En poder del mal

Before I start my review I should give some history of the director of this mess: Jim Wynorski. He goes under many pseudonyms: Jay Andrews (His usual hide name) H.R. Blueberry, Harold Blueberry, and Bob E. Brown (Heh-Heh). He also uses stock footage from other movies. I'll get to that... now to my review already in progress...

Treat! No! How could you, man! You're really hurtin' for cash I see.

The plot: A plane carrying a doomsday device is stranded near a mountain and FBI Agent Jason Ross (Williams) has to save some people before the world explodes.

Wow, this movie is cheap! There's scenes lifted wholesale from "Long Kiss Goodnight", and "Cliffhanger". Not ripoffs, but the actual scene! What they did film is rubbish. All the actors (except Treat) are awful and need to rip up their "SAG" cards. There's one scene with a bear that's hilarious! You can plainly see there's a man in the suit.

Unfortunately, Treat made another movie with Jim: "Gale Force". Don't get me started about the movies Treat made with Fred Olen Ray, "Critical Mass", and "Venomous".

"Prince Of The City", "Deadly Matrimony", and even "Third Degree Burn" are better than this. Don't punish yourself like I did.

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If it's variety you're after in an action flick, this is the movie for you.

We've got the CIA; avalanches; diabetic Dads; gullible train conductors; Christmas parades; ludicrous doomsday devices.

Exploding helicopters, exploding trucks, exploding airplanes, exploding cars, and exploding bicycles. (Okay, not bicycles, but only because the producer had already filled the movie's quota of exploding transportation.)

White mountain goats; beautifully appointed vacation houses with working phones out in the middle of nowhere; internet rumors.

And Bongo the Bear.

We also have CIA agent Treat Williams merrily wisecracking all through the film, no matter how many people are slaughtered right in front of him. The CIA obviously gives some of their agents happy pills before every assignment.

I like Jay Andrews/Jim Wynorski movies simply because they give you a lot of cheesy bang for the buck; they're like TV movies without the good stuff being censored out. I like his whatever-it-takes attitude and give him credit for putting in the long hours it must take to pump out these features. I'll bet there's a lot of headaches involved in obtaining the stock footage, too (I'd love to hear some in-depth stories about how he manages that)! His crew, particularly director-of-photography Andrea Risotto, deserve kudos for giving these pictures a nice "clean", professional look. True guilty pleasures, I always look forward to the next Jay Andrews DVD and generally will sit through the commentary tracks, too!

Oh yikes - what an howler. Treat Williams must have had a tax bill to pay when he agreed to participate in this nonsense. It begins with some high-altitude antics as a dangerous weapon is being hijacked from one plane to another; one blows up, the other crashes and the survivors must combat pursuing creatures - human and ursine - as well as the weather. The whole thing looks as it was filmed in a snow-globe; the effects are shocking as is the script and after about twenty minutes, I really did pray for the much feared avalanche to put either them, or me, out of the misery this poorly conceived adventure delivered. For an action film, it starts off predictably and implausibly and really goes nowhere fast. The acting is fourth-grade drama school standard and the over-scoring tries desperately to inject some semblance of jeopardy or menace into what is basically just a witheringly dull film.

Stop me if you've heard this....we have a machine capable of mass destruction. The trigger for this machine is simply to put on a set of headphones and "think mass destruction thoughts". The machine fits perfectly inside a small wooden box - just the right size for carry-on luggage.

I am a sucker for formula movies. Just love 'em. This movie is a mix of Cliffhanger, Air Force One, Broken Arrow, and last, but not least, The Long Kiss Goodnight - my all time favorite formula movie.

Speaking of The Long Kiss Goodnight, the entire climax of this film from the black 18-wheeler tanker to the explosion of the Canadian-US border is nearly an exact copy of that film. Frame for frame, it's a pitiful ripoff.

This movie doesn't deserve any stars at all.