The Pandora Project

Due to the character limit I'll toss good grammar to the wind and just do some run-on listing.

Pro's: possibly *zero* gratuitous swearing, pockets of appropriate orchestral music, some beautiful aerial photography and ground scenery, some experienced acting, a few nods/tributes paid to other movies including a funny Clint Eastwood-ish scene, no young-and-cookie-cutter actors, good/believable explosions, some pretty good "energy bomb" effects, excellent voice track, especially compared to some other B-movies, and the credits show *two* fire safety advisors, an excellent thing. Unfortunately, the credits got cut off to start a Pokecrap cartoon.

Con's: movie can't hold my attention for long spurts, something about Baldwin's hair is very bad, some amateurish and over-cooked acting, a guy gets shot on left and spins to the right, another guy gets shot on left and falls backward, straight to the floor like a stiff board that got hit dead-center, some unnecessary "Old West" guitar-twangin' and some attempts at humor that seem badly written and/or poorly acted.

This is a lousy action film that at least confirm two things. First Erika Eleniak deserves to be in better movies and that the Baldwin brothers should be banned from Hollywood. Daniel Baldwin, I Think (I don't know and I don't care frankly), plays the hero and from the first scene you know that he knows he's gonna win. He's too confident and too impressed with himself. I don't know if this is a spoof or what? Hell even Steven Seagal gave a better performance in "Under Siege". Baldwin never look like he's in peril. I almost kicked the TV set in after he came up in that Eastwood get up. As for the action sequences they were laughably bad and shot in the most amateurish way. How come those current Hong Kong directors can come up with great action sequences and they have smaller budgets than this. As for Erika Eleniak she played her part straight and for the most part it worked, she is a good actress whose career was ruined by being a playboy playmate.

The plot is hackneyed and I believe that some of the footage was actually taken from Top Gun and Patriot Games. This is just a BAD movie, which is a pity because Baldwin has done some quality stuff in the past, and Eleniak is actually a good actress. However, it seems that both need to do projects like this to pay their mortgages.

Probably because of the huge success "Under Seige" enjoyed, and I imagine continues to enjoy on video with action fans, Erika Eleniak of "Baywatch" fame has molded a career in and out of military action films. Most have been direct-to-video, all have been duds, including the Dennis Hopper comedy "Chasers." Considering that most ex-Playboy centerfolds concentrate on erotic videos it could be worse. If Erika's handlers were trying to mold her into a female Chuck Norris, okay, great idea, but she's mostly the damsel in distress, hence, a second banana. That's too bad, because Erika Eleniak is a good actress, easy on the eyes, and the type of star a studio used to mold into academy award winning status. She should have easily taken the roles offered to Sharon Stone and moved onto the roles offered Julia Roberts. I suppose when a great actress is saddled into cheap flicks she eventually reaches cult status (film noir queen Sally Forrest comes to mind).

The Pandora Project looks (and smells) like an ordinary action-movie, but the film is quite good. The action is ok, it is exiting. The bad thing about the movie is the end which is predictable. Specialy when Erika get caught by the bad guy.