Shakedown

This is the best film to come out of Roger Corman's studios in years. Director Brian Katkin does an amazing job with no budget. Clearly, he is a director to keep an eye on. Like his first film, the little seen nail biting thriller "If I Die Before I Wake", Shakedown keeps you on the edge of your seat from beginning to end. It's a shame the budget does not support his intent. The timely plot, shot before the 9/11 homicide attacks, tells the story of a group of suicidal terrorists who steal a deadly virus, only to become trapped with a lone FBI Agent inside a building by a tremendous earthquake. While this set up may sound far fetched, (and at times, it is!), the director keeps things moving so fast you hardly have time to catch your breath. Think Die Hard meets Resevoir Dogs and throw in a little John Woo and you get the picture. If only director Katkin had Woo's budget and schedule, one can only imagine what he could do. The cast standouts are Ron Perlman (Blade 2, Star Trek Nemesis) who seethes with low key menace, Erica Eleniak (Under Siege) who brings intelligence and wit to what might have ordinarilly been just an "eye candy" role, and Wolf Larsen (LA Heat) who carries the hero role with ease. All in all, Shakedown is a fun, popcorn movie in the best Corman tradition.

I rented this film for one reason alone. I'm a huge fan of Brian Katkin's horror masterpiece, "If I Die Before I Wake"... (the best damn low budget movie, period). I was worried when I saw that this film was produced by Roger Corman. His films usually suck and I expected this one to as well. Despite the no budget (and at times it is really obvious... weak special fx and set design), this movie kicks butt! The acting is top notch. The leads are charming (Wolf Larson) and scary (Ron Pearlman) and you really empathize with the characters. But its the action that rocks. And much like If I Die, Katkin creates such incredible tension that you're neck and shoulders ache by the end of the film... (the hostage stand-off scene is my favorite, when Pealman is knocking off prisoners one by one and the hero tries to take him out but has only one bullet with no clear shot). After listening to the director's commentary (with the film's composer, who deserves kudos as well), I really understand the problems and frustrations of trying to do good work with so many elements working against you. I wish Hollywood would wake up and give this guy a shot at a real movie, instead of turning to commercial and rock video "directors" who puke out stylish but souless drivel.

An average TV movie quality, totally formula story of religious fanatic (Ron Perlman, who gives good "I'm not just the President of 'Psychos R Us,' I'm also a client.") who gets control of a biochemical virus (think the virus from the movie "The Rock"). Too bad for him that he also gets stuck in a bank building during an earthquake with bank robbers and the government agents trying to stop him (led by the impressively physiqued, mildly entertaining Wolf Larson, backed by Fred Dryer) along with the standard "in the wrong place at the wrong time" spunky female (the forever bland Erika Eleniak) and "lived as a wimp but died as a hero at the last minute" male (Brandon Karrer). Has the standard background story to give sympathy to the religious fanatic (wife and son killed in a police raid a few years previous).

Basically a decent rainy day movie.

Favorite line, spoken by Ron Perlman after he finds the vial of the virus hidden in Erika Eleniak's cleavage: "A woman and her mystery."

Worth a rent.

Shakedown is B-movieland personified. Lots of shoot-em-up silliness, shouting, yelling, the occasional burst of humour, and a nonsensical script. Oh, and a number of filler shots in the way of stock footage and grotty CGI work. But never mind.

The cast try very hard to make up for it, with a personable leading man in Wolf Larsen, who turns out to have a nice line in wry humour. It's a real shame he doesn't make better films than this. Erika Eleniak looks pretty, makes an attempt at acting and portrays the tough-nut heroine quite well. But the real star of this one is Ron Perlman as the deadly intense religious nut St Joy, all blonde hair and black leather, in a role that could so easily have been ruined by over-acting. But not in the hands of the tremendously talented Perlman. St Joy is genuinely creepy, and - oddly enough - at times, even sympathetic. Then he turns the whole 'sympathy' thing on its head with his unerring brutality.

If you like mindless violence, a convoluted, badly thought-out plot and loads of mayhem, then you'll like this one. Great for an evening in with a pizza, but not much else.

Shakedown has all the characteristics of poorly made B-Movie, with a script which seems to have been made up as they went a long, lousy one-liners, which didn't serve the plot, and horrible filming. The only thing good about this film is Ron Perlman, which seems to be incapable of producing bad work. Erika Eleniak is always nice, though sadly she keeps her clothes on completely in this film. The story line is something along the lines of; a cult, headed by Ron's character, is trying to spread a deadly virus, which will kill everyone it gets to instantly. The showdown (which takes over the whole movie) is that the good guys and the bad guys get all stuck in a high story building after an earthquake, shooting and beating up one another. What irritated me the most was the constant shooting, where the bad guys would be shooting at the heroes, but never hitting anything, even when they are standing 1 meter in front of him with automatic gun. Each scene is also drawn out, in an effort to get the movie to a regular length.

This could have been a much better movie, but ends up being boring, not in the least funny, and not at all exciting. Unless you like B-movies with lots of pointless shooting, and no conversation with more then couple of lines, then you should stay away from this one.