NOVEMBER 21-27, 1994 MACGYVER: TRAIL TO DOOMSDAY ABC, Thurs. No*. 24,8p.m. killed because he detected a secret Filmed in London by Gekko Film nuclear plant, and the trail leads to Corp. in association with Henry Win- an arms-peddling ring, though no- kler/John Rich Prods, and Paramount where near doomsday. Network Television. Executive pro- ducers, Henry Winkler, John Rich, Ri- It's obvious from the get-go chard Dean Anderson; producer, who's responsible, despite some red Michael Greenburg; co-producer, John B. Moranville; created by Lee David herrings, and the story is clumsy by Zlotoff; director, Charles Correll; writ- any standard. Scripter John Con- er, John Considine; camera, David Ged- sidine gets low marks for his pre- des; editor, Ron Binkowski; production designer, Tim Hutchinson; art director, posterous and unthreatening vil- Mark Raggett; .sound, David Crozier; lains, and for tacking on an extrane- music, Ken Harrison. Running time: ous green message. Not too much is 120MIN. Cast: Kichard Dean Anderson, Beat- made of the culture clash, but Mac- ie Edney, Peter Egan, Alun Arm- Gyver tosses out some funny Amer- strong, Bob Sherman, Lena Headey, icanisms during the last third. Nicholas Farrell, Robert Gwilym, Michael Cronin, Vincent Keane, Rocky Although he's matured nicely, Taylor, Nicholas Hutchison, Gabe looking remarkably like a long- Cronnely, Richard James, Wolf Chris- tian, Terry Richards, Karen Tomlin, haired Jeremy Irons, Anderson is a Huggy Leaver. surprisingly unsexy hero. Even dashing about in a red sports car acGyver is back — this time fails to give him a spark. on the other side of the At- The character is calm, cool and lantic. Unfortunately, his M humane, but when his ingenuity un- heroics in this made-for-TV movie have been conceived and ex- derwhelms, there's not much left. ecuted in an understated British The balance of the mainly British mode. Practically the most in- cast is fine, with Alun Armstrong trepid thing he does is look up an turning in an eerie performance as English castle in the library. the gruff chief inspector. Of course, the title character of the popular ABC series, which ran from Director Charles Correll lets 1985 through 1992, is not known for some continuity problems slip by, his brawn. But his trademark techni- but overall the production looks cal wizardry fails to inspire here. great. Director of photography Egghead fans of the series will be David Geddes provides beautiful, if disappointed when, during the cli- familiar, shots of London and envi- max, he randomly fiddles with dials rons, and production designer Tim in a nuclear weapons factory. Hutchinson creates some nice inte- MacGyver (Richard Dean Ander- riors. There's a fairly high body son) is in London for the birthday count, and a touching funeral mon- party of an old friend, Paul Moran (Nicholas Fan-ell), whose life he once tage lends some genuine feeling to saved. During the party, Paul is the proceedings. killed by terrorists and his daughter, "MacGyver" had a long enough Elise (Lena Headey), is kidnapped. network run to draw a decent audi- In his casual way, MacGyver sets ence. But this Thanksgiving filler out to avenge his friend's murder. won't lead to any new syndication He's backed by Paul's brother (Peter Egan), who's a billionaire in- deals, and don't look for fan club dustrialist. Ex-KGB agent Natalia subscriptions to jump. "True Lies" BACK IN ACTION: Richard (Beatie Edney) reluctantly lends a it's not, and a James Bond of the '90s Dean Anderson reprises the role hand. he ain't. —John McCarthy he played on tlie ABC series in MacGyver learns that Paul was "MacGyver: Trait to Doomsday.".