Escape to Athena

In the large subgenre of men-on-a-mission war movies, 1979's Escape to Athena ranks somewhere in the middle of the pack, joining other WWII stories in which a motley band of all-star international character types band together for a caper or a suicide assignment (think: Kelly's Heroes or The Guns of Navarone). The action here is set on a German-occupied Greek island where the Nazi baddies not only have a prison camp and U-boat port, but are also conducting secret tests on V-2 rockets. Add to that an important archeological site and priceless treasures hidden in an old monastery and you've got both a caper and a mission. Roger Moore leads a cast that includes David Niven, Telly Savalas, Elliott Gould, Stefanie Powers, Claudia Cardinale, Richard Roundtree, and Sonny Bono, all of whom end up fighting for good in both the military operation and the quest for plunder. The actors here basically schmooze and mingle on their nice Mediterranean vacation, giving lackadaisical performances displaying various degrees of irony and melodrama. There's humor on hand, of course, scattered amongst the steady stream of tepid action sequences, backed with some lovely helicopter travelogue footage. Escape to Athena represents a kind a whimpering end to a generational genre (recently reborn in The Monuments Men), but one that will give WWII buffs another rosy reminiscence of the greatest generation. A strong optional purchase. (T. Fry)