Caribe

The scenery was great with a couple of high spots, but John Savage, who is an excellent actor i.e. The Mouse, was not a convincing C.I.A. Agent leading man and had absolutely "0" chemistry with leading lady dispassionate Kara Glover.

It's too bad , Great story line but it just doesn't make you care about the characters, and the cliche ending is like a kick in the lower extremities for the viewing audience.

Two explosives specialists who work together are involved in a scam down in Belize. They travel there to make the deal, but do not realize they are being followed by a British Secret Intelligence Agent (John Savage). The agent comes upon the dealers and soon bullets fly, causing the explosives expert Helen (Kara Glover) and the Intelligence Agent Jeff (Savage) to flee for their lives. While Helen and Jeff hide in the bush, they soon fall for one another and eventually hatch out a plan to wipe out the explosives dealers all together. In obliterating the dealers, they also detonate the explosives and later Helen realizes she will be a wanted woman back in the states. With Jeff's help, she obtains a new identity and he says that he will take care of her no matter what happens.

Aside from the beautiful scenery of the tropics, this was a totally boring movie. The plot dragged on as I fast forwarded through much of the dreadful dialogue. Maybe had there been a better explanation of the characters and a more exciting plot it would have been a more interesting movie, but I doubt it.

My review was written in October 1988 after a screening at Cine 42 theater on Manhattan's 42nd Street.

"Caribe" is a picturesque but dull actioner, vaguely reminiscent of the exotic programmers of yesteryear while lacking their energy.

John Savage toplines as a laidback agent for British Intelligence, whose mission is to abort an illegal sale of explosives in Belize. Stephen McHattie is an ex-CIA agent who's masterminding the operation, using as dupes two Yanks, Sam Malkin and Kara Glover, who are attempting to raise $500,000 to cover an embezzlement from their munitions company.

Pic's main switch is that Glover, exhibiting fashion model beauty in even the most primitive of jungle locations, handles most of the rough stuff while Savage contents himself with calling the shots. There's some okay stunt work and speedboat chases, but action tends to be languorous as we gaze at lovely Belize scenery (previously spotlighted in "The Mosquito Coast".

Glover and Savage make a comfortable team, immediately encoring together as the leads of Vestron's "The Beat". Zack Nesis has a showy role as a mystical hippy left over from the '60s ethos, who aids the duo at crucial moments.

Caribe was a movie about an illegal arms trade in Central America that goes bad and leaves a young woman involved named Helen (Kara Glover) and a British Intelligence Agent named Jeff (John Savage) alone to face a gang of pirates, hoodlums, or thieves, whatever they are, after them, intending to kill them. Along the way they meet a violence hating hippie type who dresses like a Native American and can kill with precision and ease named Tommy (Zack Nesis). Anyone else see a problem there? He eventually becomes their ally.

There was what seemed to be a pretty cool boat chase scene around the middle of the movie, but that quickly fizzled out with a pretty lame end. Oh well.

Let me say first that Kara Glover would be better suited to play a ditzy soccer mom or librarian over this role of an illegal arms trader. I was not convinced of anything she did. The only thing about her I am convinced about, is that she did not get her role because of her acting. She was pretty cute and someone thought she just had to be in this film. Don't get me wrong, she was cute and has her place in the acting universe, but not here, not even in this awful action film. I guess that shows why she hasn't acted since 1988, according to IMDb. One last point... why would they show a fat stripper running around naked but deliberately cut out Kara Glover's bathing scene in the lake? Makes no sense and could have caught my interest, if only for a bit.

Which brings me to my next point. Shouldn't an action movie have action? Instead, this movie shows us what could have happened to our hero and heroine but later cuts to show they made it out alive. No explanation, just believe they made it through their predicament.

John Savage plays Jeff Richardson, a British Intelligence agent who happens to be an American (which they actually touch upon in this film). He seems like a weak male lead to me and could have been better cast.

The only actor worth mentioning here is Stephen McHattie. He plays Whitehale, the villain who is chasing Helen and Jeff through a river in Belize intent on killing them to keep his secrets safe. He reminds me of Alan Rickman's character, Hans Gruber in Die Hard.

Honestly, I can't really recommend this one unless it happens to be lying snugly in your DVD player already to go while you have nowhere to go for the next 90 minutes and are bored out of your mind. Not as bad as other movies I've reviewed (see Savage Roses), but not really worth your time. 4/10

Well, Caribe may not qualify for a superior action thriller but it does have one good point - The mayan ruins and the tropical beauty of Belize, where 90% of the movie has been shot. The photography is truly outstanding and the scenery is more than enough to watch this movie. And if you can get hold of a new CD or DVD, you'll agree to what I mean.