Valentine's Day

I had to cut this movie some slack when I realized that it was a TV movie. Then I smartened up and thought they deserve what they get. This momentary lapse was perhaps caused by a vague bias towards Mario Van Pebbles. Its a bit of a shame he can't can't act any better. The movie is a cop-mob movie not an action movie. It has a couple of sex scenes which are fairly explicit, to distract you from the mediocre nature of the movie. While the makers didn't do a great job, they didn't screw anything up either. They played it safe.

So uninteresting that I watched it for just two weeks and I don't even remember making this assessment... Irrelevant...

Not really a very good movie. It was apparently never intended for theatrical release, nor is it a made-for-cable film. So, keeping in mind that it is a direct-to-video release, it is still not very good. Mario Van Peebles is low-key, even when his character should be more expressive. Rae Dawn Chong looks nice but, but seems to be mailing it in. This may be the fault of the material rather than the actress, though. Zehra Leverman has the most extensive, and the most (relatively) interesting role, and actually does okay with it. I am unfamiliar with her, and she seems to have had a somewhat limited career. Sadly, the film's only real redeeming feature is one quick boob shot from Miss Chong, and several quite nice nude scenes from Ms. Leverman, which are worthwhile, if you are into that sort of thing.

Detective Jack Valentine is reinstated from his desk job to go back onto the streets. His first assigned ends with the death of a mobster who was about to turn states evidence. The killing came as the mobster was with his girlfriend Alma. Jack suspects Alma of being involved - even more so when he finds her involved with one of the mob family, Michael. However he begins to fall for her himself and finds himself involved in the deadly game where not everything is what it seems.

This is essentially an erotic thriller- you know the sort, a crime thriller that has several sex scenes before ending with a silly twist just to look for a way to end it. Now this decides to go a different way, it decides to be an erotic thriller but without any sex or sexual tension. The plot is silly - it really is the usual erotic thriller line of is the woman a goodie or a baddie, much the same as Basic Instinct did with Sharon Stone. Unfortunately without a good thriller plot or any erotic material this makes it a pretty empty film. And if you can't roughly guess the "twist" then you probably are very naive.

Mario Van Peebles is OK - this type of stuff is all he seems to do nowadays (although he does get parts in big films such as Ali), he's not a great actor so this type of material means he doesn't look out of place. The erotic focus of the piece is Zerha Leverman's Alma and unfortunately she's terrible. She can't act and she isn't sexy in the way that someone irresistible would be - I'm sorry but even at the start when dressed as a naughty schoolgirl she isn't as convincing as Stone was. Randy Quaid is wasted in this - but his performance here doesn't convince you that he deserves any better. Same could be said of Rae Dawn Chong except she rarely gets better than this.

The film is a failure - I don't care if it's a TVM that's not an excuse for being poor. The "action" scenes can be summed up by a gunfight in the first 5 minutes, Peebles and mobster exchange fire across a gap of 10 feet separated by a bin and a car and no one gets hit - it's pure Naked Gun. All possible sex scenes start after the action has finished - I'm not looking for sex in a movie but if it's an erotic thriller without any erotic elements then something has gone wrong somewhere.

Overall a film that lacks in every area - plot, actors, action, sex. Why waste your time?

This is on video under the title The Protector. The other reviewers are maybe a bit hard on this one, it's not bad for a TV flick, worth a few rental bucks if you like to see mob action (Ben Gazara is a pretty good aging mob boss), Randy Quaid is his usual self, Peebles is trying to be intense, and he's a good match for Stallone :-) . It's a step above the other recent mob movie Prisoner of Love, and the earlier one Montana. -Bob