The Alternate

The video that I watched calls it "Agent of Death" but AKA "The Alternate" and "The Replacement."

Basic story: Election day is approaching and the President of the United States is not doing well in the popularity polls. Elizabeth, his Chief of Staff and organizer of his re-election campaign, decides to hire a gang to stage a fake kidnapping of the President thinking that this will give him lots of free TV coverage. When one of the members of the gang doesn't show up, a former CIA agent (Eric Roberts) is hired as the replacement. The kidnapping is staged as planned until the leader of the gang (Bryan Genesse) reveals that they have turned it into a real kidnapping and they have no intention of letting Eric and the President leave the building alive.

At first it was a little difficult not to compare this film to "Heaven's Fire" or "Die Hard" but it turns out to be a totally different film.

One happy difference -- the FBI agent outside the building, who was sort of annoying in "Heaven's Fire," is replaced by a much smarter and more entertaining Agent Briggs (played by Michael Madsen) in Agent of Death. His smirk is worth a thousand words.

Another plus is having Steven Lambert as stunt coordinator. While his work on the film "Titanic" probably reached a wider audience, true fans of mayhem will remember his work on films like "Total Recall," "Army of Darkness" and John Carpenter's "Vampires."

The second half of the film showcases a variety of weapons from handguns to blow guns to a flame thrower but they take a back seat to the martial arts. Eric Roberts looks in good shape and has shown off his martial arts skills in other films but with Bryan Genesse both choreographing the fights and playing his adversary, we have a situation where the good guy doesn't get in all the good moves. As Eric and his tux get the worst of the deal, Eric quips, "There goes the deposit."

Watch for the running gag as, behind the main action, the ditzy blond television reporter (played by Heidi Jo Markel) ducks and dodges but never lets go of her mike.

Fans will also recognize Larry Manetti (Rick on Magnum PI) playing Agent Harris and Eliza Roberts, real life wife of Eric Roberts, playing Chief of Staff Donaldson.

I don't want to give anything away but, please stay for the credits.

I'm not sure whether I was watching the same movie as everyone else here, but I thought movie actually worked very well, even if it was derivative. The action was continuous and the characters were well defined, if not particularly deep. check it out.

Eric Roberts and Michael Madsen, wow! This is probably a really exciting, well made thriller...but it isn't at all!! It is one of the very worst movies I've ever seen!

The plot seems interesting for two seconds there but then suddenly Roberts starts pulling a gun and stuff and the movie just keeps getting worse and worse. Roberts being the most pathetic and stupid looking "hero" ever running around like a complete idiot and trying to clean things up while the stupid president is being kidnapped by a wannabe psycho. It doesn't work at all man!!!

The action scenes are so bad edited and directed that I didn't want to agree with what I saw, Roberts getting a iron-stick stuffed into his stomach and banged all over his body too many times don't seem realistic, neither does a jump from a chopper from 30 meters above ground, neither does a safety wire hanging from Roberts' belt on his "super-exciting and super tough" escape from the roof, neither does a over-and-over attempt from Roberts to look where psycho wannabe is standing on the other side of the bathing pool, neither does the extremely dum coffee-idea from Roberts making the terrorist female die from electricity, neither does the car exploding twice cause of bad editing, neither does Madsen's dum performance as the dum negotiater...it doesn't work at all!!

"I know I loved her?" "So why did you kill her?!" This must sincerelly be the worst movie made 4-eva!! In the ending it seems like the makers of the movie thinks they've been making a Oscar-nomination motion picture, with Roberts walking out in the dusty s*it calling himself "the replacement". If you want a really good laugh, this movie is a very good ALTERNATE (title)!! STARS: 1/5 (if zero was possible, this would have been a sure winner of that number)

What a waste of tallent. ,bad scrip. I can see why this film never made it to the cinemas. UK title, The Alternate, U.S. title,Agent of death. Good actors such as Ice-T and Eric Roberts could not save this flick. The editing was sloppy,the action scenes were phony looking. A good cast wasted. Save your time and money. Pass this one. In one scene a room was shot up,yet in a later scene,the room was perfect condition. The action scenes were phoney. Eric Roberts was hit so many times with a lead pipe, yet he kept getting up without a scratch. John Beck,who played the U.S. president,had few secret service protecting him. It was so easy for the terrorists to infiltrate. Donot waste your money on this one.

Watching Agent of Death aka The Alternate I had the feeling that the movie was going to suck. After all it had a good premise, fake kidnapping of the President goes bad when someone decides to make it real. It also has a cast of famous names, Eric Roberts, Ice-T, and Michael Madsen. Yet the film went direct to video, not a good sign. After watching the film, I know why it went direct to video. The screenplay is filled with terrible dialogue and bad scenes. Several times in the movie, either the bad guy (a bad performance by writer Bryan Genesse) or the hero (a bad performance by Eric Roberts) has an easy chance to kill the other one, but gives it away by talking to them. Ice-T is ok, until his character disappears from the movie right away. Out of the rubble comes the great actor Michael Madsen to save this movie. This might have worked, except they gave Madsen the terrible role of the FBI agent in charge of getting the President back. Madsen is as good as possible, but is given nothing to do. Don't watch this movie.