Brad K.

Deterrence is one of those small little films that leaves a huge impression. Like The War at Home, a post-Vietnam war drama starring Emilio Estevez, Deterrence received a very minor release, but will end up being one of the year's best films. Kevin Pollak (The Usual Suspects, Grumpy Old Men) stars as the President of the United States. Pollak, however, was not elected, but was appointed Vice President and then took over after the death of the President. Forced to stay in a Colorado diner because of a blizzard, Pollak and his 2 most trusted assistants, played by Timothy Hutton (Ordinary People, Playing God) and Sheryl Lee Ralph (Bogus, White Man's Burden) find out about an illegal invasion into Kuwait by Sadaam Hussein's son. After some thought Pollak goes on National Television and announces a deadline for Hussein to leave or Pollak will drop a nuclear bomb on Baghdad. The whole film takes place inside this diner and relies on the tension that builds up as they get closer and closer to the deadline and as Pollak has to weigh his decision hearing arguments from both sides. The film is fascinating thanks to a strong amount of tension built up as we truly wonder what is going to happen. Hutton and Ralph are both solid as the 2 assistants, but the film belongs to Pollak and his strong lead performance. Highly recommended.

Reservoir Dogs is one of my favorite movies. Unlike most people I prefer this film to Pulp Fiction, Quentin Tarantino's follow-up to Reservoir Dogs. The story line is fairly simple with a group of criminals who know nothing about each other meeting in a warehouse after a jewel heist turns violent. The criminals are the calm veteran played by Harvey Keitel (Copland, Bugsy), the dying young criminal played by Tim Roth (Rob Roy, Hoodlum), the sadistic but calm man played by Michael Madsen (Donnie Brasco, Free Willy), and the jumpy nervous guy played by Steve Buscemi (Desperado, Con Air). They are waiting for their boss well-played by Lawrence Tierney (Dillinger, Born to Kill) and his son played by Chris Penn (Deceiver, Rush Hour). As they wait what little trust there was disappears as they suspect that one of them is a rat leading to violent conflicts. There are several tough scenes to watch, especially a torture scene. The film however is very well-written and amazingly acted. Keitel, Roth, Penn, and Buscemi are all excellent. The film's best performance belongs to one of my favorite actors, Michael Madsen. Madsen delivers an unforgettable and chilling take on his sadistic character.

Watching Agent of Death aka The Alternate I had the feeling that the movie was going to suck. After all it had a good premise, fake kidnapping of the President goes bad when someone decides to make it real. It also has a cast of famous names, Eric Roberts, Ice-T, and Michael Madsen. Yet the film went direct to video, not a good sign. After watching the film, I know why it went direct to video. The screenplay is filled with terrible dialogue and bad scenes. Several times in the movie, either the bad guy (a bad performance by writer Bryan Genesse) or the hero (a bad performance by Eric Roberts) has an easy chance to kill the other one, but gives it away by talking to them. Ice-T is ok, until his character disappears from the movie right away. Out of the rubble comes the great actor Michael Madsen to save this movie. This might have worked, except they gave Madsen the terrible role of the FBI agent in charge of getting the President back. Madsen is as good as possible, but is given nothing to do. Don't watch this movie.