Active Stealth (1999)

Active Stealth (1999)- * 

Directed by: Fred Olen Ray

Starring: Daniel Baldwin, Fred Williamson, Terry Funk, Hannes Jaenicke, Chick Vennera, Tim Abell, Joe Lala, and Shannon Whirry

When an evil Mexican drug lord (is there any other kind?) named Salvatore (Lala) and his henchman Morgan (Funk) take a member of our U.S. military hostage, we bring in the best men we have available to go on the rescue mission. Of course, that includes Captain “Murph” Murphy (Baldwin), a sullen and somewhat belligerent man who is haunted by his past. His wife Gina (Whirry) is supportive, but along with Chiccio (Vennera), Lt. Reb Carter (Abell), and “Hollywood” Andrews – because he wants to make it in Hollywood after his military career is over - (Robinson), the boys snap into action and use the awesome new stealth bomber for said mission. They even get help from “Special Guest” Andrew Stevens as Jack Stevens. Whoa. While south of the border, they make friends with a peasant woman and her young son as they find out Salvatore wants to “El Presidente” himself all the way to the top. Paralleling that back home, Captain Reynolds (Williamson) just may be part of conspiracy that also goes to the top.

Here we go again…if Stealth Fighter (1999), Desert Thunder (1999), Crash Dive (1996), its sequel Counter Measures (1999), Agent Red (2000), Air Rage (2001), and all the other Fred Olen Ray or Jim Wynorski-styled plane slogs from the late 90’s/early 2000’s weren’t enough for you, well, here’s another one. Not only does this not add anything to the genre, it actually takes away entertaining elements from the other ones. For example, there’s no precocious kid like a Sarah Dampf to at least make us chuckle here. We do get an Italian stereotype in Chiccio, but it’s just not the same. 

It’s not the “borrowed” footage from other movies that bothers us. We’re used to that by now. It’s the fact that this is a plane slog crossed with an El Presidente slog, two of our least favorite slogs. Just simply stitching them together does not a good movie make. It even knocks off one of our favorites, Commando (1985), with Lala and Funk taking on the Dan Hedaya and Vernon G. Wells roles respectively. There is a ton of groan-inducing dialogue, from the constant military jargon (a lot of which is inaccurate, from what we’ve been able to ascertain), to the noticeably-more-obvious-than-usual homosexual references when our heroes are trying to “bond”. It all will make you long for the glory of Delta Force Commando II: Priority Red One (1990).


And speaking of Fred Williamson, the star of the aforementioned film, let’s face it, this movie is unworthy of his talents. He’s not in it that much, but it even manages to tamp down and tame The Hammer. Not good. Daniel Baldwin puts in a perfunctory performance but seems more interested whenever there’s dialogue involving chili (there’s more than you might think). While casting Terry Funk as one of the baddies was a good idea, we would have liked to have seen Shannon Whirry in more than just the clichéd “worried wife” role. She should have taken a rocket launcher down to Mexico to blow up Salvatore. Then we’d be talking.

Sure, there’s a bunch of mindless shooting, and some helicopters “blow up” (is this stuff even real anymore?) but it’s very, very hard – if not impossible – to care. The Top Gun video game for Nintendo was more entertaining and well-made than this. It’s pretty much the dictionary definition of shelf filler.

The Stealth may be active but your brain cells will be inactive if you witness this muck. 

Comeuppance Review by: Brett and Ty

Mercenaries (2014)

Mercenaries (2014)- * *1\2

Directed by: Christopher Ray

Starring: Zoe Bell, Brigitte Nielsen, Tim Abell, Vivica A. Fox, Kristanna Loken, Nicole Bilderback, and Cynthia Rothrock

When the President’s daughter travels to Kazakhstan and then gets kidnapped by the evil Ulrika (Nielsen) and her henchman Gregori (Abell), a government agent named Mona (Rothrock) does the only logical thing - she assembles a team of female prisoners (with pasts appropriate to this task, of course). Led by Cassandra Clay (Bell), the other team members include Raven (Fox), Kat (Loken), and Mei-Lin (Bilderback). Armed to the teeth and with nothing to lose, the ladies embark on the deadly mission, facing everything from sexism to RPG’s along the way. Will they come out victorious? Will they rescue the President’s daughter? What will happen to the baddies when they face the MERCENARIES?

