Cheap Escape to Athena [Region 2] (DVD) (George P. Cosmatos) Price

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Customer Reviews of Escape to Athena [Region 2]

So the 70s was the last great age of movie-making, huh?
Escape to Athena is another nail in the theory that the 70s was a golden age of movie-making. It's a typical example of those transatlantic star-studded messes so beloved of Lew Grade after the modest success of The Eagle Has Landed led him to inflict the likes of The Cassandra Crossing (okay, that one is a guilty pleasure), Voyage of the Damned and Michael Winner's The Big Sleep on the world. A bizarre cross between Hogan's Heroes and The Guns of Navarone (well, director and co-scenarist George Pan Cosmatos was in charge of the luncheon vouchers for the extras on that one), it throws in everyone and everything but the kitchen sink in the hope that the audiences will be too dazzled by the three ring circus to notice that virtually none of it is any good. Thus we have Roger Moore as a corrupt Austrian prison camp commandant-cum-antique dealer, Elliott Gould as a bad standup comedian, Sony Bono as an Italian cook, Telly Savalas as a Greek resistance leader, Claudia Cardinale as the local Madame, David Niven as an archaeologist, Stefanie Powers as a stripper, and Richard Roundtree as a magician, all of whom know they're in a piece of rubbish and act accordingly. But then, what else is there to do in a plot (of sorts) that sees them take over a prison camp, save various Greeks from SS man Anthony Valentine's firing squad, destroy a submarine refuelling dump and blow up the local monastery-cum-V3 launching pad without ever managing to generate much excitement or interest? Aside from a nice throwaway cameo from William Holden reprising his Stalag 17 character, some good aerial photography and a surprisingly good motorcycle chase, this one has nothing much going for it, least of all the dire disc number over the end credits. <
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>For the more masochistic of you out there, the UK DVD boasts a decent 2.35:1 transfer, trailer and several cast and crew inteviews. <
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DVD available in Region 2 of fun 1970s action movie
Region-free DVD player owners might be interested to learn that a DVD of this fun 1970s actioner is available in Europe. <
>In this entertaining World War II action movie, two actors, who previously played the character James Bond, Roger Moore and David Niven (who spoofed the part up in the unfunny CASINO ROYALE) team up with previous Bond villain Telly Savalas (Blofeld in the excellent ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE) in an effort to destroy a Nazi missile silo in the Aagean Sea. <
>Niven and Savalas both seem comfortable in their roles as a British prisoner of war and a Greek resistance fighter respectively, only Moore seems uncomfortable in his role as a German officer and indeed his German accent seems a little forced at times. <
>But never mind the real attraction to this movie is the action and the comedic touches, with Elliott Gould (as a captured Allied entertainer providing a large portion of the latter). We have Moore tackling German frogmen, Gould racing through the streets on a motorcycle and an assault on a Nazi fortress among other action scenes. <
>It's an entertaining movie, in much the same vein as other Roger Moore movies of the 1970s and early 1980s (GOLD, SHOUT AT THE DEVIL and NORTH SEA HIJACK) and though Niven attacked another Aagean based Nazi fortress over a decade earlier in the superior THE GUNS OF NAVARONE, this is the perfect antidote for a slow Saturday afternoon. <
>The Region 2 DVD includes a rather interesting special feature that will hopefully be repeated when this is released stateside. In an archival documentary from 1979 the stars of the movie are interviewed not by professional movie critics, but by something much less forgiving - their children.

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One of the Best War Movies Ever (and a Rare One!)
OK, so not everyone has seen this movie in their lives, but this is a rare-see for cable TV viewers. Featuring Telly Savalas from "Kojak", this is one of ITC's best movies ever made -- but whatever happened to the studios after 1992? Don't they have it on DVD yet??