The Elite

This flick was much better than expected. Great Action (in the tradition of the James Bond movies), good acting and superb locations. This movie sure is above b-standards! If you love bad guy Jürgen Prochnow you will also love this movie.

Incoherent from the very beginning, I felt as if I was watching something computer generated, not unlike the Cox Cable commercials starring the exceptionally hideous "Digital Max." Imagine my surprise when I came to IMDb and saw an actual cast listing.

Needless to say, I didn't get far, but I did see enough to realize that the movie could possibly serve a higher purpose - as a tool for court-ordered evaluations in competency hearings. If a person can sit through this film, a guardian should absolutely be appointed to make all important decisions for the individual in question.

And be forewarned, there have been no scientific studies: it's just possible that someone in full command of his faculties might begin watching, and in the course of the experience, become impaired.

There is an old 1980's era Hong Kong kung fu film, called Secret Message. I can't find it in any data base; but I saw it once on YouTube. It had no plot. It was just fighting; over a "secret message". Secret Message was better than The Elite.

So, I will just comment on the realism and accuracy of this movie. First of all, they could have had at least one person there who knew how to hold a gun. You cannot shoot an AK-47or an M-16 with the butt in mid air. Not only did they do that, but they had amazing accuracy - absurd.

Second of all, where the heck were the Marines on the ship? Each ship has to have Marines at all times. This ship had not a single. Again - absurd.

Few good things: The girls were all really attractive. The final battle was pretty cool.

In what I can only describe as a "perfect storm" of bad acting, bad writing, bad producing, bad stunts, bad camera-work, and bad editing, this movie has gone beyond being a campy B-Movie. This is one that, when you think you've reached the bottom of the barrel but lift up the barrel and examine what's underneath, you find.

The plot is strictly formula driven - no originality. The actors are plasticly in their performances, and the special effects really do look like something a high-school kid might create in his garage.

In general, I found it to have a made-for-TV or a direct-to-video quality to it.

This is one that the Mystery Science Theater 3000 team would have a field-day suffering through.