VHS : Who Dares Wins [1982]

Rating: - Boring and implausible
This is actually a pretty bad film. The ideology is not as perverse as in those films Collins made later. However, my main misgivings about the film are that it is implausible and quite frankly boring for a long time. The whole concept of an ex-SAS man joining terrorists for no particular reason isn't very convincing and you can't help wondering why a group of highly organized terrorists (who later become pretty clueless) fall for it. The film starts with a pretty powerful scene but then meanders for quite a long time building up towards the great finale. Overall, I think Who dares wins could have been an interesting 45 minutes episode of The Professionals but the story doesn't carry a feature film. Although reasonably successful at the time this film initiated the demise of Collins' career who in the eighties mainly made cheap and dubious soldier-of-fortune or army films. Pity, because he actually is quite a versatile actor but at the end of the day Martin Shaw chose his roles more carefully and has a career that's still successful.

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Rating: - pure 80's hokum - and all the better for it !
For all those viewers of a certain age (ie who remember watching the storming of the iranian embassy live) this a thrilling blast-from-the past . i remember it being around the time of the brilliant "harrys game" , when the world was black and white , not various shades of grey - every schoolboy wanted to be in the SAS after seeing this - in the same way everyone wanted to be a hacker after seeing War Games . For those who loved war games , red dawn , firefox etc this is nirvana - yes the script is pretty laughable , the political ideology somewhat dodgy and almost completely unbelievable (yes we're going to kill 2 american v.i.p's on brecon beacons and "no-one's going to miss you !") but feel the nostalgia !

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Rating: - A Guilty Pleasure
I have to agree with both the good and bad reviews here for this movie. There are many valid reasons to hate this movie. On the downside, it's politics are terrible (nuclear disarmament bad - US Generals good), Lewis Collins' acting is beyond wooden, and all the decent action sequences happen within the last ten minutes of the movie. But, BUT - I think this film is great. The film rattles along nicely, real tension builds as the terrorists take over the mansion and as for the SAS storming the place as the film reaches its climax, well it's ace. Add into the mix a kidnapped wife, helicopters loaded up with SAS, the best/worst chat up line in a movie ever - "I want to take you to bed." and THAT amazing tracking shot of Collins running down a corridor brandishing an uzi flanked by two SAS commandoes - well, you've got a great no-brainer action movie. They really don't make 'em like this anymore.

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Rating: - One of the Greatest Movies of All Time
I first saw this movie when I was in college. At the time it was made, there was nothing more enjoyable than watching Lewis Collins and the lads slot two dozen anti-nuke, Marxist terrorists. Several years later, when I was an active duty US Army intell officer, I had the pleasure of meeting some real-life SAS people. They were just like the people in the movie, which is tribute to the film's casting. I wish someone would create a weekly tv series about the SAS in action. Maybe Brian Clemens could pull it off. I've given it five stars, only because there isn't a ten star rating.

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Rating: - Thrills you can chew on
Who dares wins is simply a fantastic film. Lewis Collins is great as an SAS Captain and the story is still current after so many years: a terrorist organisation taking hostages in the heart of London. The incidental music by Roy Budd makes it double the worth of watching. I was really dissapointed that Collins didn't take up Bond after this film. He would have been perfect as our suave secret agent 007. The Embassy assault is great and precise. OK it was filmed in the early eighties but if you ask me it stands up alongside today's action and adventure flicks. They don't make films like this one anymore and that's a fact.