Les guerriers de l'ombre

Whilst this movie could never be called a fantastic movie it is still worth one look.

I like Hulk Hogan but what attracted me to the film initially (apart from Hogan) was the casting-we had Shannon Tweed (beautiful!) and underrated actors Martin Kove and Carl Weathers. What a team they all made.

It's a fairly routine action thriller but there are some great scenes throughout the movie particularly at the end when the team all go out to rescue the hostages.

There are a lot of other action movies out there that are fantastic but this is certainly decent enough.

When I first started watching this film, I pretty much laughed at the absurdity of it. The dialogue was horrid, the acting was bad and Hogan was even worse. But then something strange happened. I became intrigued because Carl Weathers and Billy Blanks and Martin Kove were in this film as well. Now I don't know about Blanks, but the other three are all actors that have done something with Stallone in the past. Weathers and Hogan of course were in Rocky 3 and Kove was in Rambo. So that got me intrigued to actually watch the film, and that was when I realized that there was actually something good about the film.

The direction was good. I know how strange that may sound considering how bad some of the acting was, but maybe the director's strong point isn't his people scenes, but his eye for action. He has some great explosions, interesting aerial shots and some good fighting scenes. I should hope the fighting scenes are strong since you have Hogan, Blanks, Weathers and Kove in the film. And don't forget WCW owner Eric Bischoff was a producer on the film.

It's too bad that Hogan is so bad in here because if some of the acting could have been passable and the script had better dialogue, the film could have been as good as Commando. But it is lacking in so many areas that even some of the great directing is too lame to save the picture. But it was a nice try.

Hulk Hogan stars as Mike McBride, a leader of a seal team that is set up to take a fall. (Many wince inducing sequences of Hogan afraid of his death card showing up) However among the commando unit are Carl Weathers (From the enjoyable Action Jackson), Martin Kove (From the somewhat enjoyable Steele Justice), Shannon Tweed (From a slew of movies (including this one) where she parades around naked) and a huge slew of nameless and faceless muscle-men (Wasn't there a spot reserved for Olivier Gruner or Sam J. Jones?) who face off against drug lord Billy Drago and his minions (Billy Blanks and Trevor Goddard) when Drago is captured his henchman kidnap the U.S swim team and only a group warriors can break the stranglehold and with delta force inspired heroics. First off, people don't watch the Olympics, so if the swim-team was kidnapped most people wouldn't give a damn (It's like abducting the curling team) secondly what can you say about a movie in which Martin Kove gives the best performance? (Weathers seems too embarrassed) Also the action sequences suffer from being made for the TNT channel, and basically Hogan is too low on acting ability to convince us that he knows any martial arts outside of the field of wrestling. I mean the man is at least a foot taller than Dolph Lundgren and weighs a hundred pounds more, so does it even matter if he fights Billy Blanks or Trevor Goddard? Shadow Warriors 2 which this is known as, I guess because Assault On Devil's Island sounds too scary, comes off as a badly made, unintentionally hilarious and cheap-jack action flick that could only star Hulk Hogan. The sad part is that this is one of the man's better efforts, since his kid friendly opuses are my personal visions of hell. (Mr. Nanny, Secret Agent Club, Santa With Muscles and Suburban Commando. Ugh) In many regards Hogan really should've saved it for the ring.

*1/2 out of 4-(Poor)

Shannon Tweed spends much of this movie bikini-clad, and if there is a 40-year-old actress out there with a better body than hers (except maybe for Ursula Andress), I can't remember her right now. She also looks spectacular firing two guns simultaneously, and her fighting moves are quick and graceful - you don't expect a woman who made a name for herself by starring in countless soft-core erotic thrillers to be a convincing fighter, but somehow Tweed is. Of course this is first and foremost a Hulk HOGan film, and of course he HOGs the spotlight: his delivery is totally flat, but I have to admit that his climactic fight with Billy Blanks is pretty good. Carl Weathers and Martin Kove are both past their prime, but hell, they can still have a go at the action genre if they really want to. Production values are better than expected and there are lots of explosions, but Tweed is basically the only reason I'm giving this film a ** rating (could have been higher if she fought more).

Not terrible by any stretch of the imagination, but if like me you have a fancy for bad movies then check this one out... or don't.

Mike McBride (Hulk Hogan) with all his hair leads a Navy Seals team into the deepest, darkest jungles of a back garden to some Hollywood house (I'm pretty sure I seen the exact same palm trees alignment and back wall in the film Falling Down) to apprehend a drug lord.

I'm not going to get bogged down in the plot of this film, as there doesn't really seem to be one. In a nutshell it involves drug lords, corrupt Navy Seals, secret missions, a rescue operation to save the Olympic gymnast team, that seem to be the darlings and mega superstars of America and nobody follows orders.

The Special effects are delivered to a very good quality along with the action, nothing is spared on the explosions side of things, even the explosions that don't make sense. All pretty good for any film let alone a low budget one.

The Beat 'Em Up scenes should have been better, especially starring the likes of Hulk Hogan, Carl Weathers, Billy Blanks and Martin Kove, the former two are just too crocked to pull it off and come across like geriatrics at times.

The acting is hit or miss, Hulk Hogan and Shannon Tweed as Hunter Wiley are both poor, Martin Kove as Andy Powers probably thought the casting was a prank, as his acting was delivered like he couldn't believe he was actually in the movie, but he was very enjoyable to watch. Carl Weathers as Roy Brown and Billy Drago as Carlos Gallindo do a great job for what they had to work with. The rest of the cast seemed to do well, that is except for the Olympic gymnast team, they were just awful.

Overall it is an entertaining watch, I'd nearly bump it up to a 6, but that's hitting good movie territory. If you want brainless action or pure cheese this delivers. If you want depth or a B-Movie gem stay clear.

Cheese to look out for: The dubbing and editing is a big let down in this film but also gives it some entertainment of the cheese-kind, especially when a lot of Hogan's dialogue sounds like it is a narration, in the middle of gunfire his voice will appear as clear as it was delivered in the studio in Hollywood or his shed.