Delta Force 3: L'enjeu mortel

Delta Force 3 is your typical mindless action fest that you usually get stuck watching at 3:00 am on HBO when you can't seem to sleep and there's nothing on regular tv but news, infomercials and endless loops of Sportscenter. With this movie unless it's a real good case of insomnia your problems will soon be over...because for an action movie its pretty boring and the acting isn't anything to write home about either. Not to say it's horrible, it's really not bad...it's just not good either. It's one of those movies you watch and then you just kind of forget it eventually because it wasn't very memorable. I will say this about it though they did use a creative way to get the bomb in a tv studio.That was about the only memorable event in the whole movie.

I am often guilty of buying dvds that most people would use as drink coasters. My most recent purchase was Delta Force 3.

I am a big fan of the first movie and enjoyed the second... but without Chuck Norris's beef on the screen I was expecting part 3 to be a piece of shyte. It was cheap and I figured I'd give it a go considering that I'd always wondered about it.

And so last night I sat down and gave it a go.... surprisingly I was aptly entertained. While it's no masterpiece, Delta Force 3 delivers the goods. It may struggle for star power (most of the players are sons or bothers of Hollywood A-Graders) but it makes up for it with a nice little terrorism plot and some nifty action sequences. The rattle snake blasting scene was something I hadn't seen before.

Sure there's plenty of cheese here... most of which is delivered by Mike Norris (son of Chuck) but its the cheese that makes 80s & 90s action flicks good. As with the original movie, there's some interesting parallels to the current terrorist-laden climate we are in right now.

If you're a fan of the other two movies, I recommend this one. Don't listen to the naysayers.

If I may say so, 'Delta Force 3: The Killing Game' doesn't sink because Chuck Norris is gone. It's just a generic 90's actioner with a b-movie cast made up of less famous sons and such. It's the lack of memorable set pieces, too many cliches that is the real killing blow. It's still a Cannon Film so there's cheese including gratuitous boobs within the first 30 secs and setting off a minefield.

In Moscow a suicide bomber hits a peace conference and the mastermind is terrorist leader Kadal. He sends a tape to the American government making demands to pull out of the middle east or he'll detonate a nuclear bomb on US soil. Delta Force under the lead of Maj. Stewart (Nick Cassavetes) are sent in to get him, but along for the ride are Russian Spetsnaz lead by Cpt. Leskov (John Ryan). Tensions ride high between the men and there's some friction, but more importantly they have to stop the bomber in Miami now that they know his identity.

Mike Norris (son of Chuck) fires off guns and does martial arts once. Eric Douglas (son to Michael) is the demo expert who befriends his Russian equivalent Pietre (Mark Ivanir). Cassavetes here in a b-movie acting role before he went on to bigger success as a writer & director. The cold war trope about US vs Russia baked into the men who in predictable fashion grow to respect each other. 'Delta Force 3' is watchable, but doesn't offer rewards for sitting thru it's exercise in "been here, seen that".

No Chuck Norris and no Lee Marvin, what is the appeal of this sequel. For Norris fans, not much. "Delta Force 2" suffered without Lee Marvin but at least still Norris. "Delta Force 3" doesn't have either. This is a poor direct-to-video sequel that has nothing to do with the previous films and is a waste of time.

To me, DF3 had the best plot of the 3 films, however the lack of Chuck Norris brought the intellectual achievement down. This movie missed Chuck's cool catch phrases, and his ability to shoot rockets out the back of his bike. This movie was somewhat of a disappointment, but overall, I still give it my approval. I would recommend it to someone who likes action, and wants to be entertained without all the glory of Hollywood superstars. When compared to other 3rd installments of trilogies, it still is up there with the best. Much better in comparison to the Godfather 3, and Die Hard 3.

8/10

Don't submit to the man, fight the power!