The Patriot

Thieves steal a nuclear warhead from the American military. An ex-serviceman - who doesn't play by the rules - is called back into service to retrieve the missile.

This 80's action movie was directed by Frank Harris who also gave us Killpoint (1984). Both films are pretty shoddily put together, although Killpoint just shades this one in terms of entertainment value. Still, I have to say that for the most part I found The Patriot to be adequately okay in a time-passing sense. Its story is both simple yet confusingly told. But it still essentially manages to string together a series of action scenes that justifies its existence. It's also one of those movies which imply that acts of international terrorism involving high risk theft of nuclear weapons could possibly be carried out by disco dancing dunces who appear to possess the IQ of an Alsatian dog. Although this film also puts forward the idea that the American government would hand in a nuclear warhead to a shop to be mended! The cast is led by a guy called Gregg Henry who spends the entire time scowling at everybody and everything, Stack Pierce from Killpoint returns here as a genuinely evil looking dude, while there are a couple of small roles from name actors Leslie Nielsen (in a surreal comedy-free cameo) and Michael J. Pollard plays a character whose relevance to the story I am still trying to work out. On the whole, this is not very good but it is what it is.

The Patriot is a truly awful 80s action movie. In fact, it is so terrible that I thought it might have been a spoof until the blood started to flow. This film is poorly made, badly directed and something of a grazing ground for incompetent actors. And yet, it is also funny and mindlessly entertaining in a way that only 80s action trash can be.

The plot, if you could call it that, revolves around an ex-Navy Seal called Ryder. Ryder would have to be one of the most personality free action heroes in the history of cinema. If he's not mumbling something to one of his badly permed lady friends in the local bar, he's visiting a demented couple on a houseboat who play Twister dressed as high school students. In addition to these activities, Ryder is also called on by the Navy to stop the detonation of a stolen nuclear weapon. This proves to be rather straightforward due to a friend of Ryder conveniently finding the label from a missing nuke at her workplace. The coincidences continue when Ryder runs into his ex-lover on a Navy ship and we are treated to an incredibly unpleasant lovemaking scene between this most unattractive of couples. The film reaches a new low when two of the thieves dance to 80s pop music while unloading the nuke and then debate going to Disneyland.

There really is no excuse for this smörgåsbord of incompetence. The film was written by Katt Shea of "Poison Ivy" and "Stripped To Kill" fame, the budget appears to have been substantial given the scope of the special effects and Gregg Henry, who plays Ryder, is usually a very good actor. I guess this is just one of those ill-fated projects that inexplicably ends up being terrible. However, the incredibly dull direction, multitude of goofs and appalling supporting cast would not have helped matters.

Despite all the film's flaws, I could not help but find "The Patriot" mildly amusing. For example, Ryder's reunion with Sean, complete with Vietnam war back story, is so contrived and ridiculous that I had to laugh. The same goes for Jeff Conaway's crazy-eyed performance and the bumbling villains ("What's a Hiroshima?"). The action itself, while poorly handled, is still moderately entertaining. Maggie's decompression chamber mishap was my personal highlight.

The Patriot is not a film I would want to watch again but it is probably worth watching on TV if you are heavily medicated and there is nothing else on but re-runs of "Designing Women". Fans of bad 80s action movies or Leslie Nielsen might find it more bearable.

I payed to see this in the theater when it came out. My friend that went with me still hasn't forgiven me. For years after that this movie was our metric for measuring bad movies, as in "Man, that movie stunk almost as bad as The Patriot".

The only part of this movie I remember is when the good guy is storming an abandoned, rusty, offshore oil rig where the bad guys are, and he knocks one of the bad guys into the water. The bad guy sinks, but his M16 rifle floats...

I followed up the viewing of this movie with Sky Pirates about a week later. After that stinker ("man that was almost worse than The Patriot") my roommate stopped listening to my suggestions for movies to see.

I've found a TV channel that seems to be showing the whole back catalogue of the 'Crown International Pictures' production company and so far their output seems to have been pretty hopeless. THE PATRIOT is a cheap, poorly-cast action thriller that feels like an American Bond flick, with a loquacious cowboy taking on the role of the hero and some nondescript terrorists plotting to commit various atrocities.

