Jack Elgin (Irons) is a hardworking magazine editor. He loves his wife, son, and daughter, and he decides to combine work with a family vacation when they all fly to India. Unfortunately, terrorists hijack the plane and kill a lot of people along the way - including two members of the Elgin family. Suddenly, the genteel Elgin becomes irritated and aggressive, and has revenge on his mind. After, typically, trying all the traditional channels to get justice, he realizes the only true justice will come by his own hand. Along his road to revenge he meets CIA agent Davidson (Priestley), FBI agent Bernard (Whitaker), and reconnects with old contacts such as a woman named Kate (Rampling). Will our unorthodox hero iron out the bad guys once and for all...or will he find out he has too many IRONS in the fire? Find out today...Before Taken (2008), Before Harry Brown (2009), before The Gunman (2015), and before the trend of what Hollywood snidely dubbed "GeriAction", we had The Fourth Angel. If a bunch of high-class British people made a Death Wish sequel in their own milieu, and instead of Charles Bronson got Jeremy Irons, The Fourth Angel would be the likely result. There's something awesome about Jeremy Irons one minute wearing white pants and a polo sweater or off pheasant hunting, and the next minute he's wearing the time-honored Revenge Jacket, speeding down the street on a motorcycle, smoking a cigarette and blowing away the bad guys with an arsenal of guns and grenades.Director John Irvin, who has had a long and distinguished career but would be known to us and fans of the site as the director of the classic Arnie vehicle Raw Deal (1986) - no one gives Schwarzenegger a Raw Deal, just in case you forgot - and Dot.Kill (2005), does more than a solid job; he is in control of the proceedings and directs with style, excitement, and fluidity. The Fourth Angel rarely gets boring, and you really care about Jack and his son. You truly want Jack to blow the baddies to kingdom come, but with style, aplomb, and some classic British restraint.The movie delivers the goods on a lot of levels, and is a satisfying watch. Irons is backed up well by his co-stars: Rampling has a small role but always adds something to whatever she's in, Forest Whitaker we all know has charisma and commitment, and Jason Priestley is too old to be a teenager, but too young to be a CIA agent. He's caught in the middle, age-wise, but we're glad he's here. We guessed the filmmakers thought Luke Perry would be too much of a Himbo to take on the role. So naturally they got Priestley instead.The Fourth Angel is certainly what you would call a classy revenge film, which shows that our favorite subgenre has many flavors and varieties. Just when you think you've seen 'em all, along comes Jeremy Irons to show terrorists the true meaning of "Class Warfare"! We give a hearty recommendation to this fine film.

Reporter Jack Elgin (Jeremy Irons) is taking his family on a plane trip, but terrorists take over and kill his wife and daughter. The Serbian terrorists mysteriously disappear with a $50 Million ransom. Nobody seems to know anything or want to help. Jack uses all his contacts to track down the terrorists and take revenge. CIA official Davidson (Jason Priestley) seems to be giving him some help. FBI Special Agent Jules Bernard (Forest Whitaker) investigates after some of the terrorists turn up dead.The story is unrealistic and convoluted. It's very odd to see a behind the desk reporter turn into Jason Bourne. The story just doesn't pass mustard. And I wonder how many times can people simply walk away from a big shootout.

The November 15th terrorist movement alluded to in this movie as the August 15th movement was a Greek leftist organization in the 1980's. It had nothing to do with Serbs. The names of the "Serb" terrorists are not at all Serbian names. The language spoken by the terrorists is not Serbian. The writers clearly did not do their homework, it would have made more sense for the terrorists to be Greek in the first place since the hijacking takes place on Cyprus, an island claimed by both Greece and Turkey and thus a source of much conflict. I believe the writers seriously insulted the viewers' intelligence with this script. I hope the cast at least received a good paycheck for this less than impressive film.

This is a movie produced before but close to 9/11, and it had to wait a few months before being released after the terror attacks. Unfortunately, the world had become since the scene of terror attacks that make the story here credible. However, the moral line of the movie is very questionable - as justifying people taking justice in their hands, in what is a very contemporary situation is not right and wise. Anyway, as one man justice is a movie theme since Westerns era, let us look to the movie. Quite well done, even if some of the details do not really match 100% percent. The best performance is given by Forest Whitaker who is better and better in each film I see him (but watch your weight, buddy!). Jeremy Irons who is a great actor seems to be a little be embarassed to have taken a role written for Arnold or Harrison Ford. Worth watching, but there are certainly better movies on the video rental shelves. 6/10 on my personal scale.