Overall evaluation: good enough way to spend a Friday evening
As you probably know, _The Peacemaker_ is about Nicole Kidman and George Clooney running around the world trying to stop a nuclear terrorist from blowing up the UN. Much of the film, though well executed, is cliche within its genre.
For instance: many of the scences, espeically with the bad guys, are filmed "darkly"; the Church in the beginning, the Russian missle storage area, and the train ride are all filmed with only a minimal light in the foreground, and dark shinyness in the background. Of course this is nothing really new; just the methods which the cinematographer does it in. Just like in _Face Off_. Just like in _The Rock_. Just like in _Crimson Tide_. The sun shines brightly whenever the hero and heroine are around trying to stop the baddies; and the camera picks it up beautifully.
Audiowise, the bolt and slide action, as well as the safety fumbling of the character's firearms are quite prominently recorded. I suppose the idea is that audieces get scared when they hear things like that they'll instinctivley start to tremble. (No, the producers are not trying to be realistic. No one can so perfectly manipulate firearms parts; those sounds should be pretty quiet; and the actual shot should be literally deafening in a movie theater).
The music sounds like a rehash of _Crimson Tide_. Much of it uses the same instruments with a similar progression of notes to the previous picture (though it is much more authorative in the older movie). _The Peacemaker_ even uses a soupy men's chorus to create dramatic tension (again, same as in the older picture, which uses a soupy playing of Navy's hymn "Eternal Father" to make a sub dive look impressive).
Now it may seem that the things I've babbled about above are supreficialities. But they really are not; the way the picture is filmed, the way the audio mixed, the way the music put out, are all the primarly means by which audience feelings and suchforth are manipulated. Any good film will play around with those elements well.
more cliches: The Russians call each other "tovarish" or comrade (AFAIK, that went out, even in the Army, after the the Soviet Union fell).
The bad guys have their own private "professional special forces/SWAT team" (goons with night vision goggles, "tactical black BDUs", MP5SDs and laser sights :P ) to commit important acts of terrorism with.
Everywhere the main characters go, especially their command centers, are crawling with people rushing saying all sorts of things frantically.
The scriptwriters use lots of fake CNN reports to explain what's going on.
However, despite the fact that I got a sensation of "deja vu" when I saw the picture, it isn't really a _bad_ film. The lead characters are OK; they pretended they knew what they were talking about/doing reasonably well. The scenes were reasonably exciting. All in all, a good popcorn movie.
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