Customer Rating: 
Summary: Not To Be Overlooked
Comment: I can't understand why this film has been overlooked for so long. You've got Sidney J. Furie directing Sinatra and a solid supporting cast with a good storyline. Playing somewhat out of character as a fallguy trying to discover what's going on, Sinatra does an extremely credible job of portraying Sam Laker. Peter Vaughan, playing the "instigator" Slattery, is so good that I wanted to do away with him myself. It was great to see Nadia Gray again in a small but effective role. The only complaint is that it seems as though the entire film was dubbed in afterwards. There's a great and very satisfying finale that gives you reason to project what might happen next. This film deserves to be seen and I highly recommend it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: naked plot
Comment: This is a truly bad flick. Even the marketing catch phrase is nonsensical: "They found the key to Sam Laker. They wound it up tight. And then they turned him loose." You don't wind up a key, you use a key to wind something up. Good grief. The casting is also pretty wretched, with second-rate British actors utilizing German accents reminiscent of Hogan's Heroes. The kiddie actor who plays Frank's son is a cross between Danny Bonnaducie and little Anakin from The Phantom Menace. (This is not a compliment) The plot errors contained in the two positive reviews indicate how delusional these reviewers are. The story is convoluted and ridiculous. Let's see, a commie baddie has escaped from the British and instead of using any of their highly-trained agents to eliminate him they create an elaborate web to manipulate a former sharp-shooter, who has spent the last 20+ years in furniture sales, into doing the job. Yeah...
Then again, when we consider the pre-September 11th performance of the FBI and CIA, maybe this is how intelligence operations work.
Anyhow, Sinatra is certainly at his most disinterested. He filmed this movie immediately after his marriage to Mia Farrow, and subsequently walked off the film before it was finished(perhaps to be with his young bride?). Maybe this offscreen problem contributed to the choppiness of the film. In fact, the "minimalist" approach which the other reviewers tout was probably due to this constraint. The frequent use of doubles/stand-ins for Frank's role provides some unintentional hilarity. While this movie is not as passing-a-kidney-stone painful as a Van Damme or Martin Lawrence flick, do yourself a favor skip it. Instead, check out "The Manchurian Candidate" to witness a true cold war classic as well as a performance that demonstrated what kind of an actor Sinatra could be when he actually cared.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Edgy, minimalist, Frankenheimer-esque
Comment: An exceptionally tense, minimalist film that truly exudes the whole Cold War era angst and mystery of what lies behind the Iron Curtain. Though Frankenheimer did not direct this classic, it is reminiscent of The Manchurian Candidate, but much more chilling in its unsettling view of Big Brother Communism.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Sinatra at his best (4.5 stars would be my grade)
Comment: The Naked Runner is not as well-known as it should be. Frank Sinatra plays an ex-commando who is recruited to rub out a foreign leader. The people recruit him by abducting his son and giving him the ultimatum "Kill our enemy, or else." Sinatra is manipulated cleverly and battles against his own sense of right and wrong and the desire to get his son back alive. The film is entertaining from start to finish.