In the grand tradition of Hell Squad (1986), Sweet Justice (1992), and Mankillers (1987), Mercenaries is the latest in the lineage of low-budget DTV “assemble a female team” movies. While the brief seems to have been “create a DTV, all-female Expendables”, the end result is more in line with the three films mentioned above. Not that that’s such a bad thing, of course. But Mercenaries is just a bit too silly for its own good. If they could have dialed down some of the more inane and/or sophomoric elements just a tad, and taken the whole project slightly more seriously, we might have more of a winner here.

Top marks go to our new hero Zoe Bell, arguably the best part of the movie. While the other Mercenaries were off experiencing the time-honored Prerequisite Torture, Bell goes off on her own, and we appreciated that. We hope to see more of her in front of the camera (for those who don’t know, she’s an experienced stuntwoman). Overall, though, it seems the filmmakers were going for a bit of a lark - a reasonably pleasant piece of entertainment you don’t have to think about too hard (or at all). But where’s the line between that and something that’s just really dumb? Mercenaries certainly defines that line.

Sure, it has some of those needless, modern-day editing tricks, and the production values are very cheap-looking (as befitting of The Asylum production company), and the green screen/CGI quotient is unhealthy, but on the brighter side it has some classic 80’s/90’s style clichés - the wacky transportation driver, “It’s an election year”, and some un-PC dialogue (mostly centered around Mei-Lin). The comic-booky vibe is sledgehammered in with some interstitial cuts to comic book frames, an editing device pretty much universally frowned-upon when it came to that new cut of The Warriors (1979). Why Mercenaries chose to do it remains an open question.

There is plenty of groan-inducing dialogue as well, and top fan favorite Cynthia Rothrock has only one, all-too-brief fight scene. All the ladies, generally speaking, acquit themselves well, which is why we wished the overall product had more weight and heft to it, instead of being the aforementioned lark. It’s easy viewing, to be sure, and we like the tradition it falls in, so we’re willing to cut it some slack. But the silliness/dumbness factor reaches daffy proportions, so it’s kind of a wash.

In the end, Mercenaries is a well-meaning trifle, buoyed by Zoe Bell and her cohorts. We personally would have liked some more grit, however. 

Comeuppance Review by: Brett and Ty 

The Base (1999)

The Base (1999)- * * *

Directed by: Mark L. Lester

Starring: Mark Dacascos, Tim Abell, and Paula Trickey







Maj. John Murphy (Dacascos) is a U.S. Army Investigator, and his higher-ups have assigned him a new and highly dangerous mission: go undercover and see what’s going on with Sgt. Gammon (Abell) and his small cadre of close personal followers. Gammon is suspected of drug-running, money-stealing, and perhaps even murder. Murphy is to track his every move, and report his findings to Lt. Kelly Andrews (Trickey). 

So Murphy shows up at THE BASE and, under the name of Cpl. Dalton, ingratiates himself into the group, and becomes one of the guys. But Gammon is very wily, and he may suspect something is afoot that could derail his evil operations. Murphy/Dalton is going to have to use every tactic he knows to defeat Gammon and his men - will he survive THE BASE?

The Base has some good and worthwhile moments, and director Lester certainly knows how to stretch a low budget to get the maximum result from it. While the movie as a whole doesn’t feel all that substantial, there are plenty of blow-ups, gun-shooting scenes, and some fights along the way to liven things up. There’s even a tank/Jeep chase - how often do you see that? Plus, Dacascos is likable and clearly competent in the fight scenes. 

It makes sense that the fights are movie highlights when you see that the great James Lew was the fight coordinator (unfortunately, he doesn’t appear in the film). Plus, this may be Tim Abell’s best work to date. He really inhabits his character and is a solid baddie. And their hideout even has a pinball machine! Pretty sweet.

By 1999, the classic era of DTV/action movies was over. Yet that didn’t stop Lester from directing a sequel to The Base, The Base 2: Guilty As Charged (2000) the next year. Presumably, enough people rented The Base at their local video store to warrant this happening. It seems kind of hard to justify, but there it is. Even Dacascos was replaced by Antonio Sabato Jr. You don’t even have to watch the two movies back-to-back - just within the same general timeframe - and you will notice many similarities, the most glaring of which is the scene where Dacascos/Sabato shows up at the base and gets into a brawl on the training ground. ‘Sure, it depletes brain cells - let’s do it again!’ seems to be the overriding thought process there.

