Escape To Athena [Blu-ray]

I was actually watching Suicide Squad & got so bored & confused with it I turned it off & put this Escape from Athena blu ray on instead, and well I'm still watching this. This has a mulitude of famous names in the cast, I suppose because Roger Moore was at this time in the middle of his 007 stint, He got top billing. This film coming out between Moonraker & For Your Eyes Only. It is an entertaining film with good action & humour also thrown into the mix. Roger Moore plays an anti-Nazi who is commandant of a prisoners of war camp full of big names David Niven, Sonny Bono, Richard Roundtree Stephanie Powers & Elliott Gould. With the help of resistance leaderTelly Savallas & his girlfriend Claudia Cardinale they all atempt to break out of the camp & rid the island of Nazis It is directed by Tombstone, Cobra, Rambo first blood & # 2 George P.Cosmatos . This blu ray edition has a great picture quality almost too good as some of the stuntmen are clearly visable doubling the actors. All in all its a decent film and way better than Suicide Squad. Incidently there are some very interesting little inviews on the blu ray of Escape from Athena featuring the stars being interviewed by their own children, which is odd but interesting.

I did not like the look of this film I though the cover picture made it look like a hammy vehicle for Roger Moore, Telly Sevalas and Elliott Gould, with David Niven there to try and add a bit of class and Stephanie Powers to add some gratuitous sex appeal. I was, however, taken in by all the positive reviews here so I thought I would give it a chance. The opening scene was spectacular and I was encourage but I was soon brought down to Earth, the narrative is shambolic, it was unclear what was going on until something started to happen (beyond a bunch of random war film tropes) about 50 minutes in.All the tension and rage the audience should be feeling is undercut by all the supposed humour mostly at the hands of Elliott Gould, who looks like he has strayed onto the set from a different film.Someone mentioned how brilliant Roger Moore is in their review! I stupidly reserved judgement despite the fact that he has played every character in every film/TV programme I have ever seen him in exactly the same. He is wooden and unbeatable in the role.I guess there is a place for this film in some collections but not in mine. I was taken in by trying not to judge a book (DVD in this case) by its cover, I should have gone with my initial impression; this is dreadful.

With such a strong cast one would hope for better things and it could have been, except for the mistaken casting of typically English (ex Simon Templar) Roger Moore as a German Officer - NO that just doesn't work! That classic error of mis-casting unfortunately ruins the whole film plot, only saved a little bit, with the gorgeous Stephanie Powers doing a burlesque style dance routine 2/3rds the way through. The German guards of the films prison camp were distracted by her sexy dance routine and thankfully, so was I!

I am a die hard fan of Roger Moore and love all his work. He is a wonderful actor and as the Nazi general Otto Hecht, he does not disappoint. He is great in this film. His German accent is amazing. Terry was also fantastic. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who likes a bit of action.

Set in 1944 German occupied Greece, some prisoners of war are used to dig for archaeological Greek treasures which in turned are looted by the Nazis and returned to Germany. The head (Telly Savalas) of the local resistance movement plans to liberate the POW camp while inside the camp, a group of prisoners (David Niven, Elliott Gould, Richard Roundtree, Sonny Bono) plot to escape and rob the local monastery of its treasures. This WWII action adventure doesn't seem to know whether it wants to be THE GREAT ESCAPE or HOGAN'S HEROES. The comedy elements border on the offensive amongst the indiscriminate Nazi executions and Roger Moore as the POW commandant is problematic. He's supposed to be a "good" German (actually, the film goes out of its way to make it known he's Austrian) and when Stefanie Powers has an affair with him, are we not to think she's a collaborator? The film meanders aimlessly for most of the film before whipping up a genuinely exciting finale as the resistance takes over a Nazi stronghold in the mountains. The pedestrian score is by Lalo Schifrin but Gilbert Taylor (DR. STRANGELOVE) does a nice job of capturing the island of Rhodes on film. With Claudia Cardinale as the local madam and William Holden whose brief presence as a POW is an "in" joke referring to his Oscar winning role in STALAG 17.The ITV DVD from Great Britain is a decent anamorphic transfer in its appropriate 2.35 aspect ratio.

How's this for a all star cast: Roger Moore, David Niven, Stephanie Powers, Elliot Gould, Telly Savalas, Claudia Cardinale, Richard Rountree and Soony Bono? All in one film! There's also the briefest of cameos by the great William Holden. Surely to assemble such talent suggests that this film started out with a promising script. It's a shame, then, that in the final analysis Escape to Athena is such dismal, amateurish junk.The story takes place on a Greek island during WWII. Various Allied POWs survive under the fairly relaxed custody of German officer Roger Moore, but they begin to form ideas above their station when they hear of a Nazi-occupied monastery nearby which is full of priceless art treasures. A small group of escapees scale the island mountains and attempt to steal the loot from the German forces.Everyone looks like they're on vacation in this one. Certainly no-one seems to give two hoots about the story. The action highlights are few and far between, and much of the comedy banter - intended to breathe life into the characters - falls horribly flat. Moore gets top billing but has terribly little to do with the story; Gould probably lands the juiciest role, but he overplays it to the point of irritation.