Movie Review: Militia

Militia a.k.a Undercover
Cinetel Films, USA, 2000.

Ethan Carter (Dean Cain) is an ATF-agent. ATF raids the compound of peacefully living gun nuts Brotherhood of Liberty. Taking out a small group of loonies with more firepower than in Vietnam seems a bright idea for Deputy Director Anderson (John Beck) who does not know the word overkill. Brotherhood leader William Fain's (Frederic Forrest) family dies in the massacre.

Ethan Carter

Anderson

William Fain

Two years later terrorists Staley (Christopher Maleki) & Tegley (James C. Victor) steal anthrax from Cyberdyne Systems (sic). Radio DJ Mad Monty (Stacy Keach) spews hatred and predicts a fascist revolution. Agents Carter and Julie Sanders (Jennifer Beals) must find the stolen bacteria but co-operation with the army is difficult as arrogant Major Wilson (Dean Hallo) is hostile to ATF-agents. Anderson orders Carter to infiltrate the New Brotherhood and there he needs help from Fain. Why does it seem like a bad idea on so many levels?

Mad Monty

Tegley and Staley

Julie Sanders

Carter's cover is blown too soon so Carter and his new best buddy Fain have to improvise. The terrorists plan to kill the President with anthrax-missiles. But what will Fain's final stance be?

This time Jim Wynorski loans footage from "Delta Force 2", "Terminator 2", "American Ninja 2" and "Rambo 2" (all from sequels?) Unlike "Stealth Fighter" it has a more serious feel and much less humour. Somehow positive aspect is that Fain is surprisingly ambiguous character and not totally a bad guy.

The plot is quite typical for an action thriller with twists and turning of coats. The actors are surprisingly good and the B-movie plot has a good pace. The stock footage scenes are integrated to the movie using fun to spot pons asinorum scenes for example what is a limousine from "Delta Force 2" doing parked next to a country house? And later a soldier boarding a helicopter takes off his coat to match the following stock footage. It is not a great film but could be a lot worse. Fans of cheap direct to video films might want to check it out. 

Familiar face from many TV-series Michael Cavanaugh appears as Col. Jim Donnerman, Ret.

Rating: Average

Starring: Dean Cain, Jennifer Beals, Frederic Forrest, Stacy Keach, John Beck, Brett Butler, Christopher Maleki, James C. Victor, Dean Hallo, Bill Langlois Monroe, Michael Cavanaugh, Shawna Casey, Curtis Blanck, David Dunard, Billy Rieck, Jeff Kober, Ryan Cutrona, Paul Terrell Clayton, Tom Ferguson, Dale E. House, George Christy, Kipp Tribble 

Director: Jim Wynorski (as Jay Andrews)

Movie Review: Stealth Fighter

Stealth Fighter a.k.a Nighthawk 

Cinetel Films, Artisan Entertainment, Grey Matter Entertainment, Stealth Fighter Pictures, USA, 1999.

Owen Turner (Ice-T) and Ryan Mitchell (Costas Mandylor) are two rival pilots bombing drug fields in Nicaragua 1986. As contrast Turner is a macho gangsta and Mitchell is a softie. Their rivalry turns out to be more serious than was the case with Maverick and Iceman. While on a mission Turner turns into a traitor and fakes his death. Admiral Peterson (William Sadler) first scolds then congratulates Mitchell for the work well done but losing his wingmates saddens him. Not that it has much effect to the story.

Mitchell and Turner

Adm. Frank Peterson

In 1999 terrorists steal F-117 Stealth Fighter Turner and surprise! It is Turner again now working for arms dealer Roberto Menendez (Andrew Divoff). The terrorists use the codes of the stolen plane to hack a satellite and use it to  disable a submarine. President Obama I mean Westwood (Ernie Hudson) has a bad day and he must arrange rescuing operation for the submarine crew and search party for finding the stolen airplane. Meanwhile Turner is ticking off his employers and Menendez's bodyguard Berg (Tommy 'Tiny' Lister Jr.).

Erin Mitchell

F-117

Roberto Menendez and Turner

Despite the 13 year gap everyone still looks as young as yesterday. Mitchell is nowadays a F-117 pilot. His work is busy and his marriage with his wife Erin (Erika Eleniak) suffers because of that. Daughter J.P. (Sarah Dampf) wants daddy back home. She'll have to wait as daddy has been selected for the mission to destroy the terrorist base and steal back the airplane.The commandos use similar tactic as Christopher Walken used in "The Dogs of War." Wait, the raid scene is taken from the "The Dogs of War!"

