The end of The Cold War must've been just as frightening to Hollywood movie makers as it was to the Russian old-guard. As the Soviet Union disintegrated, Hollywood, realising it could capitalise on that, turned to plots where the huge weaponry amassed by the former super power fell into anti-U.S. hands.
Until recently, few movies, if any, have managed to take the present unrest in the former Soviet republics and make it into a workable action movie. Fortunately, The Peacemaker is one of those movies that succeeds to a limited extent in this regard, with a political statement thrown in here and there.
Ten nuclear warheads are stolen in Russia by capitalists seeking to satisfy supply-demand laws. Lt. Colonel Thomas Devoe (George Clooney) and nuclear weapons expert Julia Kelly (Nicole Kidman) need to find the weapons before they fall into the wrong hands. Unfortunately, they don't succeed entirely; Dusan Gavrich (Marcel Iures), a Serb/Croat/Muslim with an axe to grind, gets hold of one of them. Gavrich blames the western nations and their peacemaking efforts for the death of his daughter and wife, who were killed in a random attack in Sarajevo. Determining what he's going to use the bomb for, and how Devoe and Kelly stop him, is left as an exercise to the reader.
The acting by Clooney is decent, but unfortunately I can't shake the image of Dr. Ross every time he appeared on the screen. Kidman doesn't have much of a role, so it's hard to criticise her. In the movie, Director Mimi Leder does a decent job of showing the villain's side of the story, and Romanian actor Iures manages to invoke some empathy for his position.
The acting generally is a bit stiff at times. Since the movie takes its time to set up some of its background, there are times when it doesn't go fast enough, but I can live with that. The scenery and visuals are pretty good, and make this movie worth the matinee fare.