Militia (2000)
2/10
Another crappy Jim Wynorski flick.
11 June 2015
Warning: Spoilers
ATF agent Carter takes part in a raid on the Brotherhood of Liberty camp in the countryside but the raid quickly turns bad when a stray bullet causes a bloodbath. Two years later, Carter is selected to infiltrate another militia group led by the smooth-talking Montgomery in order to recover some missing bioweapon. He is joined by the former head of the Brotherhood of Liberty, William Fain, who has been released from prison for the mission. Along the way, the pair must learn to put aside their differences in order to complete the mission.

Jim Wynorski is the one director I love to hate. He has made a large number of low-budget sci-fi, action & horror films since the late 1970s & not a single one has managed to get a decent rating on the IMDb's rating system. There is a reason for this – Wynorski is a terrible director who loves to fill his films with half-cocked conspiracies by shadowy figures, naked women & a whole heap of stolen footage from other films. Which makes him a rather dishonest hack of a director. With Militia, Wynorski (using his pseudonym of Jay Andrews) & the rather stupid writer Steve Latshaw join forces to make this effort.

You get a sinking feeling while watching Militia when the initial raid takes place, which consists mainly of footage stolen from Delta Force 2 – with Black Ops helicopters pounding the target buildings. Anyone with a decent intelligence will recognise that the ATF doesn't have military attack helicopters in their arsenal. Things get worse when the two terrorists steal a vial of anthrax from a government facility & embarrass the police by shooting their cars up – another stolen scene, this time from one of my favourite films, TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY. I wasn't impressed one tiny bit by this blatant theft of footage. I hope James Cameron finds out about this & sues Wynorski to the unemployment line. The basic lack of fact-checking that mars many of Wynorski's films is also apparent when the ATF make an assault on the missile base, with ATF agents wielding Kalashnikov assault rifles – no American law enforcement unit uses Kalashnikov assault rifles in their arsenal.

Having said all that, the only reason I'm not giving this piece of trash the lowest rating is because the actors are competent & make an effort to sell this piece of garbage to the viewer. Stacy Keach has done a lot of B-grade work over the years & he is good in this role as the villain. Former Superman Dean Cain has been struck badly by the Superman curse, stuck doing cheap work like this for years but also acquits himself well. Jennifer Beals also makes a favourable impression as the female ATF agent.
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