Warhead

I've seen the film last night on German TV and I must say that I liked it. Sure it contains plot holes, where you could drive a tank through (like the silly hacker war), but in general it is great evening entertainment. Fast and action packed, it is like a rollercoaster drive that keeps you glued to the screen every minute. So all I can say is, grab a couple of beers, don't worry about the plot and acting; and just enjoy it.

This film was absolutely awful. Being a programmer and a computer man, the thing that bothered me the most was the so-called access codes for the ICBM missle launch. I wish it were as easy as 'DESTINATION WASHINGTON' and 'DEACTIVATE WARHEAD'. I also liked how when Jessica (who's hair never was messed up in all the action) was greeted by a giant 'HELLO JESSICA' when she logged in.

Here they all are sitting around the table in the Pentagon listening to the threatening messages from the terrorists and our hero decides to go in. They have 12 hours to comply. Yet, our hero, manages to assemble a team, equipment, transportation, and make it to the carribean in under 2 hours. I must admit that is quite a remarkable.

The fight scenes were awful. I don't know what kind of martial arts experts they hired to correograph this thing, oh wait, they didn't hire any. The fight scenes were slow and predictable. Half the time the gun shots were a half a second before or after the flare from the gun, as well as the re-coil from the actors.

This movie was terrible. I don't know why any of these people acted in this movie. Having done a bit of acting myself, I don't know how anyone could have read that script and been excited about it. I guess looking at the actors filmographies, we can see why they would have taken it.

I give it a 2 of 10

Frank Zagarino stars as a marine who must save the world from a terrorist who is looking to use a nuclear weapon on the US and being that Zagarino is the only man who can stop him and...ZZZZZZZ Frank Zagarino and Joe Lara are what happens when a movie wants Dolph Lundgren and Lorenzo Lamas (I must admit Lorenzo Lamas as a white supremacist leader would have been hilarious) but can't afford to do so, they just grab two lookalikes that have less acting ability but the same muscles and voilà you have Warhead. Warhead is a lame movie because it doesn't know how to milk suspense in anything, from it's first shootout until the would be heroic disarming that may or may not save the day, there is no suspense in any of it. Also Warhead for some reason is fairly well budgeted for what it is, so i'm not sure what exactly what they did wrong but all blame falls into the director's hand since he can't competently stage action or suspense. So an action movie without either suspense or excitement, is a movie well worth avoiding.

* out of 4-(Bad)

Err... whoever told Frank Zagarino that he's the up-and-coming new action hero - time for a job change, pal!

Okay, most "modern age" action heroes have no acting talent, no screen charisma, but Zagarino beats them all (although it was sort of nice to see him playing the good guy for a change).

Pair that with an idiotic script, absolutely ridiculous action scenes and generally annoying (and stupid - take the "ambush" on the bridge as a shining example - if I hadn't sent my suspension of disbelief out to get some air before starting the movie it probably would have killed itself trying to grasp the concept of these guys being an elite special unit) behaviour of each and every character in the film and you'll end with an unwatchable mess (although it's sort of fascinating in a trainwreck-way of things... you just can't keep from looking at it).

Highlight of on-screen idiocy is the "hacking battle" between Evans and his daughter... hey, they could have padded the running time by expanding this exchange of "activate warhead" and "disarm warhead" up to three hours (be thankful they didn't...).

It's a movie that's even too idiotic to be bad in a funny way like so many others - it's just a real real real stupid movie. 1/10

Mark Roper's directing style often reminds me of John Woo and that's not a bad guy to emulate. Cool slow motion, stylized gun fights to a dramatic score. This movie also had the Woo like quick flashbacks and a slow-mo white bird, another Woo trademark. The actors here do a nice job. A lot of them appear throughout the fun Operation Delta Force films, also by Nu Image. Frank Zagarino will never be confused for Bruce Willis, but he does a fine job as the leader of a U.S. Special Forces unit. Mark Roper is definitely one of the best low budget action movie directors around, along with Issac Florentine. I hope Nu Image lets Roper do another one.