CQKRIS

This film was complete trash, but in a good way. I've always looked upon Cuba Gooding Jnr as a semi decent actor but if this is the kind of film he is going to be starring in, then I can see him descending the same way as Charlie Sheen.

You can see from the outset that the makers tried to make one of those high octane action thrillers, which are ten-a-penny these days. But when you've got a budget that would struggle to finance an episode of quantum leap, then maybe making a film of this kind wasn't such a good idea.

They make use of computer graphics in a lot of the action scenes which, to be honest, doesn't look the worst I have ever seen, but still prompts you to snicker at how bad it is. The most ridiculous of which occurs at the end of the movie, when a chemical weapon which we have been told has the power to blow up basically a quarter of America, detonates in a tunnel.

At this point we are subjected to rotten computer graphics which are so bad that I instantly had flashbacks of Dean Stockwell and the film-making atrocity that was the Langoliers.

But the story is complete nonsense, so even with a budget the size of Lord of the Rings, there would be no way of making the whole thing believable anyway. So you can perhaps see where the producer was coming from i.e. lets make a cheap action thriller and we'll plaster Cuba Gooding's face over the front cover and we'll maybe make some money.

It would've have been better if Eric Roberts had been given the leading role.

This is Gary Daniels best performance yet, although this is because he hardly has anything to say in the movie. Don't get too excited though, because the parts of the film where he does enter into some dialogue, he blatantly reminds us of how bad an actor he really is. Especially, the part where he saves the young kids from a potential house fire, he shows all the acting talents that you would expect from a giraffe.

The film is supposedly set in a Christmas eve riot which has taken place due to tension between blacks and whites in suburban America. Although, apart from stolen footage, the only evidence we have that a riot is actually taking place is an annoyingly recurring news report which shows the same street with a couple of burning cars in the background.

We are then subject to a Rambo-esq suicide mission with the Daniels rescuing the British ambassador's daughter, taking care of anyone who dares get in his way in the riot torn streets (a couple of burning cars). We are subjected to this for about 80 minutes of the 90 minute running time. To say the least it gets extremely tedious as we see the Daniels throwing guys through windows, over cars, we even see guys in roller blades and motor bikes on the attack.

After about half an hour, it simply gets too predictable and not even a surprise appearance by the Napier can save the day.

You would assume that film-makers faced with the problem of a low budget would strive to make a type of film that required as little funding as possible, for example a film about the abortion debate - all you would need would be a studio dressed up like a courtroom.

Well the makers of the travesty that is 'Last Line of Defence' have done the complete opposite and attempted to create an action racket along the lines of Predator and Terminator. In fact thats a bit light, what they have done is blatantly copy these movies.

The alien takes the predator form to begin with, camoflaged as it stalks its victims. What this really means is a green cloth placed over a camera and the camera shook about to give an impression as if from the aliens viewpoint. 1 out of 10 for improvisation.

It gets even worse later, when the alien takes the terminator form when it can transform itself into any one of the characters in the movie. We are then subject to farcical fighting scenes and whats worse we have to witness more of the horrible acting of what must be the worst cast ever to grace film.

Especially bad is the Gruner who the makers see as this film's Arnold Schwarzenegger. Not only is he a worse actor than Schwarzenegger, which when you think about it is an achievement in itself, but he is even 10 times more annoying than Arnie.

There is some really pitiful acting here. I mean really bad - only someone with multiple honors degrees in English literature could find the words to describe how bad it really is.

I used to think that the Gary Daniels was the worst actor in the world, but the tide has turned. The mantle has been handed over to the Gruner. Absolutely no doubt about it.