So much average

Just what I expected

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

European magazine editor Jeremy Irons (as Jack Elgin) takes his family along on a flight to India, where he plans to interview the Prime Minister. Unfortunately, the plane is hijacked by a terrorist gang (claimed to be Serbians). It seems like authorities get things under control, but their plan goes awry. A horrible tragedy befalls Mr. Irons and other passengers as they try to escape. When he sees justice is not being done, Irons jumps on a motorcycle and becomes a Super-Vigilante, knocking off terrorists with startling efficiency. Irons is a killing machine as well as a tender family man. Also involved are weighty FBI agent Forest Whitaker (as Jules Bernard) and suspicious CIA agent Jason Priestley (as Henry Davidson). A relatively sedate Charlotte Rampling (as Kate Stockton) dispenses advice and hints at a new family. The plot thickens with stupidity, and it ends with an explosive climax.***** The Fourth Angel (8/15/01) John Irvin ~ Jeremy Irons, Forest Whitaker, Jason Priestley, Charlotte Rampling

This movie, The Fourth Angel is quite good and it has two very good role performed excellently by Jeremy Irons and Forest Whitaker! The story is good the things in it allows Irons to do a lot. In Fact he does quite a bit in the movie. His performance is very believable as it makes the viewer believe something horrible happened to his family. The terrorists are different in the film. The music is pretty good and it fits the film very well! The scenes when Irons and Whitaker are together really makes the film good and Whitaker does a very good job here. I feel he is really an underrated actor. Plus I like to see two unusual actors together in a film and see how they can make it interesting! Jason Priestley was different in this one and he performance showed Me that he can be a big star! Really the part I didn't like is the hunting scene. Other than this is a decent film! If you want to see Jeremy Irons and Forest Whitaker is superb performance then watch The Fourth Angel!

I have appreciated Jeremy Irons since Brideshead Revisited. An actor of much skill and emotional range, he can admittedly be faulted for the occasional bizarre choice of rolls, for example the pedophile in the Lolita remake and the mad bomber in Die Hard 3, performances that surely have him waking up nights in a cold sweat. In The Fourth Angel, he takes on a semi-action role, which is not his usual casting, and yes, he pulls it off, because his character is basically a brainy journalist who stumbles into the world of shoot-em-up terrorists. If he is to survive, he must figure out how the clip goes into the AK-47 and how to work the safety, and learn it even as the killers are coming down the hall for him.There's no secret about the plot. His wife and daughter are slaughtered by terrorists and he discovers that governments are not going to lend a hand. The way he expresses both his grief and his outrage represent his art at its peak. This film is nicely written and paced, and reminded me of Defense of the Realm. The Fourth Angel has an important role for a young male actor, who does very nicely, and features a brief but pleasing appearance by Charlotte Rampling, who has made the transition from femme fatale to middle aged woman with great grace. (She will look better to some now than she did then.)

Jeremy Irons plays a journalist whose wife and daughters are killed right in front him during a plane hijacking; he is left alone with his 10-year-old son and finds himself unable to deal with the fact that these hijackers are going to be getting off scott-free. Being a journalist, he uses his skills to find out where the hijackers will be and he takes it upon himself to even the score. This is an extremely intelligent and absorbing film about a difficult subject, handled with skill and grace by everyone involved. Irons is superb, as always, incapable of making a false move; he embues Jack Elgin with a stunning mixture of rage, frailty, horror and resolve. Forest Whitaker, another brilliant actor incapable of a false move, is also used to fine advantage, as the FBI agent assigned to the case and finding himself -=- SPOILER ALERT -=- understanding and sympathizing with Elgin -=- END OF SPOILER -=-, and the appearance of the fiercely intelligent Charlotte Rampling certainly doesn't hurt. The film is very hard to find - I bought my DVD online through JumboVideo in Canada. There's a very cool Featurette on this DVD, where everyone involved talks about the making of the film in great detail, very satisfying.