So a lot of people get shot, stuff blows up, and people get beat up. Those are the highlights, and some stuff happens in between those scenes that you won’t remember. The Base is far from bad, but it lacks that extra dimension to put it over the top into being solidly good all the way around.

Comeuppance Review by: Ty and Brett

Also check out write-ups from our buddies, DTVC and The Unknown Movies! 

Special Forces (2003)

Special Forces (2003)-* * *

Directed by: Isaac Florentine

Starring: Marshall R. Teague, Tim Abell, Danny Lee Clark, Troy Mittleider, Daniella Deutscher, Eli Danker, and Scott Adkins





"They fight for your life."






Far and away the best of the American Heroes series. If the other films only followed this one's lead, the series as a whole would be a lot better. But luckily for Special Forces, it stands alone as the clear winner.

Jess (Abell), Bear (Clark), Wyatt (Mittleider), and Reyes (T.J. Rotolo) are an elite counter-terrorism team. They are under the command of Major Don Harding (Teague).  When megalomaniacal dictator Rafendek (Danker) kidnaps and imprisons American journalist Wendy Teller (Deutscher) in exchange for some of his "freedom fighters" to be released from Guantanamo Bay, the Special Forces are sent into the eastern European town of Muldonia to rescue her, and take down Rafendek and his men. Rafendek is the type of guy who massacres his own people for fun, and Wendy caught it all on film. He's also a Bosnian refugee that has a history with Maj. Harding. Not to mention the corrupt government officials in his back pocket. With the help of a British martial arts expert with motives of his own, Talbot, (Adkins) will they be able to take down this evil warlord gone rogue and save the girl - or will Harding relive his previous Bosnia experience all over again?

Special Forces is much more watchable than the others in the series, even enjoyable! The plot is clearer, the camerawork is actually interesting, and there are hand-to-hand martial arts fights that really work, thanks to Scott Adkins, a likable presence who clearly could be the next Gary Daniels. The movie really stands on its own from the series, thanks to the capable direction of Isaac Florentine. We actually know who the Special Forces are, thanks to the very simple but tide-turning idea of showing their names on the screen when we first meet them. It may seem obvious, but it makes ALL the difference. Now we know who they are, as opposed to the mess of the other American Heroes films.

The movie starts with more murders than ten movies of its kind put together, and the plot basically is these few Special Forces versus an entire army of bad guys. So needless to say there are countless deaths during the progress of the movie, and plenty of guns going "pew pew!", and the necessary guard tower falls and blow-ups, but you care more this time around. Especially with the revenge subplot involving Harding and Refendek. And with the addition of Scott Adkins, we get some well-staged hand-to-hand combat, not just mindless shooting. The final fight with Rafendek's beret-ed henchman is certainly a standout.

We also get some classic catchphrases such as "Smoking will kill ya!", and some more tastefully done patriotism this time around. There's also some good atmosphere, and everything is just more competent here than in the other films. It should have been released during the golden video store era of the 80's/early 90's, instead of being lumped with the other "American Heroes" movies.

If you watch one from the American Heroes series, make sure it's Special Forces.

Comeuppance Review by: Brett and Ty

Strategic Command (1997)

Strategic Command (1997)-* *1\2

AKA: Executive Command 

Directed by: Rick Jacobson

Starring: Michael Dudikoff, Richard Norton, Paul Winfield, Amanda Wyss, Tim Abell, Larry Poindexter, Gina Mari, Bok Yun Chon, and Bryan Cranston










Dr. Rick Harding (Dudikoff) is a scientist working for the FBI's chemical weapons unit. He also must be the "One Gulf War Hero" of the movie's tagline. All Harding wants to do is get home to his wife Michelle (Wyss) and have a quiet life. But a terrorist organization led by the evil Carlos Gruber (Norton) breaks into the lab and steals "120 Gels of Bromax 365" which is, and I quote, "Potentially the most dangerous element...EVER CREATED." The small team of black-clad baddies then hijacks a plane heading from California to Washington D.C. On the plane is the Vice President of the United States, Charles Baker (Michael Cavanaugh) , his beautiful assistant Amie (Bok Yun Chon), the vain, cowardly news reporter Phil Hertzberg (Cranston), and of course, Michelle Harding! She was assigned to interview the VP when the terrorists struck.

