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Who Dares Wins (1982)
"Die Hard" - take a hike!
With Roy Budd's thunderous theme music, spot-on cinematography and action set pieces refreshingly absent of blue screen visual effects. "Who Dares Wins" is pure action movie through and through.>
Lewis Collins' effective performance as Peter Skellern delivers Bond-style cheek and charisma especially during his scenes with Judy Davis (Frankie Leith). Although, sadly, cheesy dialogue and interaction with Rosalind Lloyd (Jennie Skellern) lets him down. A switch between the character of merciless undercover agent and likeable family-guy he's clearly not comfortable with.
Both Judy Davis and Ingrid Pitt carry off superbly powerful female roles written beyond token-women-posing-with-machine-guns. Particularly Pitt who's performance adds a sadistic ominance whenever she's on screen.
Action wise, several brutally vicious fight sequences added to the gobsmacking finale make this one hell of a movie.
Who Dares Wins does get bogged down a little in the posturing grandstanding of Woodward, Widmark and Davis late on where the focus changes.
Maximum plus points to Phil Meheux (cinematographer) for the truly heart-stopping footage.
All together a damn good 120 minutes and Britain's best shot at making an action movie. I love it, watch it whenever I can. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED and vastly underrated. Seventeen years on it's stood the test of time. Classic.