Expensively produced adaptation of Ira Levin's novel is a combination of Marathon Man and The Omen. The Boys from Brazil should have been intense and gripping, but it's weighed down by a convoluted plot spanning the globe with too many characters whose function is to provide exposition. Franklin J. Schaffner who often helmed large scale productions: Patton, Pappilion, The Planet of the Apes, Nicholas and Alexandria is a plodding director and this material needs a visionary. The film is watchable with some effective scenes and performances, and a sweeping score to carry it, but the sluggish pace makes it a long 2 hours. Jeremy Black is amusing as the boys from Brazil, Uta Hagen is memorably intense, and Olivier in role that provided him with his final Oscar nomination is basically repeating his Marathon Man performance. And though I enjoyed Peck playing the bad guy, George C. Scott who was originally cast might have provided a terrifying powerhouse of a villain that would have ignited this film.

In Paraguay, Barry Kohler (Steve Guttenberg) is tracking a group of Nazis. In Vienna, Nazi hunter Ezra Lieberman (Laurence Olivier) dismisses Kohler's discovery and tells him to go home. Kohler continues his investigation and finds Dr. Josef Mengele (Gregory Peck) arrive with plans to kill 94 seemingly ordinary 65 year old men from around the world. The Nazis kill Kohler while he's on the phone with Lieberman. Lieberman continues Kohler's investigation and discovers striking resemblance of the victims' adopted sons. The children are all clones of the Hitler whom Mengele hopes to scientifically recreate.I expected better. It's surprising how slow and prodding this movie is. The compelling aspect of the movie is the sinister plan. However it reveals too much of it too early and the plan is kind of silly making Mengele a Bond villain. On paper, it sound appealing to have an old master actor as a heroic lead. On film, the movie suffers from a lack of pace and tension. No matter how much Peck camps it up as a Nazi villain, this is an intriguing but slow thriller.

Laurence Olivier is perhaps the greatest actor in the history of the screen and great fun to watch in this somewhat absurd but thoroughly entertaining movie. He plays a determined Nazi hunter that no one takes seriously anymore who goes after a gang of Nazis who have just launched an outlandish plan to reconquer the world. I'm not going to spoil the plot of the movie, even though it's almost impossible to approach this movie without knowing "the big surprise", but for those of you who have never seen Boys from Brazil, do yourself a favor and try and watch the movie without prior knowledge and see how long it takes you to figure out the mystery.A great double feature with this movie is The Marathon Man, in which Olivier plays a Nazi war criminal. It's almost unfortunate the two movies were not made as one, so we could see Olivier hunt himself, but one doesn't get everything one wants in life.

Laurence Olivier stars as Nazi Hunter Ezra Lieberman, who is contacted by a young student(Steve Guttenberg) that he has discovered the whereabouts of infamous Nazi criminal Josef Mengele(Gregory Peck); Ezra dismisses it as a crank call, but when the student turns up murdered, Ezra decides to investigate further, and discovers to his horror that Mengele is alive, and working on a sinister plan to resurrect the Fourth Reich! Olivier is magnificent as the Nazi Hunter, a well-rounded and sympathetic, thoughtful performance; sadly it comes in a film that defies logic to such an extent that it feels wasted. Gregory Peck as Mengele is too one-dimensional; he is portrayed as evil incarnate, and that's it, as if Peck didn't have to try very hard, as a result, his performance seems campy. Idea of recreating Hitler is ludicrous, though climax with the Dobermans is memorable, and brutally ironic.Based on Ira Levin's novel.