Distant Shadow

Strong and inventive contributions from production designer Paul Combellack and cinematographer Jon Ford are laid low by a screenplay which manages to become increasingly preposterous as this English-made film progresses. The storyline involves a massive effort by an unidentified and obviously incompetent government agency to recover a stolen computer tape that contains a bureaucratic program to spread AIDS among sub-Saharan Africans. Battling against this force of evil are a young man and woman who put forth a heroic effort in repeatedly dodging countless rounds fired at close range from semi-automatic weapons by terminally imbecilic and largely doomed gunmen of the state. As the primary government henchman, Trevor Byfield provides a performance replete with most of the properties of sleaze, and is obviously enjoying himself to the utmost. Director Howard J. Ford certainly has an artistic grasp upon how to create a film and the first portion of DISTANT SHADOW shows nary a dull moment; however, he apparently runs out of fresh concepts well past the point when the scenario fails him, and he cannot be faulted for that.