A Father's Revenge (1988) starring Brian Dennehy, Ron Silver, Anthony Valentine, Christoph M. Ohrt directed by John Herzfeld Movie Review

A Father's Revenge (1988)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Brian Dennehy in A Father's Revenge (1988)

Taken 80s Style

In Frankfurt the British and American crew of a commercial plane are kidnapped by a terrorist organization and held hostage at a secret location as they demand the extradition of their colleagues from America. One of those kidnapped is the daughter of American Paul Hobart (Brian Dennehy) who along with his wife feels helpless when they learn of their daughter's kidnap. When Paul starts to fear that his daughter is unimportant to the politicians trying to negotiate with the terrorists he decides to head to Germany himself. Still believing not enough is being done Paul takes matters in to his own hands and hires a group of specialists to track down the terrorists and save his daughter with Paul joining in the mission.

If they ever wanted to make another "Taken" movie with Liam Neeson they could use "A Father's Revenge" as the template with Neeson being the man who Hobart tracks down to help him rescue his taken daughter. With the mention of "Taken" hopefully it should be pretty clear as to what type of movie "A Father's Revenge" is although with it being a made for TV movie from the late 80s certainly lacks the edge, adrenalin and ingenuity of more recent similar movies.

Ron Silver in A Father's Revenge (1988)

Now the storyline doesn't need much explanation although it is worth mentioning one important thing because it sees Brian Dennehy delivering a bit of an action man performance. Whilst in the early scenes we see the character of Paul doing plenty of running and also coaching basketball we learn very little about him and so when Paul joins these specialists in getting his daughter back you do question the believability of it for various reasons. And then when we do get an attempt to explain it doesn't ring true.

Having said that "A Father's Revenge" is not a movie of depth and is basically one of those movies where terrorists get what is coming to them. There is no depth when it comes to killing someone linked to terrorists, no personal guilt or anything, just plain and simple bad guys and those connected with them get it. It makes it on one hand a weak movie but thanks to the performances of Brian Dennehy and Ron Silver along with Joanna Cassidy nice turn as Paul's wife Barbara it is watchable.

What this all boils down to is that "A Father's Revenge" is not the greatest movie you will ever watch and most certainly not Brian Dennehy at his best. But if you are a fan of the kidnap sort of storylines where someone tries to rescue a relative as in "Taken" then it might entertain.


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