Extreme Honor

This was nothing like Last Line of Defence (part 1).

I was really disappointed.

I love Olivier Gruner usually! Please try harder.

I shall watch his next film with interest.

Wow, where does one start with a movie like Extreme Honor? I caught it on TV a few days ago and I can tell you that I now have an answer for the next person who asks me what's the worst movie I've ever seen.

Yes it's that bad! Everything in this movie is bad. The acting is comical, the action is awkward, the screenplay is badly written et cetera. The lead man, Dan Andersen, is about as charming as an old toothbrush and he obviously has no experience or talent for acting. While watching this movie I kept asking myself, was there no one in the process of making this that realized how poor this movie is?

I couldn't find a trailer for this movie anywhere but I suggest looking up "Extreme honor Scene 5" on youtube for a preview.

The only reason one should watch this pathetic excuse for a movie is for a good laugh at the awkwardness that this movie is.

Well, I already knew about the shameless advertising this movie is guilty of before going into it. The names of Michael Ironside, Michael Madsen and Oliver Gruner are displayed in big letters on the front-cover of the DVD, yet they only have supporting rolls in this flick. The leading character, John Kennedy Brascoe, a (soon to be former) Navy S.E.A.L. lieutenant, is portrayed by Dan Andersen. Now where the hell did they find this guy and who is he? Apparently he did this one and only movie in 2001 and then completely disappeared from the face of the earth. Because I am so intrigued by this, I guess I'm going to do a little internet research on this man. It's already very obvious that the film-makers were trying to introduce him as the next big action star, but sadly that plan failed miserably. Now I must say that he at least tried to put down a performance of some sort, but as an actor, his skills are extremely limited. And on top of that it seems that he somewhat feels uncomfortable in front of a camera. Other than that, no offense please, the guy's pretty ugly-looking too. But I won't hold that against him, 'cause he can't help that little fact. So, nice try Mr. Andersen and I'm sorry this whole movie-thing didn't seem to have worked out very well for you.

So what about the movie? Well, as an action-flick, this one fails big time. And that's not even because it's poorly executed or something. In the 5-minute-long opening scene, this movie promises to be an action-packed (because of several guns at display) B-movie with an international software-smuggling plot. But after that, to my utmost surprise, this turns into a soap-opera family drama and all this lasts for the next 40(!)minutes or so. Fortunately, during all this, Michael Ironside, Oliver Gruner and Charles Napier have already graced the screen with their limited screen-time. Charles Napier actually only has a little cameo, as he is in only one scene. But it was fun seeing this big-mouthed cult-icon again. Michael Ironside is once again very enjoyable as the filthy rich (and illustriously corrupt) Mr. Baker. And Oliver Gruner? Well, everyone knows the man isn't a great acting talent. But I always have so much fun when I see him delivering his lines with that almost incomprehensible accent of his. He even has trouble saying "I'm taking you out, a$$h@Le!", so you can imaging what fun it is seeing him trying to pronounce "dishonourable discharge". After those 40 minutes, Michael Madsen enters the ring, and well, he's just cool as ice, as always.

Probably the only sequence worth watching is the organized robbery of Mr. Parker's mansion. Another funny line comes from Michael Ironside: "Who in this little soap-opera of yours, would be best served by you dying?". Now, was writer/director Steven Rush trying to be witty here? By applying some self-mockery here and referring to the fact that this whole movie actually is more like a soap-opera than an action-movie anyway. Or maybe Michael Ironside came up with that line himself, after having read the script? I sure would love to give him some credit for that. And even more funny was the fact that Mr. Parker had to give no less than 3 hints to John Brascoe before he could guess who placed the hit-contract on his head. I mean, how dumb is this ex-Navy S.E.A.L character? And there are even some more enjoyable but extremely uninspired and predictable twists in the plot. And of course the obligatory love-interest (including love-scene) for Johnny Brascoe.

Now, I can somehow imagine that on paper this screenplay perhaps didn't even look that bad. It's just sad that this movie neither works as an action movie or a drama (with the latter aspect being portrait in a just too cheap type of fashion). And strangely I didn't even mind wasting 90 minutes of a lazy Sunday afternoon on EXTREME HONOR. Must have been because of Ironside, Madsen and Gruner's funny accent. So there you have the 3 solid points this movie deserves.

I bought this thinking I was gonna see Olivier Gruner kick some butt for 90 minutes but no the reasonably impressive cast including Michael Madson, Michael Ironside and Martin Kove are all wasted in mere cameos as they make way for the introduction of new action star Dan Anderson. The film also known in another name as Last line of defence 2 an apparant sequal to another film Gruner was in as the lead as a different character. What is the point? the first which I have not seen is apparantly about an alien or something, this is completley different featuring a story about a disgraced army guy (can't remeber who he worked for) who needs to rasie 5 million for a special new cancer treatment that will save his son and other children. Michael Ironside plays a wealthy business man who is of course a dirty scoundral who is swimming in dirty ill-gotten money. He laughs at Dan Andersons character and refuses to give it. Dan decides to steal it from him with the help of some ex colleagues from the special forces and his new workmates in his office job. This film looks painfully cheap throughout, no explosions barely any action of which is wafer thin, with little special effects such as squibs and bullet holes neccassary to add depth to any action scene and fight choreography is uninspired as is the fact that there seems to be not one good stunt. All action flicks from the bid busdgets to home movies should have some sort of dangerous stunt in it. Dan Anderson is bad, I doubt he will evr work again, he can't act, I see no sign of any fighting ability, he is nothing more than a beefy bloke who has been scraped from the bottom of the action barrell. So many people could have been cast here, you look at the amount of actionb stars there are out there, even the like of Don the Dragon and Gary Daniels, Billy Blanks can act better than this guy plus they are all martial artists. The best acting in this probably comes from Gruner which is saying something, Madson and Ironside are wasted but are merely coasting through happy to pick up there cheques for minimal effort. The possibilities the plot had are wasted, the script is poor and the direction flat, there is nothing to hold your attention, certainly not the painfully wooden Anderson who is either an Ex-American football player or a stunt man turned actor. He's bid but in no way looks bad, he just doesn't have an action man look of toughness he can give out,Gruner has this and it makes you think he would have been so much better in the lead. Why in all honesty they made this movie is beyond me it is so uninspired. I have been tricked. The cover of the DVD I rented has Gruner, Madsen and Ironside on the front so I naturally thought this was an Olivier flick, by this fact I wasn't expecting too much but I was shocked at the appalling use of mis-advertising. 2/10 (the two is for idea, but there are no marks for the execution)

Not so much a review as an attempt to sort out the problems with the title. This film may be called "Last Line of Defense 2" in the UK but it was NOT made to be a sequel to "Last Line of Defense" (aka Interceptors, aka Interceptor Force), the alien fighting film, which (by unlucky coincidence) also starred Olivier Gruner...

There is another film called Interceptor Force 2 which *is* a sequel to the "Last Line of Defense" alien fighting movie which keeps Gruner as the same character and which, probably to avoid this confusion, is now available under the title "They Have Returned" in the UK (or "Alpha Force in Australia/USA)

Both the alien fighting films are directed by Phillip Roth.