The Osterman Weekend (1983)

Directed by Sam Peckinpah. Starring Rutger Hauer, Craig T. Nelson, Dennis Hopper, John Hurt, Helen Shaver, Chris Sarandon, Meg Foster, Cassie Yates, Burt Lancaster, Sandy McPeak. [R]

Anxious over uncovering a Russian spy ring, Hurt’s CIA operative recruits polemical news journalist Hauer, who just happens to be old friends with three members, to invite them to a weekend getaway and try to convince one or more to defect. A convoluted, paranoid mess of a movie, taken from a Robert Ludlum novel, lacking a conclusive wrap-up in the final reel. Loud, lurid and incoherent, it doesn’t possess a single character or meaningful incident to care about. “Spiced up” by slo-mo danger/action scenes, a good amount of gratuitous nudity (more of the disturbing kind than the titillating kind, anyhow), and a nighttime swimming pool turkey shoot, all to no avail in the face of such illogical disinterest. Burt Lancaster shows up on both ends as a morally-compromised CIA director, so completists can go ahead and skip the hour-plus between his appearances. Director Sam Peckinpah was reportedly quite ill during the shoot, which may explain why his close-quarters camera setups are so cramped, and his action shots are so inexpert; it wound up being his final film, and his worst.

27/100