August 29 – September 4, 1994<\/p>\n
TV Reviews<\/b><\/p>\n
FORTUNE HUNTER<\/i><\/b>
\nFox, Sun. SEPT.4, 7p.m.<\/p>\n
Tony Scott<\/i><\/p>\n
New spy series involving an agent out in the thaw on the heels of the Cold war depends on old-hat material from countless films and TV shows and not-so-dzzling gadgetry. If you can’t lick ’em with ingenuity, hit ’em over the head with a cliche – pilot’s delighted viewers will be young and guileless enough to think it’s all brand new. Bound to be around for awhile.<\/p>\n
Mark Frankel plays slick, Bondish Carlton Dial, now working for a spy bunch called Intercept on assignments handed to him by Mrs. Brady (played with a wry touch by guest starring Anne Francis). She tells him he’ll be working with tech whiz Harry Flack (John Robert Hoffman), who’s armed with an all -seeing, all-hearing device attached to Dial. Gadget magically displays all Dial’s activities on a widescreen in watchful Flack’s aerie and allows Flack and Dial to communicate instantly with one another.<\/p>\n
Dial chases after a fiendish device called Frostfire that dissolves folks. Opportunistic trillionaire Jackson Roddam (Chris Sarandon) is carrying this ultimate weapon around on his oil tanker off Tangiers. Dial’s competition for the terrible weapon is Danielle Fabian (Dana Wheeler-Nicholson), patriotic Russian spy who’s trying to protect her country.<\/p>\n
Drugged drinks, an evil villain, poker in evening clothes, dinner-jacketed fights, explosions, electronic machinery and familiar plotting add up to a spyorama lampoon. But young minds who must be the target audience are being exposed to second-bill action, off-the-rack dialogue (including one crude intrusion), unimaginative direction and casual acting.<\/p>\n
Frankel plays his superspy with studied nonchalance, and Hoffman suggests ever-vigilant, gleeful Flack is nothing more than a voyeur. Francis of course, is all pro. Wheeler-Nicholson plays her Russian straight, and sarandon limns the villain with traditional cool.<\/p>\n
If it’s supposed to be satire, the writer better look the word up. Meanwhile, pass the bubblegum.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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