Freedom Strike

I only watched the first twenty minutes of this movie and personally I think that this is the worst movie to be made in the recent years.

The plot was so bad that it might have been possible that a 10 year old kid wrote it. The acting was also sloppy with pretty much an unknown cast and not only that the action sequences especially at the first half of the film were so terrible it was unbelievable.

I don't know how the producers obtained the budget to film this movie but the production company must be regretting it by now.

To anyone who may come across this film in the near future, I advise you to steer clear of this joke of a movie.

A cheesy but mildly amusing action thriller for straight to video star Michael Dudikoff. This one has a rogue Syrian leading a band of terrorists into action and our special forces hero going up against them. A few shoot-outs and sub DIE HARD scenarios go on here and there, alongside some bomb defusion and a welcome James Karen, of RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD. Hardly great, but as a timewaster it'll do.

I enjoyed the movie. I like Dudikoff. Felicity Waterman was easy on the eyes. The plot was pretty much similar to all of the "bad guys have nucweps" movie plots. I strongly disagreed, however, with the way the bad guys moved so freely about the "carrier" after interrupting the peace treaty signing. I served in Uncle Sam's Canoe Club (U.S. Navy) for over twenty years -- and no one could ever get that kind of freedom. All the officer of the deck had to do was declare "General Quarters.". But, again, I still enjoyed it.

The fact that "Freedom Strike" was released by Royal Oaks Entertainment should tell you what this movie is like, but if not, let me enlighten you. The budget for this movie was rock bottom, with the filmmakers having to resort to techniques ranging from excessive stock footage use to Los Angeles locations used in a (failed) attempt to replicate Syria. But the biggest crime the movie makes is that it is incredibly dull. The action sequences are slow and clunky, and fail to raise tension in what should have been a nail-biting experience. (And I'm puzzled why the movie got an "R" rating, when the movie is clearly at a PG-13 level.) Dudikoff seems pretty bored, and second-billed Tone Loc is given very little to do. For some time, I have wondered why action star Michael Dudikoff had an over ten year gap on his acting resume where he didn't appear in any movies at all. After watching this movie, I have a pretty good theory - he was being offered nothing but garbage projects like this one.

But I did work on it.

First off, Michael Dudikoff, heck of a nice guy. Not $40k/day nice but great to the crew. I was amazed at how cheeseball this production was. The USS Lane Victory (a WWII frieghter) was substituted for an aircraft carrier. And the carrier island scenes were shot in a parking lot next to a wall that was painted grey. For the flight scenes, they got the front end of a real Tomcat to stick the actors in. It wasn't gutted or anything so it weighed a few tons and we wound up placing it on a trash bins (that it crushed) so we didn't get the warehouse we were shooting in, in the shot. The F-14 wasn't secured at all and each actor was risking death being in the thing. Kudos to them. Then there was the nuke plant. A power generator in Sun Valley, just down the street from Babylon 5 actually.

I did try to watch it once but failed. But, I thought you all might be interested in what doesn't go into these straight to video wonders.