Traque sans merci

Sometimes a nice low budget action movie hits the spot. Throw in a nice cast and it makes for an easy watch. "Plato's Run" is an easy watch. It's just not a real good one. It's okay. Gary Busey does a nice job. The rest of the cast is pretty good. I am a big fan of early Roy Scheider but I find older, facelifty Roy Scheider a bit hard to take. I don't want to be mean but older Scheider always seems that if he showed any emotion his face will crack. "Plato's Run" moves fast but runs out of steam after a while.

Gary Busey,Steven Bauer and Jeff Speakman star as three mercenaries who become entangled into a complicated assassination attempt that is set up by Roy Scheider, so after Scheider kidnaps Busey's daughter it's one man army time. Gary Busey is back in his Bulletproof type days as Busey is the lead action star and does shoots all kinds of people in this mediocre potboiler. Plato's Run is pretty much what you would expect from the cast, which is that it's dumb, has lots of action, bad acting and Busey running around looking drunk. There always was something about the presence of Gary Busey that made him a cultural icon, or at least an icon in the B.movie world and for fans of Gary, Plato's Run offers up guilty pleasure not seen since Bulletproof and we all know that with the puffy Busey, puffy Speakman and the still slender Bauer that this is a personification of what a B.movie throwaway is. If anything else it's worth it just to see Busey and Bauer try and escape a landmine trap as a cackling over the top Scheider lies the ham on thick.

* * out of 4-(Fair)

I'll say one thing about this film: there are no lulls. You can't get bored watching this. The problem is that it is TOO intense. There is too much action and it NEEDS lulls! That is the risk you take in modern action films. You want it interesting but not overdone. This is way overdone.

Even though the acting is fine and features a couple of "names" in Gary Busey and Roy Scheider, it still has the feel of a "B" film. The best part of it is Scheider's dialog: the only "A" part of this "B" film.

The rest of the story is strictly Rambo mentality but did have a few standout scenes. One in particular was a very innovative scene featuring land mines. That was memorable. Not enough of the other scenes were to make this a keeper for long.

A great cast of characters makes up for the script, but this isn't a film I could watch very often.

I've always found Gary Busey to be a very watchable actor. I enjoy his quirky approach to his characters and his sense of humor. It's the reason I've seen quite a few of his films. Here he's teamed with some actors I hadn't seen for quite a while, like Steven Bauer (Scarface) and Jeff Speakman (The Perfect Weapon). And they do a great job with a script that's got a weak plot point regarding the bad guy and at times some poorly written dialog. The script is weak enough that I'm surprised to see a top-notch actor like Roy Scheider associated with it. But all in all, the film is a fun way to kill some time. Especially if you like lovely babes, guns and explosions.

Ah, the 90's Gary Busey action adventure. The gritting teeth, the "EEE-YA!"'s , the goofy shirts, the oddly motivated aggression, the insanity! He always looks like he's having a great time...so, why can't we? This movie, as well as countless other Busey actioners, is classic unintentional fun. So do I give it a bad review because it is so laughably bad or a good one because its so fun to make fun of with friends? I guess the vote should accurately determine the quality of the movie and quite obviously that's not very high. So I gave it an extra star on the 1-10 scale.

The story involves some kind of military kidnapping of Busey's daughter. The mastermind behind this is Roy Schneider, who's droopy face looks like its melting plastic. Hmmm, real life symbolism of how the action picture is melting.

Anyway, Busey is a real treat to watch. His growling and his crazy lines are genuinely hilarious. The direction is complete trash. The action scenes, ludicrous to begin with, are awkwardly directed. If you can't have fun with a bad movie, don't bother renting it.