Deadly Heroes

THE STORY: Michael Pare is one of those actors that I kind of wonder about. He's been in a lot of movies that were real stinkers. (Space Rage, Solar force, Bad Moon,etc.) and he's been in some that weren't all that bad (Philadelphia Experiment) Well, it looks like he's been in more bad movies than decent ones. This movie wasn't as bad as other action flicks that I've seen. For that matter it wasn't bad at all. Oh yeah it was a cheap little flick, but it was entertaining. More entertaining than I thought it would be considering that it also starred Jan-Michael Vincent. He's been seen in some pretty low budget schlock himself. I figured that both of them together would mean a real crappy outing, but I was mildly suprised.

Brad Cartowski has just gotten out of the US Navy after serving in Greece. (Is there a US naval base in Greece?) Well if he wasn't serving there he's been vacationing there because he and his wife and son, Marcy and Paul, are at the airport in Greece and preparing to return to the United States. Unfortunately a group of international terrorists comes into the airport and an unscheduled shootout occurs. The terrorists have plastic weapons that weren't detected on the metal detectors. Brad tries to stop them but he gets injured and Marcy is taken prisoner along with a lot of other people.

The terrorists hole up on a plane on the runway and make their demands. They want the United States to release Jose Carlos, their leader. If they don't get what they want they'll begin executing the prisoners. Having little choice the US agrees and orders Captain Cody Brant,  former Navy SEAL, now CIA agent to bring Carlos to Greece. The hostages for Carlos exchange takes place, but for some reason Marcy is not returned. She's still on the plane and becomes Carlos' captive. This whole thing has taken a day or so (maybe more...no precise time is given) and Brad recovers in the hospital. his mother arrives to take Paul home to the states and Brad, who is certain that his wife is held by the terrorists swears to get her back. (The authorities simply list her as missing.) He doesn't have to act alone. Brant joins him, claiming to have resigned from the CIA because he wants to get Carlos. Brant is the man who captured Carlos in the first place.

Together the two deadly heroes follow a trail to some place in Africa. They get a hotel room and find that some of Carlos' men are there too. Whatever country this is the president has a private island right off the coast and Carlos must be a friend of his. He and his cronies are there. Carlos also has Marcy as his prisoner. He's been using her as a personal love slave claiming that he "loves her breasts". Brad follows one of the terrorists to the "Forbidden beach" that has the marina where the president keeps his boats. He's accompanied by a friendly cab driver. Together they get captured by the terrorists and the cabbie is killed.

Brad is tortured, of course, and Carlos finds out who he really is. Marcy manages to escape. She's not guarded. For that matter there's a cache of weapons in the same room she's been kept in! Grabbing a revolver she sneaks away and finds Brad in the cellar of the villa. Freeing him they both make their escape, but Carlos and his goons catch up with them at the dock. Knowing that Carlos wants Marcy for himself and thus won't kill her, Brad jumps into the water and escapes back to the mainland.

Meanwhile Brant has gone to nearby italy to see a friend of his at the naval base there, Vice Admiral Vincent. The Admiral wants to help but can't without orders. Orders do come in though...the admiral is given the authority by the Pentagon to attack the island and recover Brad. (Brant has discovered the cabbie's body and figured out that Brad was captured...somehow the Pentagon has this information too.) Just then Brad arrives in the admiral's office! Brant left him a message in the hotel of where he's gone in case he returned. The admiral is reluctant again to act...his orders are to rescue Brad and Brad is now in no need of rescue. But with a little coaxing, and the fact that brad is a good friend he decides to order the covert action in order to rescue Marcy.

Now, Carlos and his men aren't the brightest guys on the [unwrite]ing planet. As a matter of fact their quite stupid. A bunch of basic trainees could probably take them out. Brad was only captured the first time by his own stupidity. So when Brad, Brant and team of Navy SEALs attack its not much of a challenge. The SEAL's pretty much kill all of the guards and Brad and Brant go to rescue Marcy. This leads to the inevitable showdown with Carlos. Which didn't take too long. Brad blows his freaking brains out! Once this is done the SEAL's leave the island and detonate some bombs they left behind, decimating it.

