I just have watched Icon on DVD and despite being a great book, the movie is a weak substrate from it. Those responsible for the writing should be banished to Siberia. Why they maul the great story with all kind of C-film subploys which are totally irrelevant to the story is totally beyond me.

Yet the filmmakers and cast do there best to make something out of it, but at the end the film was not satisfying at all.

Can someone please make a decent movie out of this to show how it is done. I'm sure that the crowds will rally for such a masterpiece novel turned into a book, not into a cheap C-movie.

First of all, I want to say the shots of Russia, with it's beautiful fairy tale like palaces are absolutely breathtaking. It's a nice bonus. Even if you don't care for this mini-series, you'd enjoy looking at the wonderful views of Russia.

This mini-series is kind of mediocre story-wise, but the great performances of all the actors really blew me away. I think Patrick Swayze makes a great action hero star and I'd like him to make more films like this. He still got a great body, but he has aged a lot. He looks kind of lean and hungry and he is perfect in this role of the spy coming out of retirement to investigate the theft of a horrific virus from a chem lab in Russia. Patrick Bergin makes a terrific villain! His eyes were absolutely icy looking and he looked psychotic and evil. Ben Cross plays the usual cool bad guy and Jeff Fahey, surprisingly plays against type, he plays a wimpy publicist to the evil Kamarov.

This is a film where the good guys are very, very good and the bad guys are very, very evil! There are no shadings of Gray to confuse the audience. There is however, a lot of great action scenes and a great musical score to go with these action scenes! The ending is absolutely cool with the masses rising up against the tyranny of the president. As a matter of fact, it's a revolutionary's dream! This is a great "B" mini-series and the whole family can watch it because even though it is violent, it is not too graphic.

I like this a lot, the film kept me engrossed and entertained, and some times, that's all one ever wants in an action film!

I'd like to point out some positive things about ICON - the lead review here at IMDb pounded this telefilm pretty hard! lol. There were several decent action sequences (by 'decent', I mean much better than those silly ones on '24' where the good guys show up with tiny pistols and no flak-jackets or radio-gear). Lots of flash and bang - a truck blows up early in the film, which is sort of a launching point for the plot. Looked realistic to me, not unlike the sequence in the recent 'Quiet American'.

There were good actors: Barry Morse (still alive?) and Ben Cross. Swayze (Jason Monk) is OK, but maybe miscast in this one - he doesn't have the right face. I thought the Russian urban scenes were impressive - it's a beautiful country, you know. I liked 'the Saint', 'Hunt for Red October' and 'Russia House' - films with insight into the Russian culture - and problems. That's why the book 'ICON' and this DVD appealed to me.

However, I don't know why the writers chose to stray from Forsythe's super novel, which is in my top-10 favorites. I thought the basic novel plot was a natural screenplay: the ICON's grim political manifesto - and how it falls into Western hands. Also, Monk's early career unfolds as the CIA loses to the Russians in the spy game before the Cold War ends. This gave us some insight into Monk's skills, espionage background and disillusionment, but the screenplay follows a different track. The writers added a pretty female agent, and an ex-family for Jason Monk.

Up here in Canada, PG-13 'Action' films are hard to come by ('Munich' was just released as 18-A). This film has no sexual scenes or profanity. So, watch it for fun -- and then read the book for the real thing.