Full Disclosure

At the same time, some radical friends ask the reporter to shield a refugee in his apartment. She is said to be a member of Peru's Shining Path. Ward doesn't want to do it, but agrees because he owes the radicals a massive favor from the past. Apparently, they kept his name out of a student radical bombing investigation that landed them in prison for 15 years. Little do they know how deep Ward's guilty feelings reside. Unknown to them, it was Ward who gave them up to the police in the first place, in return for anonymity and dropped charges.

The CIA contact provides Ward one more piece of information. He has also discovered the identity of the women who distracted the businessman's chauffer while he was killed. He even has a picture of her. Guess who it is?

If you guessed that Ward is sheltering the fugitive in his own apartment, you are an expert at improbable grade-b thrillers.

This presents many problems, of course. Since Ward had a scoop on information unknown even to them, the FBI is all over his ass. They think they are merely looking for his sources, and have no idea that he's sheltering one of the actual suspects.

That much of the plot was improbable enough, but to add more unlikely elements, somebody is upset about the fact that the three identities have been exposed, and has ordered up a hit on all three, presumably to prevent them from revealing higher-ups. So Ward therefore has the bad guys at his door as well as the FBI. What's a fella to do?

SPOILER COMING

According to cinema cliché rules, there's only one thing he can do. Fred has all this guilt to expiate, since he needs to pay back some karma from that whole wacky student incident, so he tells his editor he has another hot lead, and she allows him to have a chartered plane to go wherever he needs to go. He decides that where he needs to go is Asuncion, accompanied by the Palestinian radical in his apartment.

DVD info from Amazon.

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It turns out that she's just an innocent bystander, or at least that's what we are asked to believe, or maybe that's what Fred wants to believe, since he's in love with her. Yes, they had to throw in a romance as well.

After a few shoot-outs with the FBI (Christopher Plummer) and the torture-loving hit woman (Penelope Ann Miller), Fred and his sweetie get on the plane. There's one more surprise at the end, but I'll let you discover that one yourself, if you care. But I sure don't recommend watching this to find out.

The Critics Vote

Apollo 32/100

The People Vote ...

With their votes ... IMDB summary: not enough votes for an IMDb score. Apollo viewers score it 35/100

IMDb guideline: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence, about like three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, about like two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, about like two stars from the critics. Films under five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film, equivalent to about one and a half stars from the critics or less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

My own guideline: A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre. B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. C means it will only appeal to genre addicts, and has no crossover appeal. D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre. F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well.

Based on this description, this film is a C-. Not unwatchable, but a typically contrived genre picture with minimal ancillary entertainment or depth of characterization.