The terrorists demand the release of fellow bad guy Ashrat from prison, and 100 million dollars, or they will blow up the plane with the Bromax on it, which will, and I quote, "Kill every living organism in a 200 mile radius." Now Harding, working with his superior Rowan (Winfield), has to team up with some anti-terrorist agents that don't like him very much, including Rattner (Nick Corri) and Ernie (Marcus Aurelius) to execute "Operation Intercept".Will Harding and his team save the hostages? Will they get the Bromax out of the hands of the bad guys? What will happen to the plane? What writer came up with the name "Carlos Gruber?"

Directed by Rick Jacobson of Ring of Fire (1991) (uncredited) and Night Hunter (1996) fame, and produced by Andrew Stevens which would explain the Desert Thunder (1999)/Stealth Fighter (1999) recycled plane footage (and the "assemble a team" theme), Strategic Command is even more of an obvious ripoff of then-current Hollywood films than usual. Most notably Executive Decision (1996), but also Air Force One (1997), Die Hard (1988), Passenger 57 (1992), The Rock (1996) and Broken Arrow (1996). It even recalls Counter Measures (1999), down to the silly vomiting people that are exposed to the Bromax. Supposedly it even has some music recycled from Counter Measures, and yet again Dudikoff is trapped in an enclosed space, be it sub, plane, or some sort of vehicle.

Old buddies from the American Ninja (1985) days Norton and Dudikoff are back together again. Norton is sinister and not very TV's Andy Levy-like as the terrorist with the slicked-back black hair. Despite some vague talk of his being German, Norton's Australian accent is still proudly on display. Just naming him the confusing and silly "Carlos Gruber" doesn't make him German. Or Mexican for that matter. Plus in Die Hard, Alan Rickman is named Hans Gruber. Of all the German last names that exist, couldn't the writers find another one besides "Gruber"? A funny moment comes when he "disguises" himself as a cameraman to sneak on the plane with the Vice President. All he does is add a funny mustache and glasses, hold a fake camera and say "I'm new". Then he's holding a gun to the VP's head. It is interesting watching a terrorist/plane movie in this post-9/11 world.

Also in the funny department, the evil, deadly substance is called Bromax. The characters all talk about it with dramatic, hushed tones. But every time they say it, it sounds like they are saying "Bromance". "That Bromance is going to kill everyone!" "We have to get the Bromance!", etc.

Dudikoff is his usual cool self, and even has a pre-CSI dramatic sunglass removal line. Clearly the CSI people ripped off Strategic Command. Circle of life. Probably the most interesting casting involves Bryan Cranston as Hertzberg. He's dead last in the credits, but his role is fairly substantial. In any of his interviews, either for Malcolm in the Middle, Breaking Bad or anything else, has anyone ever asked him about Strategic Command? Because they really should. We want Cranston's take.

For a competent, if patently obvious knockoff DTV flick with a cast of familiar faces, check out Strategic Command, but your expectations should not be high.

Comeuppance Review by: Ty and Brett

Substitute 4: Failure Is Not An Option (2001)

Substitute 4: Failure Is Not An Option (2001) -*1\2

Directed By: Robert Radler

Starring: Treat Williams, Angie Everhart, Tim Abell, Patrick Kilpatrick, Simon Rhee, and Bill Nunn














This is the weakest entry in the "Substitute" series. The third one is the best.




Karl Thomasson (The Treatster) has to infiltrate (Again! Why does Karl keep doing this?) a white supremacy gang run by Brack (Patrick Kilpatrick) in a military base.




"White Power" is of course uttered. Repeatedly. Can Karl save the base from total Aryan destruction?




This movie is an excellent definition of "Going off the rails". Treat is good as usual, but he can't save the film. Even Angie Everhart's nudity can't save it. It's a disappointment. The action scenes feel rushed and the viewer gets the feeling that no one's heart was in this project.









Bill Nunn makes an appearance as a local weirdo named Luther. He does nothing except beg for our pity. He said yes to the odd role probably as a favor to Williams.




Treat has seen better days. Watch Prince Of The City (1981), Flashpoint (1984), or Handgun (1994) for some better Treats.
Comeuppance Review by: Ty