It may have taken me far longer than anyone would have expected, but I finally decided to take the plunge and check out a Don ‘The Dragon’ Wilson action vehicle. Maybe not one of his best films, as I have now gathered from some other reviews written by those who have seen more of his work, but one of them nonetheless.
Wilson plays a cop named Jacob Harper, with a history that included a very successful spell in the army (of course), who ends up heading in to the Hoover Dam to fight against terrorists that have taken it over. Michael Anderson Jr. plays the main villain, Harrison Dekker, but the bigger treat is that his main henchman is played by ‘Rowdy’ Roddy Piper.
What this film wants to be, in case you hadn’t guessed already, is yet another riff on Die Hard. One man against a group of terrorists, a main plan that might actually be a distraction from another plan, and some family issues to be solved between the start and end of the movie (although it’s handled here in the most cursory manner). It’s no Die Hard though, and I would have to say that it doesn’t even do a very good job of being a lesser Die Hard wannabe, unlike half a dozen other titles I could mention that you would already be familiar with.
Part of the fault must lie with the director, Damian Lee, and writer, Mark Sevi. The script is weak, few of the characters stand out, and the choreography of the action isn’t that impressive. There is also no good sense of the location, with any geography being thrown out the window to focus on shots that try, and fail, to hide the low budget.
Another main fault is, unfortunately, the leading man. Wilson does okay when he gets to show off his considerable fighting prowess, but he’s not good when required to do some actual acting. You could say that about many action movie stars, and the main thing is really how they handle themselves in the fights, but Wilson is sadly worse than most, mainly due to him also lacking some much-needed charisma. Anderson Jr. and Piper do their bit to help, with Piper the absolute highlight (it’s impossible to not want more screentime for him once you see him take off his sunglasses to reveal black eye make up, like some kind of brilliant Zucker/Abrahams/Zucker gag), but there isn’t really anyone else worth mentioning, although one or two key characters do help to move the plot along.
It moves along at a decent enough pace, tries to keep odds stacked against our hero for most of the runtime, and is elevated every time Piper is front and centre, but I cannot recommend this one. If you are after some action fare that used to fill up the “straight to VHS” shelves then you could do much better than this. Even Wilson fans tend to agree that he has a number of other movies you should prioritise ahead of this one. Maybe I will even get to one of them soon enough.
4/10
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