Rating of
2/4
Weak action movie
The M.O.W. - wrote on 09/07/08
Former Navy SEAL "Rod Armstrong" (Frank Zagarino) is now a freelance military trainer living in Moscow, Russia, who is unexpectently visited by the man (Charles Napier) who trained him as a SEAL. "Bob" (Napier) is accompanied to Moscow by his wife (Kimberly Kates), whom he also trained as a SEAL, for a vacation. However, "Bob" is there to recruit "Armstrong" to help in with a Special Ops mission from the President himself.
"Bob" has brought a video tape with him which shows a Russian military base housing missiles with nuclear warheads that are being purchased on the Black Market.
However, when "Bob" gets murdered, it's up to "Armstrong", "Susan" and a Russian soldier to bring those responsible to justice.
This is a pretty disappointing from the action standpoint. Yes, it has gunplay. But there really is nothing spectacular. There are also some fist fights, short car chases and chases on foot.
The acting is a little better, but is hindered by a fairly weak script. Napier should have been one of the villains in this movie due to making a name for himself for playing tough guys. He also could have done better as one of the lead Russian villains.
There is little character development in this movie. You are told, through dialogue, some background information on characters, but not much. There is also little chemistry between the characters.
I felt that the muscle behind one of the villains were really weak. I am surprised that "Susan" (Kates) ran away from these guys, they were that menacing.
Another thing I didn't like was that Moscow was not used properly. Probably because this movie was low budget, they avoided filming at well known locations in the city, and used rather boring local locations from off the beaten path.
The performances are pretty weak all around, probably due to a weak script. Zagarino is a weak leading action star, and his performance went up and down during the entire movie. Sometimes it looked as if he was looking off camera to a cue card to read his lines. Both lead villains, one of which wasn't on screen much, were not menacing -- especially the one who went after "Susan" and "Armstrong" for the tape. If you ask me, it appears that they forgot that "Bob" said early on that he trained "Susan" and made her the damsel in distress typical of these movies. But, because there was no personal relationship between she and "Armstrong", his pursuit to save her from the villains was really empty.
Because of the budget, the sets really lacked in this movie. Some places looked as if they were just spruced up by the set designers to make them look like what they were suppose to be. Many of the interiors were pretty boring in fact.
I can understand why Comcast placed this in the Free Movies section of On Demand. Nobody would buy this, but might check it out if it's on HBO and there is nothing else is on.
