North Sea Hijack (ffolkes) (Assault Force) poster & wallpaper
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Roger Moore, James Mason, Anthony Perkins, Michael Parks, David Hedison ... see more see more... , Jack Watson , George Baker , Jeremy Clyde , David Wood , Faith Brook , Lea Brodie , Anthony Pullen Shaw , Philip O'Brien , John Westbrook , Jennifer Hilary , John Lee , Brook Williams , Tim Bentinck , Saburo Kimura , Eiji Kusuhara , David Lansbury , Alastair Llewellyn , Sean Arnold , Eric Mason , Thane Bettany , George Leach , Richard Graydon , William Abney , Lindsay Campbell , Robert Swan , Angela Thorne , Martin Matthews

Roger Moore took a brief vacation from playing James Bond in this witty adventure drama. Rufus Excalibur ffolkes (Moore), who for some reason prefers not to capitalize his last name, is a scuba-diving... read more read more... adventurer for hire with a sharp mind, a quick wit, a fondness for cats, and a certain distrust of women. When terrorist Lou Kramer (Anthony Perkins) takes over an oil drilling platform in the North Sea and threatens to blow it sky high if his demands are not met, ffolkes is called in by Admiral Brinsden (James Mason) to foil Kramer's scheme before it's too late. ffolkes, also released as North Sea Hijack and Assault Force, was based on the novel Esther, Ruth, and Jennifer by Jack Davies, who also penned the screenplay ("Esther, Ruth, and Jennifer," incidentally, are the code names for the ship, drilling rig, and platform seized by Kramer in the film). ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

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44% liked it

1,342 ratings

PG, 1 hr. 39 min.

Directed by: Andrew V. McLaglen

Release Date: April 18, 1980

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DVD Release Date: August 12, 2003

Stats: 65 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (65)

  • ajv2688
    January 8, 2011
    ajv2688
    The popular title for this movie is Ffolkes, which confused me for years about what kind of movie it might be, but it's a thriller in which Roger Moore plays "Ffolkes" a guy who trains himself and his friends to be able to take down enemies and/or fight for good causes. Perkins ... read moreplays the leader of a group of terrorists who want to blow up oil rigs in the sea. Both of them give good performances even if the story isn't that great. Overall, it's pretty good, and I kinda enjoyed it.
  • deano
    January 7, 2008
    deano
    Of course, no movie with Roger Moore is a classic, but this tongue-in-cheek spy thriller with the actor playing against his James Bond stereotype provides some good, campy entertainment.
  • moviefan1725
    November 9, 2008
    moviefan1725
    Roger Moore was without a doubt the prissiest actor to ever play James Bond. Here he plays Rufus Excalibur Ffolkes, eccentric leader of an elit anti-terrorist group. A man that hates women, and enjoying doing needlepoint tapestries of cats. His team is called in to service when a... read more group of terrorists holds a trio of offshore oil rigs for ransom against the British government. The group is led by Norman Bates himself, Anthony Perkins. So Ffolkes and his team are called in to thwart the terrorist plot before they can send all three rigs to the bottom of the ocean. This movie is a real guilty pleasure, but it's also extremely well made. The visual effect for its time are outstanding, in its rendering of the giant offshore oil rigs. The acting is uniformally sound, even with Moore being his quirky, and somewhat girly self. More of a tension drama than an action movie, the film does follow a somewhat formulatic plot that would be repeated ad nauseum in the wake of Die Hard. The lone man against the terrorists, that kind of thing. Roger Moore is not a tough guy, and in all honesty, he never tries to make Ffolkes a tough guy. But he's smarter than everybody else in the room, and he takes great pride in showing that he knows that. A very heavily slanted British movie, some of the things are lost on a Yank. Like the terrorists demands for "One thousand million dollars." Um...wouldn't that be one BILLION dollars? Oh well. It's a very entertaining action thriller starring one of the most famous wimps in action movie history. But that's the great thing about the 80's...anybody could save the world.
  • threefolddado
    June 30, 2008
    threefolddado
    Fun little action movie.
  • The80sExpert
    March 23, 2011
    The80sExpert
    Oh, I loved Anthony Perkins in this movie! He's such a good bad guy, his performance is fantastic in this movie. It was kinda funny how this guy, Ffolkes, just happened to be training these guys for just such an attack, but still, this movie is exciting and I really liked it.
  • DrrnHarr
    May 2, 2008
    DrrnHarr
    In this fun action-adventure Roger Moore leads a commando team that must come to the rescue of two oil rigs in the North Sea and a Norwegian cargo vessel that have been targeted with booby trapped bombs. Playing very much against type Moore's eccentric character "Ffolkes" doesn't... read more like women and instead enjoys the company of cats.
    The supporting cast of this movie is also extraordinary. James Mason plays a naval commander, David Hedison is the executive for the oil company and Anthony Perkins is the head of the terrorists. It is a tense, suspenseful adventure with the occassional light touch of humor and I highly recommend it.
  • splittailluvr
    November 15, 2006
    splittailluvr
    This movie is kind of a cross between a 007 and Die Hard flick with strange almost eccentric character played by Roger (007) Moore who openly dislikes women, loves cats, Scottish booze, and needlepoint.

View All North Sea Hijack (ffolkes) (Assault Force) Reviews

Critic Reviews

Steve Crum
October 15, 2004
Steve Crum, Kansas City Kansan

A mediocre modern high seas pirate tale.

Shane Burridge
June 28, 2003
Shane Burridge, rec.arts.movies.reviews

FFOLKES appears in the middle of Moore's run of Bond films, and you have to wonder how strongly he was attracted to the part just to escape that image

April 4, 2011
Variety

Click to read the article Full Review

Tom Buckley
January 15, 2005
Tom Buckley, New York Times

Click to read the article Full Review

Emanuel Levy
July 26, 2005
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com

No review available.

Carol Cling
December 5, 2003
Carol Cling, Las Vegas Review-Journal

No review available.

January 26, 2006
Time Out

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