Unrated
Do I even need
to expend energy criticizing this atrocious entry into low budget action?
Merely seeing that Tom Sizemore and Mickey Rourke are crammed onto the film’s
poster despite minor supporting roles should give you an idea of the B-film
tactics used to try tricking audiences into accidentally viewing the film. This
might even work for some, but anyone who has been following the career of these
two fading stars knows that this is familiar pattern in their careers. And if their
inclusion on the poster is not enough proof that the marketing department
probably never saw the film, Rourke is featured standing on the cover, despite
being handicapped and confined to a wheelchair within the film.
There is a lot
of posturing for the release of B-films these days, Weaponized even released in theaters one week prior to this
DVD/Blu-ray release, no doubt to obtain a modicum of credibility. This ends up
being the biggest problem with Weaponized,
and many of its kind. The film takes itself far more seriously than the content
or the ability of the filmmakers deserves. B-films of the past knew not to take
themselves too seriously, or if they did it usually ended up being
unintentionally hilarious. Weaponized
attempts to make political statements about terrorism within a ridiculous
science fiction narrative involving robot soldiers, bio-mechanical weapons, and
a virus threatening to unleash this technology on innocent citizens. Even if
the themes have some relevance, the lack of skill by the actor-turned-director
ensures that nobody will take it seriously.
Johnny Messner
is the real star as Detective Walker, a cookie-cutter damaged cop who is forced
to step up and save the world when he discovers the plot being carried out by
grieving father and military contractor, Kyle Norris (Sizemore). The only thing
more ridiculous than Sizemore’s character name is the costume and make-up job
given to Rourke, who is the developer of the bio-mechanical weapons program. Much
of the movie is just a series of pointless investigation scenes, all of which
are spoiled by simply reading the synopsis included on the back cover of the
disc.
Most don’t watch
these movies for the acting or the intelligent plot, but the action is no more
satisfying. There are some random scenes of military violence which are
over-stylized, some science-fiction elements that are under-stylized, and all
of it edited together by someone with absolutely zero understanding of rhythm
or logic. Even the portions of the film which are fairly well shot are spoiled
by nearly every other technical aspect of the film, not to mention the
stupidity of the screenplay and the ineffectiveness of the actors. In other
words, unless you are stranded in a cabin without TV or any other choices, I
would avoid this film at all costs. Boredom would be better.
The Blu-ray
special features include five deleted scenes and a trailer. The high definition
provided by the disc is more likely to harm the film than help, showing with
more clarity the number of failures in the technical aspects of filmmaking.
Entertainment Value:
1.5/10
Quality of
Filmmaking: 2/10
Historical
Significance: 0/10
2 comments:
Someone who says that the format of the movie is "Anamorphic" loses all credibility to discuss about technical aspects, it shows that you have no idea about technical things.
That is the technical specs provided for the film, and not part of my review. But thanks for reading!
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