39 - Firepower

Connection To SPY HARD - Hulk Hogan appeared (briefly) in Spy Hard, Firepower stars another wrestler The Ultimate Warrior - the two fought in the main event of Wrestlemania VI, I'm not allowed to use a wrestler to wrestler link from now on.

This past Tuesday, The Ultimate Warrior (Jim Hellwig) walking to his car suffered an heart attack and passed away at the all too young age of 54. This was shocking for a number reasons... The Ultimate Warrior had not appeared for the WWE (then WWF) since 1996, it was only that Saturday UW accepted and was inducted into the WWE Hall Of Fame marking his first appearence with the company in 18 years, the day after he appeared on stage at Wrestlemania and on the Monday on RAW he came to the ring and delivered a speech even eerily talking about a heart beating a last beat, the positive is a long-standing gripe was eradicated and UW died in a good place with the company.

Firepower I watch in tribute to a guy though I disagreed with his politics (a lot), was entertaining has a wrestler (technical skill give way to intensity - but he had more then one great match in his career) and marks the only film role he took.

Released in 1993 and set in the then way off future of 2007! though to be fair there is nothing futuristic, I think it was set 14 years so the world could go to crap a bit more and the LA of this film as an extremely high crime rate and even as an area in the city called the "Hell Zone" which is just a place from criminals to do the criminal stuff with no police and is also home to a place called The Death Ring (which is more violent then usual MMA) in which Braniff (Chad McQueen) and Sledge (Gary Daniels) go undercover in to bring down the corrupt who have a role in the production of AIDS vaccines on the black market.

This is DTV cheese no doubt about it and with McQueen and Daniels in the leads it felt like they couldn't scream more DTV action if they tried. The performances are... well... I'm sure Gary Daniels would tell you himself he is not the best actor in the world, his appeal his what he can do physically (hello ladies) but he does appear to be having fun with the cheese of this film (which by extension so do you) and despite their acting talents, he and McQueen do actually have good chemistry.

This is the sort of DTV action that wants to keep outdoing itself set piece wise because plot is just an excuse, how would I put it, it's the sort of film that flings everything at a wall and just see what sticks. It seems to owe stuff to a number of films that went before but it's got it's charm.

Ultimate Warrior as The Swordsman actually brings good intensity to his role, which is not a surprise really if you ever watched one of his wrestling promos - which where never of the sane variety - perfect casting as far as I'm concerned.

Overall, it's never boring and it's a pretty cool DTV action flick, it never takes itself too seriously and it recommended for connoisseurs of this type of movie.