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Best movie of this year hands down!

That was an excellent one.

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Cynical SAS captain Peter Skellen (ably played with firm and charismatic resolve by Lewis Collins) infiltrates a radical political group who are plotting a terrorist abduction of several American dignitaries who are visiting England. Director Ian Sharp, working from an absorbing script by Reginald Rose, relates the engrossing story at a steady pace, maintains a tough gritty tone throughout (thankfully, there's no silly humor with anyone making dopey quips after someone gets killed), generates a considerable amount of tension, and stages the explosive action in the last fifteen minutes with consummate skill and brio. Moreover, the filmmakers warrant additional praise for the way that they show how a group of left-wing radicals can be every bit as dangerous and misguided as right-wing fanatics. The sound acting from a sturdy cast rates as another major asset: Judy Davis delivers plenty of sexy and saucy pluck as passionate and dedicated group leader Frankie Leith, Richard Widmark portrays the role Secretary of State Arthur Currie with deliciously sardonic bite, and Ingrid Pitt radiates pure menace as the ruthless Helga, plus there are commendable contributions from Robert Webber as the hearty General Ira Potter, Edward Woodward as the pragmatic Commander Powell, Tony Doyle as the hard-nosed Colonel Hadley, and Rosalind Lloyd as Skellen's loving wife Jenny. Kudos are also in order for Phil Meheux's slick cinematography and Roy Budd's pulsating score. A real cracking winner.

... just look at the poor Robert Webber character (great performance, once again!) who tries to wrestle a sub machine gun from one of the terrorists. Everything in this movie seems to be a little wrong. The biggest mistake in my opinion is the effort to give the action a firm footing in the actuality of the early 1980ies (the fundamental difference between this flick and the far more fantastic, ironic and therefore timeless Die Hard). The story comes through as a failed attempt to glorify the SAS commandos. Ideas like when a commando shouts „heads down" all good guys do it and all bad guys don't so that they can blast away ad lib (with a good conscience), that the main character does not get mown down by the gas masked commandos although he wears the same clothes and carries a weapon from their arsenal just seem to be unlikely and make it hard to take the movie seriously. And it just happens that it tries to be more than just fun. Don't talk about the toilet-mirror-signal episode ...I don't mind the criticism of the Pacifist movement as a shield for evildoers and the arguments between the peace fanatics and the settled, even headed representatives of power in this movie. But the political comment is rather lame and uninspired. This is insofar regrettable as the movie features an early performance of Judy Davies. She plays the main fanatic and seems to have done extensive studies on the „subject". Anyway, her performance is a notch above that of the others and somehow I feel the movie let her down.

This is actually a pretty bad film. The ideology is not as perverse as in those films Collins made later. However, my main misgivings about the film are that it is implausible and quite frankly boring for a long time. The whole concept of an ex-SAS man joining terrorists for no particular reason isn't very convincing and you can't help wondering why a group of highly organized terrorists (who later become pretty clueless) fall for it. The film starts with a pretty powerful scene but then meanders for quite a long time building up towards the great finale. Overall, I think Who dares wins could have been an interesting 45 minutes episode of The Professionals but the story doesn't carry a feature film. Although reasonably successful at the time this film initiated the demise of Collins' career who in the eighties mainly made cheap and dubious soldier-of-fortune or army films. Pity, because he actually is quite a versatile actor but at the end of the day Martin Shaw chose his roles more carefully and has a career that's still successful.

This was one of the first movies I was allowed to go and see with my twin sister and friends back in the 80's. We were all big 'Professionals' fans.We were not disappointed, there were really good action scenes and the plot very much mirrored the politics of the time. Lewis Collins plays a convincing, arrogant, SAS captain, who is sent undercover to infiltrate a terrorist organisation. His plan does not work out. He was supposed to identify the terrorist target, but is always kept in the dark. This all leads to a dramatic climax as he plays the hero at the end of the movie.Unfortunately with today's hi-tech movies, this has dated somewhat but it does give a great snapshot of the 80's.