Adrenalin: Fear the Rush

I'm not really concerned with whether or not this was a low or big budget movie. A good film can be made with few or lots of $. Unfortunately, this one is a stinker. The overall idea of cops chasing a viiolent plague victim is interesting, but the execution is poor. There are so many illogical and outright silly goings on that it's hard to get involved with the film. Not helping things is the slew of cliched tricks and devices thrown in from the constant amplified panting of all the characters to flashlights that go out at all the right, or wrong times. The film has a few overtly gratuitous and pointlessly nasty scenes. The ending is just flat out incoherent. On the plus side, Lambert and Henstridge don't suck. They are not given much to do acting wise in the picture, but with what they have to work with they do a passable job. There are a few moments of suspense but mostly the film alternates between being repellent and insulting.

An interesting concept and a fast paced movie.

I was at the local DVD retail store a couple of weeks ago and found ADRENALIN sitting on one of the shelves, first time I saw it was years ago when it first came out on VHS I actually liked it, I mean it was no masterpiece and surely wasn't as bad as people said it was, well okay if you want something that has more of a story, I recommend you try something else, because this film only sums up the story as follows.

A chemical leak in Europe has caused a deadly new virus, as the disease starts to spread towards the U.S, the government sets up quarantine camps in order to contain the large number of immigrants, now two cops that patrol the camps, one a rookie, (Natasha Hentsridge of Species and Ghosts of Mars) the other a seasoned veteran (Christopher Lambert of Highlander and Fortress) discover that a deranged killer is stalking the camps, but what they don't know is that he is infected with another type of virus that poses an even greater threat.

Now I have Adrenalin on a very worn out VHS tape, but I decided to buy the DVD for better quality, and to my surprise turned out to be a longer version of the film, the difference between them is the longer version has a longer pre credit sequence that paints a grimmer picture of what went on, and has a few extra scenes and some of the scenes you might be familiar with in the shorter version are extended, but I still like it, despite what others think.

Lastly, I have to admit I find Albert Pyun to be an interesting director, sometimes he directs a lot of really good films and other times I wonder is this the same guy? because considering his standard of good films, the bad ones actually leave your jaw hanging open and asking yourself, does this guy make movies to reflect in what kind of mood he's in at the time? Because when his movies are bad they're bad all right.

Although I can accept the critics of the minimal storyline this movie shows, I don't get what's the real problem with it. The effects and stunts are okay. The characters are of a standard kind for a movie like that. Story and idea are on a good atmospheric level. And the main argument for rating this movie on a higher position: Excitement... really nerve wrecking excitement. Also, Natasha Henstridge and Christopher Lambert did a good job. I like both of them as actors and charmful characters. The combination of Mad Max, Bone Collector and Escape from NY fits to the main actors and results in a interesting and thrilling movie based in somewhat dirty end-times.

This feels like movie that was dubbed into English from the original Linear A. Adrenaline was surely a mistranslation. The word they were looking for was "Don't".

Lambert and Henstridge are competent actors. They have earned themselves a better film than this. There are plot holes you can fly the space shuttle through. Enough continuity errors for a drinking game. The production crew should have waited for the gaffer to return from vacation before filming. And vampires. Vampires! How original.

Three stars for Lambert and Henstridge doing their best to turn nothing into something. Zero stars for the nothing they had to work with.

Three stars.