The President and Clancy (George Gerdes)

Berg

And this scene is from "Flight of the Intruder"

Jim Wynorski is known for churning out B-movies using various aliases. Here he cuts corners and uses cut and paste film making, taking the action scenes from big budget films. Stock footage from numerous movies makes this a good movie for spot a movie game. The technique creates a mismatch of the expensive action scenes and the cheaply filmed scenes. The fighter jet interiors look more like transport planes. The submarine scene looks like that is filmed in some real warship with some guy shaking the camera so that it looks like it is sinking.

The plot is quite generic for the genre but the simple story is padded up with some demented twists. Amusing dialogue and cheesy action saves this from being an utter mess. Especially dialogue between with Mitchell and his daughter is fun. Also Ice-T:s dialogue is hilarious, now there are gangstas in the air force. Perhaps the makers realized how absurd the movie was and inserted some tongue in cheek dialogue. Little bit more comedy and this would have been a challenger to "Hot Shots 2"

Rating:So bad it is good

Starring: Ice-T, Costas Mandylor, Erika Eleniak, Sarah Dampf, William Sadler, Ernie Hudson, Andrew Divoff, William G. Schilling, John Enos III, Alex Meneses, Tommy 'Tiny' Lister Jr., Steve J. Hennessy, Michael Gregory, Mark Adair-Rios, Paul Terrell Clayton, Steve Eastin, George Gerdes, Trevor Gordon, Clay Greenbush, Jon Huertas, Peter Spellos 

Director: Jim Wynorski (as Jay Andrews)

Movie Review: Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing

Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing 

A.C.E., British Broadcasting Corporation, NHK Enterprises, TCEP Inc., USA, Japan, UK, 2004. 

The second documentary of the Bullitt Special Edition DVD is a documentary about the secrets of movie editing.

Cutting is very important for the rhythm of the film and effective building of emotional responses. The first films were made using single scene, basically filming until the film ran out. If that would have been all there is for movie making the art of cinema would have become a short-lived gimmick. Edwin S. Porter invented a method for making the films more interesting by combining several scenes to tell stories. Other big steps forward were the techniques used by D.W. Griffith and Sergei Eisenstein. 

There are fun stories about film editing and contrasting opinions of film editors and directors. "Terminator 2"would like very jerky if every 24th frame was removed. "Jaws" animatronic shark did not work as expected but thanks to Verna Fields' editing it looked realistic despite Spielberg's wish to show more of the shark. Also Steven Seagal was difficult to work with in "Under Siege 2" as he walked into the cutting room and began bossing about how the film should be cut. 

The history of editing techniques is interesting stuff. There are good examples from movie genres (action, drama, horror and erotic thrillers). Not only that but the interviews of the directors and the editors give also trivia about making classic movies such as "Apocalypse Now" and "Easy Rider." Walter Murch editing "Cold Mountain" is used as a case study of how editors work.

Walter Murch editing "Cold Mountain"

Highly interesting and informative documentary about movie making and evolution of film techniques.

Rating: Very good

Interviewees: Kathy Bates, Zach Staenberg, Jodie Foster, Michael Tronick, Anthony Minghella, Sean Penn, Walter Murch, Martin Scorsese, Rob Cohen, Quentin Tarantino, Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Antony Gibbs, Mark Goldblatt, Sally Menke, Craig McKay, Richard Marks, Ridley Scott, Alexander Payne, Kevin Tent, Howard E. Smith, Conrad Buff IV , Dylan Tichenor, Wes Craven, Carol Littleton, Tom Rolf, Pietro Scalia, Tina Hirsch, Frank J. Urioste, Peter Honess, George Lucas, Chris Columbus, Paul Verhoeven, Jan de Bont, Alan Heim, Joe Dante, Lynzee Klingman, Jay Cassidy, Thelma Schoonmaker, Michael Kahn, Paul Hirsch, Dede Allen, Anne V. Coates, Richard Chew, Donn Cambern, Lawrence Kasdan, Joe Hutshing, Chris Lebenzon, Jerry Bruckheimer, Alisa Vilena, Marya Kazakova, Anatol Rezmeritza, Ilia Volok, Verna Fields, Robert Zemeckis, Will Smith 

Director: Wendy Apple