Actually this movie lasted a bit longer than it needed to. The SEAL's have already defeated the bad guys, but have to use one of the boats moored at the island to leave. So there's an unneeded scene where they run out of gas at sea. The admiral sends a submarine to pick them up but Marcy has been established as not being able to swim and generally afraid of the water. So Brad pushes her in and then they board the sub. None of that was really needed. I mean, the bad guys are already dead, dead, dead! It kind of ruined the feeling that this movie wasn't all that bad.

It wasn't great but it didn't suck...one glaring bit is the fact that once Marcy discovers the weapons and makes her escape she does pretty damn good. Well, if she was so proficient at escapes and all that gung ho stuff I never would have guessed. She spent the first part of her entrapment screaming and crying because big bad Carlos wanted her body! Of course when she does find Brad in the cellar they discover that the revolver she has isn't loaded. So maybe she's not all that proficient. Crazily enough though Marcy seems pretty calm during the escape like its just a game of paintball!

Carlos was actor Billy Drago. I've heard that he is kind of a scary guy when he plays the villain. Um...NOT. Drago looks like an old guy and all of his villains are always lame. If Billy Drago ever captured my wife I'd rip his stupid head off and use it as a candy dish.

Best Lines: "oooh....Marcy...get outta here...huh...you got the keys! Unlock me baby...!!"-Brad when Marcy revives him in his cell.

"F***in' A!"- Almost all of the heroes say this at one point.

1.) Without going into specific detail, just watch the part where the bad guys first make their move in the facility. If not for the script they'd have been toast. Its bad enough the gun manby the tower moves too slowly to really get the drop on the guard, but inside the building the terrorist have to unpack their weapons yet they still are able to fire before the already armed guards.

2.) IIt would help my suspension of disbelief if the terrorists wid automatic weapon firing hit one of the twenty or thirty monitors in the room.

3.) It makes sense that the token black terrorist would be working the computer...this man has one of the largest foreheads I've ever seen. Who is he...the f***ing Leader?* (Hulk fans will get that)

4.) No f***ing way! Carlos has Marcy in a room alone...a room with unlocked closets full of f***ing weapons? This guy is a terrorist? A scenario folks...if my wife (a former Army sergeant, herself) was in that situation and she found a closet full of assault weapons the result would be a whole lot of f***ing dead terrorists! Hell, my elderly Aunt would probably have done the same!

NUDITY AND SEX: Marcy is seen in the showers but careful lathering covers her naughty bits.

HUH?: What kind of soldier is Atfield He gives his weapon to Ira because the man is scared? Funk dat.

Carlos tells his henchmen after they've captured Brad, that they can use him to squeeze the weak American President. Well, undoubtedly terrorists holding US citizens would cause the president sleepless nights, but in the real world that might not be too smart. The US doesn't make deals with terrorists. (Which actually deep six's the whole beginning) and trust me...if Brant simply went and made a phone call letting the US forces know where Carlos was holed up, it wouldn't be worth it for Carlos. Come on! The US has a history of bombing the living [unwrite] out of countries that harbor terrorists. Hostages damn sure didn't work for Iraq. I'm not trying to be funny or even overly patriotic, but why do you think that terrorist's don't openly attack the US? 'Cuz we'd go nuts!

These guys are terrorists? They know that Marcy has escaped but Carlos shrugs it off with "she can't get off of the island". No one thinks to check if she maybe went to free Brad! Then when Brad cuts the lights and electricity they figure "Oh, the power went out. Don't worry about it." and take their own sweet time turning on the emergency power. Brad kills four soldiers that are playing cards in the lawn instead of searching for Marcy! Are people this stupid?

THE TALLY: Mildly entertaining, that's the final score for this film. It'll do well for a feature if you're torturing your friends with low-budget military action flicks.