THE STORY:  I don't have any idea about the title for this film. Not once do you see any Body Armor and its not like the hero is steel encased cyborg. Its no big deal but it always bugs me a little when a movies title has nothing whatsoever with anything in the movie.

The hero in this movie is Ken Conway, super-mercenary. He's really super, too, because not once in this movie will you actually think he's in serious danger. He's that good! Well, Ken's former fiancée Marisa hires him to investigate a missing scientist. The scientist was working for Dr. Krago. Krago owns a medical company that creates vaccines. I'm not sure what Marisa does...a guess would say that she works for a rival company doing corporate espionage. The missing guy was trying to get info on Krago's latest vaccine.

Ken doesn't particularly want this job...he's a little bummed out because Marisa left him at the altar. But with the urging of his accountant and friend, Hutch, he takes it. He lies to Krago and his assistant Sloane Matthews, telling them his name is Dr. Tulley. Well, Krago suspects he's more than he seems immediately. Sloane just wants to get him in the sack. Ken manages to copy information from Krago's computer to a disk, but Krago secretly infects him with a deadly virus. That's how Krago makes his money. He creates deadly diseases and the cure. After he unleashes the disease his company manufactures the vaccine and rakes in a bundle. I'll get into picking that apart later.

Ken and his friends have been followed by an FBI agent, Monica McBride, who is trying to bust Krago. Fortunately too. The FBI knows that Krago infected Ken and hauls him in. They inform Ken that he has about 48 hours and then the disease will kill him. Being a hero Ken immediately plans to go to Krago's private island Headquarters and retrieve the antidote (and get Krago). McBride arranges transportation for both of them the next morning. Marisa wants to go with Ken but he refuses. In order to persuade him she makes hot monkey love to him...thus infecting herself. Ken still leaves her behind, but Sloane kidnaps her and takes her to the island.

Now, I know I don't need to go through with the rest of this. You know what happens. Ken gets the antidote. Marisa gets the antidote. Krago and Sloane get whacked. When you rent a direct to video action movie you don't expect any cinematic masterpiece but man, I didn't at any time worry that the heroes wouldn't win. Ken himself was too perfect. Even when the virus was supposedly killing him he beat up and shot just about all of Krago's guards. Jeez, I wonder how many men he could beat if he wasn't dying? I'm also sick and tired of the  "Steven Seagal Background Syndrome" in some of these action flicks. Seagal, in all of his movies is an ex-green-beret, or ex-Navy SEAL, or some kind of ex-super secret agent guy. The SSB Syndrome as I call it occurs here when Krago finds out that Tulley is really Ken and looks up his background. Then he's all impressed that Ken is an ex-special forces guy and mutters..."Oh, a Lieutenant Colonel!". For crying out loud, by this time in the movie we've seen  Ken kick everyone's ass. Even one of Krago's guards refuses to fight him saying "He trained me!" and "He can drop me in a second!" Couldn't he just have been a really, really tough guy? I didn't need any more clarification that Ken was an expert at kickin' ass.

The end of the movie is pretty much what you'd expect. Ken, Marisa and McBride get outside of  Krago's complex...where they've planted explosives and await a helicopter to rescue them. Then the place explodes. Keep in mind that McBride went off to signal the rescue but Ken and Marisa are only just outside of the place. After the explosion the credits roll and you hear Ken and Marisa wondering if they're dead since they were so close to the explosion. I'm sure it was meant to be cute, but I found it...stupid. No suprise there.

Ken was Matt McColm. Krago was Ron Perlman. Perlman was a good villain because he reminds me of a kid who used to beat me up in 6th grade...so I hated him instantly. You know that a movie is pretty low on the scale when Clint Howard is the hero's sidekick. Clint was Hutch. To top it off John Rhys-Davies had a part for all of five minutes as Rasheed.

Best Lines: "You know, my first girlfriends name was Tulley; Tammy Tulley. God she had big boobs."- Hutch comments on Ken's pseudonym. I found it very amusing because I had a crush on a girl named Patty Tulley in High School...and yes, she did have big boobs.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?:

1.) Do mercenaries live that good!? Ken has a HUGE ass house and its nice. Maybe I'm in the wrong business. Must be my overwhelming fear of being killed.

2.) Ken is perfect....too perfect. He's good looking (I guess...I mean I don't go around judging guys, even though I had to concede to my wife once that Highlander's Adrian Paul is a damn good looking man) Ken also can't be defeated in hand to hand combat. In every fight he was so good that I wondered why his opponents were even there. The virus thing didn't slow him down at all. Not to mention that he has knowledge of medicine, explosives and computers. Who is this guy, Buckaroo Banzai?

3.) When Ken copies information from Krago's computer I was slightly amused. Krago's computer looks like one you might see in anyone's home. A Compaq or a Gateway maybe. Ken hooks up an external floppy drive and copies the information about the latest of Krago's viruses. Uh, why would Krago have this stuff so easily found? Its not like Ken had to figure out a pass word or bust some encryption. He just downloaded it! And pretty [unwrite]ing fast too! What was this file, a 24k MS word document!? So Not only does Krago leave things like "My deadly virus that I'm going to unleash" on his desktop, his entire evil plan is able to fit on a single floppy disk!

4.) Marisa is nuts. Really. After hutch clears up a little misunderstanding of hers...which is why she left Ken at the altar, she wants him back. Ok, I can dig that. But then when he's infected she purposely kisses and eventually screws him to get the virus in hopes that he'll take her on his life and death mission. Right. I love my wife but I wouldn't purposely contract a super-virus from her just to go risk my life saving her. I'd want to go on the mission UNinfected, but I wouldn't be so hell-bent on going as to get a 100% fatal disease to make it so. Who would? If you say you'd do such thing you're a much better person than I am. Or maybe a much dumber. (I know that grammar didn't come out right)

NUDITY AND SEX:  Ken and Marisa make love but no real nudity is really seen.

HUH?:  Krago's plan sounds good for an episode of the A team or a comic book, but here's where it makes little sense to me. Krago cranks out deadly viruses to only come up with the antidote and make money. So by default you'd expect that he creates both the virus and the cure simultaneously. I'm not up on creating such things, but doesn't that cost A LOT of money? Especially if you're doing this stuff at your private island lab? Wouldn't it be more profitable to to sell the virus to the government? (and the cure) Yeah, the US Government would (hopefully) refuse but I could probably think of at least five nations that would pay for the info. Plus, why would Krago want to do such a thing anyway? He already has more money than he can spend theoretically. Krago's plans also would require an extremely loyal workforce. Not one person, not one scientist could be against making money in this fashion. (killing people in third world nations with a virus and then coming up with the cure) I find it hard to believe that none of the people involved thought "This guy is EVIL! I have to tell someone!". Finally, the FBI obviously knows that Krago's doing this stuff...they just don't do anything until Ken needs the antidote. I don't think the US Government would allow this guy to create devastating plagues willy-nilly without doing something to stop him. Heck, it looks like McBride and her partner are the only two agents on the case!

Ken looks pretty young for an ex-Lieutenant Colonel. Most Lt. Col's I know have some gray hair.

Is McBride and FBI agent or Ally McBeal? She has a skirt on that's so high I could see her panties! Where's Dana Sculley when you need her?

THE  FINAL JUDGEMENT: As I stated, there was no real sense of danger in this movie. It could have been a live action Johnny Quest episode for Saturday morning! If Ken wasn't superhuman I'd give it an extra devil. It wouldn't be a great movie either way, but it could have been a little better.