Karlos
08-06-2011, 08:44 PM
I don't write many reviews, largely because there are plenty of people on here much better at it than I but after catching this latest DTV action flick I just had to step in and fire off a few words, even if they're only words of warning.
Ostensibly a vehicle for former wrestler-turned-actor Steve Austin, this SWAT themed actioner really caught my attention when I saw not his name, but that of Michael Jai White, who seems to have gained a huge amount of genre fan love after his recent offerings such as Blood & Bone, Undisputed II , the MK Legacy web series and, of course, the mighty Black Dynamite.
The basic plot is, well, as basic as it comes, fitting in the genre-all-of-it's-own, the Die Hard clone.
This time, it's "Die Hard in a nondescript Warehouse", and our heroes (Steve, MJW, Lexa Doig and er, some other fella) are undergoing SWAT re-training, after a supermarket shootout - shock, horror - leaves some perps dead.
For some reason this is frowned upon by the Powers That Be and so they are sent to said warehouse only for it to have not one but two groups of bad guys turn up and, finding out the good guys are only packing blanks, decide to take them out.
Ah, man, where to start?
The sole reason for these films to exist is to be action films: that's their purpose; to deliver fights, stunts, shootouts, all the good stuff, within 80 or 90 minutes or so -so why do this film think it's OK to tread water for at least 60 or so of those minutes with endless dialogue scenes that go nowhere and further what plot there is not a jot?
The action, when it does come, should be stamped with the KFC "Typical Wonky Cam and Poorly Placed and Paced" badge of dishonor placed upon it's sleeve as it almost slavishly adheres to the rules of how to mess up a fight scene with too-fast cuts, rapid editing and uninteresting moves.
The shoot-em-up scenes are just as bad (and brief), leaving me to wonder, what was the point of this?
Cast-wise, I have to say, MJW looks bored stiff as the meant-to-be comic relief good guy. Steve is Steve (I like the guy but he's not stretching any muscles here, acting or physical), Lexa Doig (who has done a fair few Sci-fi things, I think, including TV show Andromeda) gets very little to do, either; her one fight scene so fast and incoherent she might as well have left it to her stunt double to do (and mybe she did).
Even worse, the bad guys are uniformly poor, headed by a badly miscast Michael Shanks.
I've seen Shanks in things here and there and he seems a nice fella, so whoever thought to cast him as a Russian gangster should be taken aside and discreetly told how to cast for type.
There's some other dudes but they all just got on my nerves, the constant profanity and gun-to-head posing wearing me down after a half hour.
So, yeah, I didn't really like it.
What really made me write this is when I found out they are going to charge up to $30 bucks for this (on BD).
Please DON'T pay this; save your money for something way more deserving.
Ostensibly a vehicle for former wrestler-turned-actor Steve Austin, this SWAT themed actioner really caught my attention when I saw not his name, but that of Michael Jai White, who seems to have gained a huge amount of genre fan love after his recent offerings such as Blood & Bone, Undisputed II , the MK Legacy web series and, of course, the mighty Black Dynamite.
The basic plot is, well, as basic as it comes, fitting in the genre-all-of-it's-own, the Die Hard clone.
This time, it's "Die Hard in a nondescript Warehouse", and our heroes (Steve, MJW, Lexa Doig and er, some other fella) are undergoing SWAT re-training, after a supermarket shootout - shock, horror - leaves some perps dead.
For some reason this is frowned upon by the Powers That Be and so they are sent to said warehouse only for it to have not one but two groups of bad guys turn up and, finding out the good guys are only packing blanks, decide to take them out.
Ah, man, where to start?
The sole reason for these films to exist is to be action films: that's their purpose; to deliver fights, stunts, shootouts, all the good stuff, within 80 or 90 minutes or so -so why do this film think it's OK to tread water for at least 60 or so of those minutes with endless dialogue scenes that go nowhere and further what plot there is not a jot?
The action, when it does come, should be stamped with the KFC "Typical Wonky Cam and Poorly Placed and Paced" badge of dishonor placed upon it's sleeve as it almost slavishly adheres to the rules of how to mess up a fight scene with too-fast cuts, rapid editing and uninteresting moves.
The shoot-em-up scenes are just as bad (and brief), leaving me to wonder, what was the point of this?
Cast-wise, I have to say, MJW looks bored stiff as the meant-to-be comic relief good guy. Steve is Steve (I like the guy but he's not stretching any muscles here, acting or physical), Lexa Doig (who has done a fair few Sci-fi things, I think, including TV show Andromeda) gets very little to do, either; her one fight scene so fast and incoherent she might as well have left it to her stunt double to do (and mybe she did).
Even worse, the bad guys are uniformly poor, headed by a badly miscast Michael Shanks.
I've seen Shanks in things here and there and he seems a nice fella, so whoever thought to cast him as a Russian gangster should be taken aside and discreetly told how to cast for type.
There's some other dudes but they all just got on my nerves, the constant profanity and gun-to-head posing wearing me down after a half hour.
So, yeah, I didn't really like it.
What really made me write this is when I found out they are going to charge up to $30 bucks for this (on BD).
Please DON'T pay this; save your money for something way more deserving.