L'honneur d'un soldat

The movie shows how an army base can be turned out to be not such a respectable place to be for soldiers. A senior army officer who leads a group of young men into drug trafficking. The plot is okay. Clear & logical. Fighting scenes causes blood to spill. Explosive action. The crew did well to impress me. A great job done.

This is a highly entertaining cat-and-mouse movie between Mark Dacascos and Tim Abell. Dacascos is sent into a military base to do undercover search concerning drug traffic. It seems some soldiers are not playing by the book... Enjoyable performances from both Dacascos and Abell, particularly the latter.

A squad of soldiers start up their own enterprise by starting up a drug smuggling business and it`s up to an undercover soldier to bring the criminals to justice

The above premise is another reworking of a film noir plot about a cop infiltrating a criminal gang ala WHITE HEAT . There is a major mistake in having the story set against a military background and many other reviewers have noticed it - How can soldiers spend so much time unsupervised by higher command be able to run a successful drugs op ? Is this credible ? What isn`t credible is the fact the bad guys can use their army weapons to blow away their rivals . I`d have thought that they`d have to sign out for their weapons and account for every round of ammo used ? Is Col David Hackworth correct with his criticisms at how the American military is run ?

Still THE BASE isn`t as nearly as bad as I expected for a made for video release ( The TV page of the newspaper gave it one star out of four which is the lowest possible rating ) , it`s by no means a great thriller but considering the cast are composed of people I`ve never heard of they do a fairly good job and the screenplay could have been a whole lot worse despite moments of dumbness . Compare THE BASE to other made for video releases like RANGERS and you`ll realise it`s not all that bad

THE BASE is from a period in Mark Dacascos's filmography regularly highlighted by decent stories, good production values, and limited action, and this one exemplifies all of these qualities. It's a mildly exciting action-thriller with some highlights in its script, and it manages to secure a high rating by avoiding many direct-to-video snafus and pitfalls. Nevertheless, it's a little dull and not quite the ideal Dacascos vehicle.

The story: An Army Major (Dacascos) goes undercover to investigate a drug trafficking ring led by a dangerous Sergeant (Tim Abell).

Much of the film's overall quality seems to be attributable to director Mark Lester, who to this day remains on the same downward slide from his heyday of directing COMMANDO but nevertheless injects invaluable energy into the picture - making the most of what would otherwise have been a much more run-of-the-mill outing with a low budget. The script has some basic shortcomings, including the thankless and clichéd role it renders Paula Trickey, but I was pleased with the surprising depth that Tim Abell's character is granted. Abell pulls it off fairly well, doing a good job of playing a manipulator and appearing absolutely authentic as a military man.

Dacascos is on less even ground: he tends to play awkward villains to begin with, and does no better in playing a hero pretending to be a villain. Nevertheless, he's in good form when it comes to the action. I wish that there were more than three fistfights, a handful of shootouts, and a couple explosions, but by and large, this stuff is serviceable. Mark throws a lot of spinning kicks and at times appears to be channeling his rarely-utilized capoeira training. I particularly enjoyed the first brawl, wherein Dacascos takes on Darcas Macopson in a surprisingly dirty kendo duel. The finale between Mark and Tim Abell is yards better than anything they got up to in INSTINCT TO KILL.

If there's one major flaw to the movie, it's that it does not take any chances. The filmmakers may have been trying to replicate the big-budget experience for the small screen, though they would arguably have been much better served producing a movie less homogenized and predictable, as is allowed by the DTV medium. Nevertheless, if you're a viewer who complains about the failings of B-movies, then the solid, conventional route this one takes will probably be considered a plus factor. Dacascos fans are encouraged to check it out.

'The Base' is your typical dtv actioner with a familiar face or two, a capable b-movie director and so many moments requiring suspension of disbelief that you could run a train thru it. Smart story this is not. The action sequences however are mildly decent given its budget, but fans of Dacascos want to keep their expectations low.

Major John Murphy (Mark Dacascos) is tasked with retrieving a Mexican cartel boss, but of course the exchange goes south. Given new orders he's now to go undercover infiltrating a local military base as "Cpl. John Dalton" where the Sgt. Gammon (Tim Abell) and his unit are suspected of being dirty mixed up in the dope game.

Liking Dacascos is ultimately why I gave this a chance and he comes off decently getting to shoot his share of guns and showcase his martial arts ability. Tim Abell is the type of character actor who can play male leads in T&A flicks, psychos in thrillers or the bad guy in an action film like here and does so with ease. Although his character is fairly one note. There's an unnecessary female character which cues a predictable romance too.

For 2/3's of its runtime, 'The Base' is serviceable even if the story and execution is weak. There's nary an ounce of believability especially by the point a tank comes into play, but director Mark L. Lester keeps it chugging along. Things fall on a cliff at the end though.