Sanctuary (1998)

Sanctuary (1998)- * *

Directed by: Tibor Takacs

Starring: Mark Dacascos, Jaimz Woolvett, and Monika Schnarre

Luke Kovak (Dacascos) was literally 'Trained to Kill' - from a young age, he learned all the deadly arts. Now an adult, he goes undercover as a priest. While doing so, he realizes his former organization, the CIA, is after him. After Operation Titan, which involves getting launch codes to missiles, he sees that things have changed and his life is in danger. As of late, he has enjoyed the peaceful SANCTUARY of the priesthood, but now he's going to have to revert to his old, more violent ways. What will happen to Luke Kovak?


[Snoring noises] [Snoring noises ending followed by yawning and the sounds of waking up] Huh...what? Oh, time for another review. This week we're talking about the soporific snoozefest Sanctuary, a cure for insomnia if there ever was one. It's not that Sanctuary is a bad movie, per se, it's just that it's very slow and boring. It's 104 minutes of not a heck of a lot. Sure, anyone would be fooled by the cover, with fan favorite Dacascos holding those two guns. But when you sit down to actually watch it, you realize it's the old bait and switch.


To be fair, while it's not exactly action packed, there are a few light action scenes in between all the spaces where nothing is happening. If the filmmakers wanted to make a moody CIA drama, which it seems that they did, it should not have been marketed as a shoot-em-up action movie. Much like a more entertaining film, Blue Tiger (1994), we think director Takacs and the gang wanted to make something "classier" and closer to traditional Hollywood product. Hence the longer running time, increased dialogue and drama, and 'Lacktion', as we call it.


Naturally, we would have preferred a shorter film with Dacascos getting revenge and beating up/shooting the baddies. He barely does any Martial Arts here, just a few quick flashes in a dispute over a jacket. A jacket! But, on the bright side, Woolvett's hair seems to have improved since Terminal Countdown (1999). There was nowhere to go but up anyway.


There also seems to have been increased emphasis on cinematography, consistent with their ambitions to do something "better" than the average DTV actioner. But a couple of cool colors doesn't make an entertaining movie all around. There's no momentum, thrills, or surprises with Sanctuary. A handful of silly blow-ups can't change that fact. Yes, we were happy that Monika Schnarre was here too, having seen her recently in Fearless Tiger (1991), but...still nothing doing. Sanctuary just doesn't have "it", that certain indefinable quality that engages the viewer.

Produced by Imperial, that standby of video-store action, if you want to see a collaboration between Mark Dacascos and Tibor Takacs from around the same time period that's similar, but markedly better, check out Sabotage (1996).

Comeuppance Review by: Brett and Ty

Terminal Countdown (1999)

Terminal Countdown (1999)- * *

AKA: Y2K

Directed by: Richard Pepin

Starring: Jaimz Woolvett, Ed O'Ross, Carlos Lauchu Sarah Chalke, Lou Gossett Jr., and Malcolm Mcdowell 

When it's discovered that Y2k will trigger a mechanism that will set off some missiles hidden in the Colombian jungle, a team is sent to prevent that from happening. General Seward (McDowell) sends computer techie Vince (Woolvett), Morgan (Gossett Jr.), who comes out of retirement for the job, and CIA head Fairchild (O'Ross) to investigate. (Morgan and Fairchild? Could that be just a coincidence?) While there, they meet the mysterious Russian agent Soljev (Chalke). Of course, they all have to face lots of pitfalls and problems, not the least of which is your prerequisite Colombian druglord and his goons. Just what any of that has to do with Y2k is anybody's guess. Can anybody stop the TERMINAL COUNTDOWN?

OMG! It's Y2k! Such was the nature of that threat, PM snapped into action with this film, originally titled simply Y2k, as did NBC, who gave us Y2k: The Movie (1999). Check out the commercial for that one on YouTube. It's pretty great. After getting off to a bang-up start, Terminal Countdown settles into terminal boredom after the movie relocates to the jungle. Not to get too technical, but it's really a forest. It really loses the plot - literally - after the drug dealers show up, but, then again, most of the scenes featuring Paco (Lauchu) really liven things up. He pulls large machetes out of nowhere and slaughters people with them. He provides much-needed interest in this largely-sloggy outing.

Not very surprisingly, all the scenes with Malcolm McDowell are gold. It's very amusing to watch him get mad about Y2k. Much like Dragonfight (1990), Terminal Countdown is one of those movies where (some of the) dialogue scenes are more entertaining than the action. During the many forest slog moments, they should have cut back to McDowell doing or saying something. That would have helped a lot to perk things up.

While this is a PM film, it feels more like Nu-Image. For example, many of the forest scenes are "borrowed" from Predator (1987). There are quite a few moments when our characters are looking at nothing or shooting at nothing - well, except Predator footage. Same with the car chase at the beginning, which was taken wholesale from Basic Instinct (1992). Yes, Basic Instinct had a car chase. And it's also in Terminal Countdown.

Now, try as Louis Gossett, Jr. might, it's hard to help a movie about silos. Not terrorists, mind you, but silos. There is a lot of talk about silos in the film. Evil, evil silos. 

But, beyond that, there's a bigger problem. A much bigger problem. That, of course, is Jaimz Woolvett's hair in the movie. It's atrocious. Remember Michael Berryman’s hair from the Motley Crue video for “Smokin’ in the Boys Room”? This gives it a serious run for its money. It almost single-handedly (single-hairedly?) ruins the film. Imagine, if you will, a messier Moe Howard bowl-cut, but the owner of said bowl cut said to their barber, "just shave the lower third of my head so it looks like I'm wearing a rug at all times". We get that his character, Vince, is supposed to be a dork. We also get that it came out in 1999. But still, there's no excuse for that particular haircut. You've heard of fashion don'ts? Well, this is a hair don't. Call it a cautionary tale. Even more so than the nuclear war implied in the film. 

Also, we've got another problem. The 100-minute running time. What the heck were they thinking? Why the frack is some PM movie about people running around a forest trying to stop Y2k 100 minutes long? Can anyone answer this? If they just removed the Predator and Basic Instinct footage it could have been around 90 minutes. But, no, they couldn't do that.



There are enough cool and funny moments to sustain an 80 minute movie here. There really are. But 100? That's pushing it. Just the 90's computers, CD-ROM screens, Paco, and even the egregious green screen moments - plus Malcolm McDowell, of course - are sufficient to entertain an audience for a limited amount of time. But Pepin overstayed his welcome, which is unfortunate.



Y2k Productions, the production company for this film, should have produced more movies. They should have flooded the market with more Y2k movies than we could handle. If nothing else, Terminal Countdown - besides being yet another "Terminal" movie for us - is a nostalgic look back on a hyped-up threat that was slated to kill us all on January 1st, 2000. That was an idea exploitable enough for a company like PM to work with. But Pepin should have stuck with the vibe going in the first 20 minutes of the movie. Then we'd have something. As it stands, we can only really recommend this film to die-hard Y2k buffs. If you're out there, let us know.

Comeuppance Review by: Brett and Ty