BlackJacks

For 75 minutes a group of attractive people allow themselves to be filmed. That's pretty much all there is to this not-quite movie. You're supposed to believe sabotage at a research facility in Kazakhstan released a monster and only a collection of pretty people from the US could stop it. You won't believe that for a second.

The acting peaks - and I can't believe I'm saying this - with Eric Roberts. It's all downhill from there. The majority of these folks aren't even actors by profession; they're former special forces soldiers.

The camera work is an abomination. Dutch angles, weird close ups, off center distance shots. All inappropriate, none of it works. It's as if the extent of the cameraman's training was skimming through a cinematography textbook written in a foreign language.

The editing, likewise, is an affront to the senses. Scenes flicker, shift focus, spin around, and lack any sense of continuity. I don't know much footage ended up in the cutting room floor, but they should have spliced that together and realized it instead of this mess. It can't make less sense.

Four stars for seventy five minutes of pretty people chatting, playing army, and taking showers. No stars for the director who neglected to tell anyone he was making a movie. Four stars.

Only an idiotic person would keep shooting at something that's obviously bulletproof or anything-proof. poor script. the background score is very annoying and distracting. mediocre acting. the whole supernatural and extraterrestrial thing doesn't fit with the premises of the movie. there are quite a pretty faces to look at tho haha.

Not bad at all if you don't expect blockbuster production. Characters mostly make logical decisions, it doesn't insult your brain. Nice military tactics, with lots of spec ops equipment. Special effects could be better, and there is very little character development, but movie is overall pleasant surprise.

I was expecting low budget horror movie, but decided to give this one a chance. I liked how special team members mostly follow almost all that you can see about close quarters combat in other documentary shows. Acting is not great but watchable.

And there are some very nice looking ladies in the movie...

I just watched this recent flick with a friend. We wanted something to accompany our corn chips and cream cheese, and various forms of libation. We thought the joke would be that the movie would go well with the "cheese." We were both pleased to find that the movie, an action/military/science fiction film, was actually well done. The opening scene was a rather cleverly done shooting range/simulation test where a new recruit of the "BlackJacks" seeks to qualify. The BlackJacks are an elite, highly trained, ex-military, blah blah blah... ala the Navy SEALs. You get the idea, although no actual SEAL seems represented. From there, we were hooked.

There are no big stars in this movie, a couple I know I have seen here or there, and some who have done voices for action/military genre video games. They all do their parts credibly to provide an enjoyable view. Eric Roberts is the only one with a household name. And he does his usual good job adding some class and sophistication to his role. He is a CEO who sends the 'Jacks into Afghanistan to his super-secret but malfunctioning lab to recover the genius in charge of some experimental energy research.

The action is fairly constant but not overdone. Hardware and tactics seem authentic and believable. It has the look and feel of one of those action/military video games like Call of Duty, with good cinematography instead of expensive special effects. The science fiction comes in when stuff goes wrong and it becomes clear why the lab is off-line. There is also some gore here, but it's not overdone either. That and some brief nudity get it an R rating.

All in all, this movie held our interest and was fun to watch. If you like action movies with a military flavor, I recommend this movie to you.

D-Grade Story Line, C-grade acting. I should have stopped watching with Eric Roberts started strutting around the screen. poor visual affects whenever the "bad guy" comes up. Poor military tactics for a group of supposed spec-ops players. Non-sensical "twists" in the story line.

For the life of me, the "Seal Patrol" reference is vague - some of the the protagonists might have once been seals, but even that is a stretch.

As I said - not really worth wasting one's time on.

I am regretting having watched it, when I could have been doing something more productive like cutting my toenails.