Let's be honest here: this is poor stuff indeed, ineptly directed and with very tame and insipid action sequences. The real story seems to take forever to get going and when it finally does you wonder if it was worth it. The only thing this has going for it is a mini UNDER SIEGE scenario at the climax in which the hero and his buddies climb onto a ship populated by hijackers.

The erstwhile hero of the piece is played by the miscast Gregg Henry, better known to audiences for playing scuzzy characters in the likes of PAYBACK and SLITHER. Old timers Michael J. Pollard and Leslie Nielsen show up, the latter with such a deep voice that it sounds like he was dubbed. Everywhere THE PATRIOT is tame and predictable, and only huge fans of cheap 1980s cinema will get a kick out of it.

...as THE PATRIOT, a former Navy SEAL, now turned biker, who is called upon by his old pals in the Navy to help stop evil underwater smugglers, who are stealing nuclear weapons and use them for bad purposes (as if there were any good purposes anyway).

Now, while most people don't know who the heck Gregg Henry is, some of you might remember him as the main bad guy villain from "PAYBACK", which coincidentally starred "the other Patriot", Mel Gibson (so that movie was unofficially "The Battle of the two Patriots"). In that movie, Henry was really doing what he does best, which was being a unsympathetic number one A-hole (he also played similar A-hole roles in "SLITHER", "BALLISTIC" and "BODY DOUBLE"). In this movie however, he's our main hero - the guy we're supposed to root for and identify with - and he actually succeeds by mere default, as all the other (male) characters in this movie are either sleazy scumbags, stupid criminals, military personnel, or simple retards. So, unless you're a woman, or rooting for Admiral Frazer (played by Leslie Nielsen in probably his *least* funny role ever - and also one of the smallest roles ever, only getting two short scenes), then Lieutenant Matt Ryder aka The Patriot is your guy.

The female lead, Sean, is played by Simone Griffeth, whom most of us probably only know from "DEATH RACE 2000" where she played Annie "Paine" Smith, and after that he career slowly but surely faded away, this movie being one of the final nails in the coffin, even though she actually did a good job here, playing a woman torn between two men - the other one being navy-guy Mitchell, played by the crazy-lookin' Jeff Conaway (from "TAXI" and "CELEBRITY REHAB"-fame), probably during his mid-80s substance abuse period, as he looks strung-out throughout the entire film.

Ryder and Sean go out to sea to hunt down the bad guys, with only the assistance of their helicopter-pilot pal Kenwood (Mike Gomez, "Cojones" from "HEARTBREAK RIDGE"), and loony buddy Howard (Michael J. Pollard of "BONNIE AND CLYDE"-fame), who is only in a handful of scenes, and randomly disappears before the great raid at the end, not to be seen or heard from again. I've no idea why he got 3rd billing in this movie, as his role was so short and completely redundant.

The bad guys are a mixed bag of nuts, not really led by anyone it seems (but we find out in the end who their "leader" supposedly is). The 2nd hand man is a bad-ass mo-fo played by Stack Pierce (who was a regular in other Frank Harris'-movies, and also got a nice part in "WEEKEND AT BERNIE'S II"), who has two simpleminded henchmen, Pink (played by Glenn Withrow, who's probably the least successful actor from "THE OUTSIDERS") and Bite (Larry Mintz aka 'Knobby' from "BURGLAR"). Also among the bad guys is a lunatic who goes by the name "Eight Ball" (played by Anthony Caldarella, who hasn't done anything memorable apart from this turkey), who mostly just stands around with his hands in his pockets, angrily staring at Ryder and making crude remarks for no apparent reason, until the end where they have a big showdown on the oil rig, where most of the action takes place.

Anyway, if you like this movie, you may also enjoy other Frank Harris-directed action-flicks, like "LOW BLOW" or "KILLPOINT", who along with this movie all are available in a DVD-box set called "10 MAXIMUM ACTION MOVIES", where I got it from.

I give it 5/10 because it was neither the worst b-movie I've seen, nor was it one of the best, but the action was decent, and the actors were interesting cast, so it was a good enough time-killer for me.