t like the lady’s character, curious because they center on her character a lot.  So O Neil has limited time to find out what is the main component of this substance, and where is deriving from. Initially, he had no clue it was a human bomb, spend quite a time searching for a detonator that didn’t exist, at least not technically.  You know, I’m here bashing the movie, and I actually enjoyed it. It’s just that it’s all way to silly, and it takes itself serious in some instances.  Setting aside the cons, the pros the movie has to offer are: cool and Sauvé acting from Brosnan before he donned the role of 007 James Bond. Also you have a steamy sex scene that is longer if you decide to watch the unrated cut; that is the only real difference from either cut: the scene is shorter in the R Rated Cut.

DVD

I got this DVD back in the day from Amazon; I recall it was about 10 bucks, new. Now the cost would be no more than 99cents. The movie has two cuts, the theatrical (85 min) and the Unrated (87 min) no real difference from either one. Biggest difference like I said was the sex scene, nothing more. 

Video

Presented in 1:85:1 the picture quality of this DVD upconverted isn’t bad at all. I saw a pretty high contrast overall in the presentation. I’m no HD expert, but I don’t think there is a need for a Blu-Ray, the source of this DVD looks fine enough. The only complaint I have is the dark scenes had some picture noise, but that was it.

Audio

 I thought the audio was just as impressive. The 5.1 Surround sound was enough for the explosions and gunfire in the film. The thing i liked the most was the intro, which has the most exaggerating opening. In big letters we see LIVE WIRE! The sound for the letters emerging from fire is explosive...and pretty hilarious too.

Bottom Line

Personally, even if this movie was silly and overall exagerating and unrealistic....I say buy it for PIerce Brosnan, who does a very good job playing the cool FBI guy who can detonate bombs.