Embuscade

Clearly a small-budget, big passion undertaking. Terrific cast. The KKK milieu surrounds and informs the movie's big relationship--a black FBI detective framed for the murder of a Klansman who must go on the lam with the murdered Klansman's young son. How the boy begins to question his father's beliefs and how the agent acquires compassion for this white-hating boy in the crucible of their enforced togetherness make for compelling viewing. Gritty, truthful, iconoclastic offering in the tradition of "to Kill A Mockingbird."

Actually there have been quite a few features, made-fors, and miniseries shot in and around Wilmington, North Carolina, as this one was. Wilmington has the second largest assemblage of studios in the country, outside of Burbank. The problem is, most of the things shot there are turkeys. Not including "Crimes of the Heart" and "Blue Velvet" and one or two others, which my own performances rendered memorable.

Considering the schlock as a class in itself, this probably rates a B. It isn't as bad as it could be. Of course it's filled with clichés. Shoot outs take place in which thousands of rounds are exchanged with no one having to pause and reload their weapons. A black detective on the run has to protect the racist 12-year-old son of a Klan member, and we know their relationship will evolve, and we know the direction that evolution will take.

The good guys are completely good, while the bad guys are somewhat less one dimensional -- let's say they have one and a half dimensions. But it has a few interesting directorial touches; odd angles are used effectively and bodies and objects are moved around with efficiency.

The racial issue is nicely handled. A black man makes tender love to a white woman and it's treated matter-of-factly. And the movie is as much watchable for what it doesn't include as for what it does: no slow-motion deaths, no car chases. The acting is not bad, particularly on the part of the twelve-year-old racist.

Just before the climax, Shannon has a line, "Take him out to the cement factory." This refers to a real cement factory on Blue Clay Road which has been used as a location in several other films. It served as a prison twice, in "Weeds" and again in "Everybody Wins." It's always good to see Dick Olson in a Wilmington movie, and he has a small part in just about every one, in this case, a motel manager. He's a nice guy as well as a reliable character actor.

Sometimes movies that touches on race-sensitive issues comes out trite and panders to the liberal conscience. This is not one of them. Courtney Vance delivers a thoughtful performance as a cop who is struggling with his own race issues as he works to save a kid brainwashed by the KKK father. Virginia Madsen is sexy as usual and Robert Patrick (The Terminator, X Files) is excellent. William Forsythe is also great as a no bullshit cop. The movie score is cool and reminds me of Ry Cooder. It is well put together and director Ernest Dickerson deserves credit for that. I am a fan of his work. He earned his chops as Spike Lee's DP and if you want to see another Dickerson movie check out "{Never Die Alone". All in all, "Ambushed" is a fine little movie and deserves audience consideration as a rental. Check it out. I recommend it.

"Ambushed" is no ordinary action flick. It's much to bad to be ordinary. One man walks toward another with a machine gun blazing. The other man fires one round and fells the man with the greater fire power without so much as a nick from the hail of lead raining down on him. Guess which one is the good guy. Duh. Such is "Ambushed" through and through. Not a good action flick, not a good drama, not a good movie, "Ambushed" fails on all levels with it's cast of B-movie veterans mechanically going through the motions almost as though they know they're making a real loser. Not recommended for anyone.

I was pleasantly surprised by this essentially a B-movie. The acting is uniformly good. Courtney B Vance and David Keith are particular favourites but the young actor who took the part of Eric was terrific as well. Its refreshing to see a made for television movie with a good script, good acting and (for once) real driving! The subject matter is topical, and for a South African viewer surprising in it's passion. If this is the kind of B-movie Hollywood made I say Keep it up!!