Sanctuary

Starring: Marc Dacascos, Jaime Woolvett, Kylie Travis    Directed by: Tibor Takacs

THE STORY:  This was a toss up. I almost didn't rent it. As a matter of fact I almost rented Red Dawn instead, which is ironic. Joe Admire emailed me today and asked if I ever planned on doing Red Dawn shortly after I got back from the store. I guess I should have rented Red Dawn instead. After all, its a crappy movie that needs to be judged, and I'm sure I could find many things to torment it with...but no, I rented this instead and Sanctuary isn't all that bad. There are parts I didn't care for, but all things considered it didn't suck.

Mark Dacascos is Luke...and Luke is Father John. We find out about Luke through flashbacks into his past during the movie. At a young age he witnessed his mother being murdered by a purse snatcher.I assume he had no other family, because after that he's kind of adopted by Commander Dyson. Dyson is the commander of a top secret group of CIA operatives that specialize in assassination and operate on US soil, despite the fact that the CIA is not supposed to do that. Luke and the other children are rigorously trained in all of the stuff you need to know in order to be a top notch killer and agent. Bombs, guns, etc. But it goes sour for Luke when during a mission to stop a renegade military officer from selling information to enemy nations the man's innocent fifteen year old daughter was killed. Luke's co-assassin and girlfriend, Rachel shot her from afar with a sniper rifle while covering Luke. It seems the daughter who wasn't supposed to be home was indeed home and witnessed Luke blowing a large hole in her dad's head. Ouch. Even as Luke made his escape the girl followed him outside intent on taking some sort of revenge (she had a gun). So Rachel whacked her. This bother Luke to no end but he still worked for Dyson.

An undisclosed amount of time later, Luke is briefing the new guy on the team, Grace, about a mission. Well, Grace is a jerk. He envies the apartment that the CIA has given Luke and he's even more obnoxious and envious when he sees Rachel there with nothing on but a robe. So immediately you can see that he and Luke aren't going to be the best of friends. The mission is to set up Senator MacGuire so that he'll be more easy to control. MacGuire is going to be named National Security Advisor and he wants to shut Dyson and his goon squad down. Dyson on the other hand has a plan to keep the Senator in his pocket. He has Colette, a female member of his team pose as a call girl at a party so that he can film the Senator doing some hanky panky with her. At least that's what they told Luke who is on video surveillance. When it comes down to it, the senator ties her hands and beats her near to death. Against orders Luke intervenes and knocks the senator out. Dyson and Grace planned to let Colette die thus further incriminating the senator. Even when Luke tries to save her, Grace stabs her to death. Disgusted Luke flees and takes a copy of the tape of the whole affair with him.

For three years Luke poses as Father John, a priest in Chicago. But his humanitarian efforts put his picture in the paper. Which of course brings him back into the attention of Dyson. Dyson knows he isn't safe until he gets the tape back from Luke (since it shows in addition to the Senator's misbehavior, Dyson and Grace conspiring and killing Colette while the Senator is unconscious.) Rachel at first is sent to find him and get the tape, but then Luke explains what really happened to Colette. Rachel wants out too, but Dyson and his crew are after both of them now.

This might make the movie sound really exciting and non-stop, but it is rather talky. Not that that's a bad thing. Actually, its pretty interesting. Remember, the hints to Luke's past is told in flashbacks, so we don't get the whole story of why Luke until well into the movie. We can't even be sure of Rachel's loyalties until the end...is she just trying to set Luke up so she can get the tape for Dyson or does she genuinely want to be out of the spy business? Gotta wait till the end to find out.

And we all know that the end involves a fight between Luke and Grace. They've had a private little cold war going on through the entire flick. The fight they have is fast and brutal...which is a good thing. Its not the typical movie hero fight that lasts five minutes while two men hit each other with blows that would kill a normal human. No, they fight and it looks like a real fight. Luke being the hero wins, and its refreshing that Grace didn't get up after defeat for the "Bad Guy gets on more chance" thing that happens in movies. Luke confronts Dyson and instead of killing him, he gives him the tape. Dyson asks  "I don't have to ask you if there's a copy, do I?...I guess not." . and seems pretty satisfied with himself...only surprise! There was a copy and Luke turned it over! Just as MacGuire is being nominated the tape hits the evening news! I guess the guilty do get what they deserve! (But being Washington insiders probably not.)

The last we see of Luke he's telling his tale to a group of other priests. I guess its some kind of confession on his part. But instead of booting him out of the priesthood they ask him to join their order....saying the church sometimes has to use other means to protect itself! (Shades of Fallen Knight and Shadowbuilder!) They give him a gun and the screen fades to black...will Luke take them up on the offer? We'll see if there's ever a movie starring Dacascos as a hitman priest.

Ok, the things I didn't like: This movie was entertaining but some parts did drag on and get a little hard to follow. The flashbacks were cool but I couldn't nail down a time frame for any of them. And why does Luke's gun go bang really loud when there's a silencer on it? Originally I thought that there would be more action and hand to hand combat in this movie, but its more of a thriller than an actioner. That's not a dig at the movie, that's just my fault for expecting something this movie wasn't set out to be. Either way it was entertaining enough. I guess I can forgive Dacascos for besmirching the name of the United States Army with the ridiculous movie "The Base" and testing my patience with "DNA".

Best Lines: "By the way....I'm really enjoying that apartment."- Grace to Luke, trying to make him angry.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?:

1.) It takes a special kind of total bastard to shoot an innocent priest in a church. Is that like a one way express ticket to Hell or what?

2.) Speaking of total bastards, why would Luke be all that upset because the fifteen year old daughter of one of Osbourne got shot? After all, he's a CIA assassin! He's been trained since childhood to smoke people with no reservations. I can understand him being a little upset about it, but I'd think a hardened killer would have more...how do the brits put it? Bottle?

3.) Those cops got to the hotel awful damn quick...and in unmarked cars too? You'd think that if someone called the police about men with guns sitting in a car they'd get there fast, but you'd expect uniformed officers.

4.) BOO! HISS! In order to make sure she isn't carrying a bug Luke tells Rachel to strip and she angrily complies....she removes her shoes and pants and when she gets to her shirt he says "That's enough!"...NO IT ISN"T YOU JERK! Take it all off! That's what I say!

NUDITY AND SEX:  none

HUH?:  Wouldn't the SWAT team, being police officers need some kind of probable cause to just attack the homeless people under the bridge? Not one of their targets has a weapon yet they open fire!

I guess Luke was the only one of the team that was any good figuring how he kicks everyone else in the ass when he goes after Dyson.

Luke says he expects to be in jail after the tape is seen, but I think he might have a valid defense. He was recruited into this den of assassins as a child! I think the establishment would rather not prosecute him and let it be known that Government agencies brainwash small children to be assassins to the general public.

THE FINAL JUDGMENT: Its always fun to not have to consign a movie to the flaming pits of the Inferno. This movie does have enough plot and energy to be a good watch for the guys and its not too violent of bloody for the guys to watch with the ladies. (Although children shouldn't watch it. They won't get it and they'll fall asleep.) I just hope the next movie I watch with Dacascos allows him to show off more of his skills in the martial arts.