I guess I've about reached satiation on noisy and implausible action films. They have to have some sort of sheen in order to make any impression at all. "The Bourne Identity" was interesting because of the location shooting, the direction, and the performances by the leads and the support. It also had a cool narrative thread. Just who IS this guy Bourne anyway? This one isn't interesting.
Keenan Ivory Wayans is an honorable Marine gunnery sergeant on death row, recruited by a rogue military group to be framed for the assassination of the first lady -- a dangerous woman who is a card-carrying member of the ACLU and who favors veterans' benefits.
He manages to escape the roof-top set up and rushes to the safe spot from which he calls his handlers, an army group headed by the viperous General John Voight with a Southern accent. The dialog in the scene is lifted straight out of "Three Days of the Condor." "Are you damaged?" "What?" "Are you injured?" "No." "Stay where you are, Poker One, I'm going to bring you home." Something like that. It hardly matters.
The rest of the film contains no big surprises. As is customary, a beautiful young woman is swept up in Wayans' attempts to save himself and expose the plot. Jill Hennessy is certainly pretty enough but the only thing that would have saved her here would be a gratuitous nude scene -- maybe a couple of them. Wayans himself is an imposing physical presence but his thespian talents are modest at best.
There are some good guys on Wayans' side. The CIA team led by Paul Sorvino is trying to help him but they're blocked and frustrated by one or another circumstance.
But why go on with this. If you like action movies you'll like this production with all its bangs and zipping bullets and exploding time bombs and screeching cars and sprinting bodies and venal villains and some guy cold-cocking another by bumping foreheads in violation of every one of Newton's laws of physics -- you'll like this one too.
You know something? I made fun of this flick by citing Newton's laws? Well, actually, this movie exemplifies one of them. All dynamic systems eventually run out of steam and grind to a halt -- unless they are fed some inventive energy from an outside source. How about another action movie, just like this one, except it stars nothing but kangaroos?
Keenan Ivory Wayans is an honorable Marine gunnery sergeant on death row, recruited by a rogue military group to be framed for the assassination of the first lady -- a dangerous woman who is a card-carrying member of the ACLU and who favors veterans' benefits.
He manages to escape the roof-top set up and rushes to the safe spot from which he calls his handlers, an army group headed by the viperous General John Voight with a Southern accent. The dialog in the scene is lifted straight out of "Three Days of the Condor." "Are you damaged?" "What?" "Are you injured?" "No." "Stay where you are, Poker One, I'm going to bring you home." Something like that. It hardly matters.
The rest of the film contains no big surprises. As is customary, a beautiful young woman is swept up in Wayans' attempts to save himself and expose the plot. Jill Hennessy is certainly pretty enough but the only thing that would have saved her here would be a gratuitous nude scene -- maybe a couple of them. Wayans himself is an imposing physical presence but his thespian talents are modest at best.
There are some good guys on Wayans' side. The CIA team led by Paul Sorvino is trying to help him but they're blocked and frustrated by one or another circumstance.
But why go on with this. If you like action movies you'll like this production with all its bangs and zipping bullets and exploding time bombs and screeching cars and sprinting bodies and venal villains and some guy cold-cocking another by bumping foreheads in violation of every one of Newton's laws of physics -- you'll like this one too.
You know something? I made fun of this flick by citing Newton's laws? Well, actually, this movie exemplifies one of them. All dynamic systems eventually run out of steam and grind to a halt -- unless they are fed some inventive energy from an outside source. How about another action movie, just like this one, except it stars nothing but kangaroos?