Lethal Tender

When terrorists led by Montessi (Kim Coates) take over a water plant they set the system in motion to shut down and poison the drinking water. Luckily cop David Chase (Jeff Fahey) is locked within the plant and sets about freeing the hostages with worker Melissa Wilkens (Carrie-Ann Moss).

In a world of many many Die-Hard inspired movies you really need to do something special to make sure that it stands out. Unfortunately this doesn't do anything to make it stand out from the raft of other DTV movies. The plot here doesn't inject any type of excitement into the film - for most of it the idea is that in 4 hours time, the water system will shut down releasing bacteria into the drinking supply. Well - why not just issue a public health warning to not drink the water rather than send in the SWOT team straight off? A later sub-plot comes in that has to do with stolen USA bonds but for the most part this lacks an sense of urgency.

The action doesn't really help inject urgency. Fahey just sneaks around the place without being believable - Willis looked trapped in Die Hard, here Fahey just looks like he's out for a walk. There are no exciting scenes and no tension, it all makes for a boring 90 minutes. However the problem doesn't stop there - the performances are a poor beast as well. Fahey is a nice enough actor, but only when he's playing it tongue in cheek. Here he doesn't have the ability to play a man under pressure and hence fails to pass on any tension to us. Coates and Busey play the villains as a mixed pair. Coates plays the villain with too much comedy - he's not funny and he doesn't provide menace. On the other hand Busey (in career freefall) plays it too psychotically, he isn't believable either as he just kills people every two minutes. Carrie-Ann Moss is OK but, as the Matrix showed, she better than this.

The only nice touch is Busey's little spiel over the opening credits - it's a nice touch but it lacks style. Overall however, this is yet another unwanted Die Hard clone with nothing new worth watching.

This film was pretty typical. It had its good moments, and it had its bad ones. Jeff Fahey was the biggest negative; a flat and wooden actor, he did nothing to help the movie. He was the stereotypical cop, cheeze-filled and all bravado, but he lacks the charm to pull it off. Too many great actors have done it better.

Kim Coates was impressive, he reminded me a lot of Gary Olman in The Professional (though not as good). He brought most of the character into the film, though his band of cronies were all quite amusing.

The dialogue was rather amusing, probably the best part of the film. Except for the occasional mandatory cheeze line typical of all second rate action films, the dialogue kept the movie rolling along smoothly.

Carrie-Anne Moss was hardly a standout. Compared to some of her other roles, this one was just plain horrid. Her fight scene with Karen Dwyer (who was quite cool) was so horribly fake. And Karen Dwyer's character (Sparky) *should* have kicked her ass, instead of some lame ecuse about being able to fight due to five older brothers in a one-bathroom house (blah-blah-blah)

Gary Busey was his wonderfully psychotic self; this could have been his most amusing role since Lethal Weapon, but his character was under-developed. In fact, most of the characters were under-developed; characterization was a real weak point.

As well, the film was *just* too long. The final scene was pushing it, and was also anti-climactic after a fairly strong buildup (it just kept going and going and...) As well, this pushes the ‘bad guy keeps the good guys alive then decides to kill them using a more painful and easy-to-escape choice of death' boundary pretty far. After Fahey and Moss escape the first time, never mind the three to four times afterwards, any self-respecting baddie (*especially* Coates' character who liked using his gun) would've just put a bullet in their heads.

Overall: Fast-paced, fun action. Often unbelievable, but hey, it's a cheezy low-budget action film, who cares? Fun to watch; I'd recommend this on an ‘all the good films are out' night. 5/10.

STAR RATING:*****Unmissable****Very Good***Okay**You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead*Avoid At All Costs

I caught Lethal Tender very quickly as I was channelsurfing last night,and just happened to tune in as it was starting.For some reason,I compelled myself to carry on watching it,and,to start off with,it appeared to be a fairly compact,intelligent spin off of Die Hard.But,after that,it soon degenerated into an unspeakable pash.The acting by far was the worst thing.Even for an action movie,it was the worst I had seen in ages.The dialouge was totally over-the-top ,and the performances were hammy in the extreme.Though the battle with the terrorists was engagingly held,this was all in all,obviously just another cheap,straight to video,Le Monde,channel 5 movie.**

This movie had the characteristics of a B-movie, but had a very good plot. Jeff Fahey put on a very good role & the bad guy had a big ego. The fact that I didn't fall a sleep watching this movie after a hard days work, proofs it's not that bad at all & it's really worth watching.