Deathline

Rutger Hauer has done a number of action films in which the story and overall production where much more entertaining e.g., "Split Second". However, I am an avid "Action" movie devotee and my personal appraisal of them is usually much higher than say, most movie critics. For what its worth, I think most action lovers would enjoy this film. I, however, never expected more than the action promised in the given film synopsis i.e., until I saw Miss Yvonne Scio. In my opinion, this young lady stole the movie in both an acting and physical sense. She has a wholesome beauty and a fantastic physical presence. I became a "Fan" immediately.

Further, I was just as pleasantly surprised with Miss Scio's action performance as I was with Mira Sorvino's in the "Replacement Killers". 'course the critic (Maltin) only gave this movie 2.5 stars and I thought it deserved at least 4.5 stars. Hell, I guess I'm still the only one who thinks "The Matrix" was the best movie of the year and can't understand why I must be the only one with such keen insight. Oh well, I'm buying the DVD (USA) version titled "Redline", if for no other reason than to ogle Miss Scio.

Wade (Rutger Hauer) is an American smuggler of biotechnology, during a Russian job, he's quickly disposed of by Merrick (Mark Dacascos). But this being the future, Wade is brought back to life via a clandestine soviet experimentation and goes about gaining vengeance on the people that offed both him and his girlfriend.

Make no bones about it, this film is highly forgettable, but for the time that it's on it's entertaining enough. A highly simplistic, derivative story for sure, however for fans of excessive cartoon violence and gratuitous nudity that doesn't advance the plot in the least bit you'll be entertained.

Eye Candy: Anita Neszmenyi; Ildikó Szücs, and numerous extras also appear topless; Szilvia Bizek & Yvonne Sciò show everything

My Grade: C-

DVD Extras: Picture gallery; trailer for this film; and Trailers for "On the Border", "October 22", & "the Peacekeeper"

Gee, what's not to like about this movie? The acting? It's serviceable enough considering this isn't a big budget film. Rutger Hauer's finest work is not demonstrated here, but still this is a Rutger Hauer film which means that it will be a bit different from the regular straight-to-video junk you see. The shootouts were laughable? Of course they were! Shootouts are always laughable in every movie in which a hero survives totally unscathed. The two notable exceptions are "Saving Private Ryan" and "Tombstone". There are a few others, but at least Hauer and Scio aren't sliding down glaciers on a car fender or something of that ilk.

Let's put things in proper perspective. When you have a movie that sounds good before it goes on paper, but doesn't look nearly as good after the ink has dried you find ways to make it not a complete waste of time. So you do the following:

1. Get Rutger Hauer

2. Buy lots of bullets (hero resistant, of course!)

3. Get a beautiful actress (and in this case

Yvonne Scio is a 10!)

4. Buy some more bullets

5. Show lots of skin (Nude female bodybuilders with

soft muscles...hmmmm)

6. Have sex ...lots of it

7. Buy a few more bullets

8. Kill all the bad guys (but only after you reveal

that some good guys are bad and worse than the

bad guy you were originally after who turns out

to be easier to kill than expected)

9. Throw in convoluted ending (like my previous

parenthetical remark)

10. Have more sex

For Pete's sake, people this is a cable channel movie. Enjoy it for the adrenaline and the visual pleasure. Don't get hung up on thinking about it. I'll watch this one again, if there isn't anything else on, or I need an Yvonne Scio fix.

This movie had the kernel of something different in its concept and layout, but blows it completely. Back from death movies with an action twist have been done several times, (good ones being "Robocop" and "The Crow") but this one doesn't even approach the philosophical aspects other than people looking at Rutger Hauer and saying, "I thought you were dead."

No, what made this movie start off different was the bizarre mix of old Eastern European backgrounds and settings with near future technology and lifestyle. This different look was reminiscent of (and done better) in Rutger Hauer's other recent movie, "Fatherland."

If the movie had tried it could have been a so-so Bladerunner set in Russia, or if it really made a leap it could have been something uniquely it's own. Instead it ruins any hope it had with endless shoot-outs and sex scenes. These in and of themselves don't make much of a plot or a movie, and I kept thinking of those parodies of Hollywood movies, which this one quickly became.

Low budget, near future Sci-fi (hanging on the coat-tails of Blade Runner). Basic movie making with enough bombs, bullets and female nudity, not to turn it down. Features B-movie heavyweights Rutger Hauer and Marc Dacascos.