Reviews

Nothing earth shattering, but just a fun movie. The leads were perfectly cast, the "emotional" aspect was there, but not over played, and the villians were detestable. Comedy sprinkled throughout for levity, and a great old school sounding soundtrack. Highly recommended for a night in.

Possibly Van Damme's best since Timecop. Although that may not mean much to people who love to see him fail, to us fans, it means a lot. Proving that, although he'll never win an Oscar, Van Damme at least *tries* to work on his thesp skills, and unlike certain other late 80's - early 90's action stars, he stays in shape, Van Damme continues to accept new challenges. With a legitimate noir feel and a few familiar martial arts movie faces, Wake of Death was a pleasant surprise. After reading that it went through three directors, I was thinking that it would be a mess, but producer/writer/director Phillipe Martinez managed to craft an entertaining story. Sure, the characters could have been investigated deeper, but they weren't. If you rented the movie with a character study in mind, you deserve to be disappointed.

I love this movie, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. Charlie (Charles? remember that?) Sheen is in this as a "maverick" skydiver. After some, err... "unplausable" plot twists, he ends up fighting for the fate of the free world or something, and I think he gets some lovin' from Natasha Kinski. Maybe. Who cares.

That is the attitude to take when watching this movie. Put the old brain in neutral and just enjoy watching things go "boom!" and watching some good skydiving. Like most Sheen movies, namely No Code of Conduct, if you're not expecting too much, you'll be pleasantly surprised.

In short, this is a "flick", not a "motion picture".

But, it's a damn good "flick".

This is how low budget action movies should be made. Tongue in cheek, with bits of humour amongst the action. On top of likable comedic performances from Sasha Mitchell and Dennis Chan, (the former of which, as another poster suggested, let his Step by Step alter ego "Cody" get into this film), there is also beautiful (and authentic) Brazilian scenery and music. Back to Mitchell's performance; the guy is no Kevin Spacey. Hell, if you think about it, he's somewhere between a porn guy and the dog from Fraiser in acting ability. But he can do one thing well; The likeable doofus. Granted, it is kind of strange seeing Cody from Step by Step whoopin' ass, but it's a quirk that helps the film and gives it a real "personality". As well, you almost aren't sure if he's gonna get through some of the situations he's put in. There is one problem with this movie though. WAY too many pastel shirts. I think old David Sloane needs to get a fashion consultant, because even though this movie was made in the early '90s, he kind of looks like a Miami Vice reject with the clothes and the haircut. (Come to think of it, so does Rick Comar, the villain) OK.. back on track.... Although there are several implausibilities, not the least of which is how a kickboxer is also trained like an Army Ranger, and some bad dialogue, this is a fun movie to watch with lots of humour and some good fights. It's not up to theatrical standards, but it is far superior to most B movie, straight to video tripe that is made. 9/10

Wow... where to start... I'm still reeling from the experience of watching this piece of garbage and I think I'm permanently brain damaged after being exposed to it. Words cannot express how terrible this movie is. I don't care how bad that J. Lo movie "Gigli" is, it will not hold a candle to this waste of matter for pure crappiness. Dolph Lundgren is a marine -(who apparently is the only member of the entire US armed forces who can fly a stealth fighter in footage lifted from another crappy Dolph movie)- that must go board a sub in Russia so that some chemical weapon that the Russians stole from the Americans during the cold war can come back to the US. On board is Dolph's "ex-fiance", who aside from looking like a reject from a Ron Jeremy movie, is also possibly the worst actress to ever set foot on the planet. I had to look up this "actress" to see what other suckers have hired her for movies and found out two things.... 1. thankfully, she's not "in demand" and 2. Her shoddy acting is eclipsed only by her amazing spelling; I think her name is "Melanie" but it looks like some sort of indecipherable mumbo jumbo the way it is spelled. Anyway, I'm off track... this movie is pure crap.. not even one of those "watch with your friends after some herbal refreshment" movies... Everything from the recycled (and butchered) storyline of terrorists on a sub, where every possible cliche is used (and screwed up) to the awful performances, to the terrifyingly bad dialogue. This is the kind of movie that I think can be used as a torture device. There is one saving grace though, after watching the performances in this stinker, you'll be appreciating the master thespianism that is one Jean Claude Van Damme.

I put this movie in the same catagory as "Roadhouse" and "Maximum Overdrive" cheap and forgettable, but for some reason, I own all 3....

Lone Hero is not for everyone's taste, but like the commercials for India Pale Ale up here in Canada say, "Those who like it, like it a lot."

Possibly the greatest B-lister working today, Sean Patrick Flannery, stars as a bad guy in a wild west show who turns into a real hero by roughing up some criminal bikers.

The cowardly townsfolk turn against him, and soon he only has a whacked out war veteran on his side. Is the fact that this is a made for cable movie obvious? yes. Is it cliched? yes.

This is just a modern western, and by the time the credits role, the film will be forgotten, but it is fun escapism for the 90 minutes that it lasts. And the theme song is kind of catchy.