rm91945

When I first heard this movie was being made, and that Randolph Mantooth was in it, I couldn't wait to see it. Then when I learned another favorite, Richard Lynch, was in it as well, the search was on and after much searching in various video stores I finally found it.

Mantooth's portrayal of an angry, Russian-like character was superb, his acting always is whether playing a good-guy (his usual role) or a baddie. However, his accent was less than impressive, even Mantooth admitted in interviews he was never happy with it. But this does not take away from his obvious talents as the evil Solansky who wants to cause a political coup in a small `Eastern block' country.

Lynch is always fun to watch and never disappoints either, especially when playing the baddie. I especially like the scene where he punches C. Thomas Howell in the face, while holding a rather impressive looking handgun in the same hand -- ouch!

C. Thomas Howell did a good job, but his partner was horrible! Who told that woman she could act!? Think she was merely `window dressing'. The rest of the cast were `okay', not the worst I've seen, but not the best either. Clearly the standouts in this cast were Mantooth, Lynch and Howell.

This movie wasn't the best I've seen, but it certainly was not the worst (Armstrong was MUCH worse). The basic plot was interesting and somewhat plausible. Corrupt (not mad) scientist Dr. Edmund Wellington (Lynch) has created a device that will cause people to become highly aggressive and kill others. A perfect plan when you're talking about soldiers during wartime. This device makes them the ultimate killing machine. And the added bonus? The soldiers will self destruct afterwards.

But something goes wrong with the self destruction part and the military, whom Wellington has been courting to buy his weapon, get cold feet. Then they decide to pull funding and scrub the project which causes Wellington to retaliate. Add to this mix Frank Stallone and his crew who are trying to stop the project from finishing and you've got the basic plot of ANY `direct-to-video' flick.

The camera work IS jerky and causes one to wonder what is really happening as you can't keep track of the action. That directorial move was a bad one. The acting wasn't bad, even Stallone was `okay', but the overall plot was a pretty thin one. The director, I think, was counting on the action sequences to make up for the lack of plot but as I said earlier, the camera movements made those action sequences difficult to watch.

It should be noted however that some comic relief was offered with the role of Senator Williams, played by Lynch's younger brother Barry. The senator was basically a horny `good old boy' who was after everything in a skirt. His scenes with his brother were pretty amusing too. Best line? Wellington to Williams when Williams says that he needs to `go over the figures' (in the proposal) again. He is actually wolfishly eyeing one of the babes in the movie when he says this and Wellington replies, `Oh, talk to her. She's got a firm GRASP on the situation!' One wonders how many jokes the brothers got out of that one at the next family gathering. :)