Disgraced former CIA operative Stephen Guerin (an excellent and convincing performance by William Peterson) lives in exile on the lush tropical island of Curacao. Guerin finds himself mixed up in a deadly insurance scam involving fellow expatriate and lone best friend Cornelius Wettering (robustly played by George C. Scott).While the basic story sounds intriguing and the picturesque island scenery sure looks nice, this film alas never cooks the way that it ought to because of pedestrian direction by Carl Schultz, an often plodding pace, James D. Buchanan's overly convoluted script, a crippling dearth of tension, and a narrative that gets bogged down in too much rather tedious talk without nearly enough exciting action to offset it. Fortunately, the good cast keeps this movie watchable: Julie Carmen as Guerin's hard-nosed old flame Julia, Alexei Sayle as the shifty Seamuller, Maria Elligsen as the spunky Diana, Dennis Lipscomb as stuffy superior Henry Rawlings, Philip Anglim as pesky detective Van Vlaanderen, and George Cheung as the slippery Worthy Hsung. Trish Van Devere is wasted in a minor nothing role as a secretary. Ellery Ryan's slick cinematography and the spare moody score by Colin Towns are both up to speed. A decent diversion.

OK modest budget (made-for-TV) mystery/suspense movie (with alternate title: "CIA: Exiled" -- NYT review under that name) maintains interest mostly due to another good performance by William Peterson as complex (flawed) 'good guy'. George C. Scott merely strolls through role as sort-of buddy and linchpin of mystery to be solved; other cast members entirely forgettable. well-written with OK direction but seems to have had ending altered from original to make movie more satisfying to mass TV audience looking for 'happy ending'. How surmise this-SPOILER!: a. Movie opens with George C. Scott cold-bloodily shooting young bank robber in back (after sweet-talking gun away from him) as boy walking away; b. Peterson back-story is as experienced CIA field-man who killed double-crossing CIA colleague and then 'exiled' by CIA to 'non-job' in Curacao; c. at end, Scott fakes death, escapes to small nearby island and asks Peterson (who leaving area) to drop by -- Scott tells Peterson that Peterson is only one who knows Scott still alive. OBVIOUSLY (only reason for a-b-c above) the original concept was to have sweet-talking Scott try to shoot Peterson in back as Peterson walking away -- but Peterson cunningly turns and shoots Scott (his 'colleague') instead and then tells him (in effect), "...don't confuse me with a scared kid in a bank." apart from (obviously) altered ending, movie is an OK hour-and-half (if popcorn at hand). Stock footage of Curacao pleasant enough; probably shot whole movie at Paramount lot and Santa Monica pier. BTW, perhaps Trish Van Devere's real role (as Rose?) was to play George C. Scott's main squeeze when they weren't actually on the set.

This is an intelligent and complex espionage thriller about "human assets"--not gadgetry. It's a story with grit and character--something we could use more of these days. It has more of an English worldly flavor than a slick and empty American one. The plot is timely, even though (or perhaps because) it's a 1993 movie. Greed, corruption at the government level, the little people who wind up paying. The main character is a jaundiced spy in the mold of Len Deighton's Harry Palmer. I watched it on NetFlix, who are using the inane title "CIA: Exiled." The production values are good, about B+ level. But these days I'd gladly give up some zillion dollar tripe for something that reminds me of life outside Hollywood.

I just saw this movie on TV. I watched it because I am a great fan of William Peterson and I thought he was appropriately moody and mysterious in it. I liked the story and the way it was told and the bits of "colour locale" of Curacao, i.e. "Karnaval", which lasts about half a year now, I have been told. George C. Scott was, well, George C. Scott. He was never a favorite of mine, but he did the usual job.What puzzled me is this: Trish vandeVere, Scott's last wife (how he ever could have picked this mediocre actress over the formidable COLLEEN DEWHURST will forever be a riddle to me, but then aging men do silly things) ... where was I ... Oh, ok, Ole Trish was billed as a major part, in the role of Rose.Did anyone who saw this movie ever see Trish, or a person named Rose? I did not. Perhaps she was cut out of the TV version, but it was already a made for TV movie... so what was up with that. Just billing and bucks?