Obstruction

If you have seen Die Hard with a Vengeance (starring Bruce Willis, Samuel L Jackson and Jeremy Irons), you've already seen this movie (starring the appalling David Hasselhof and the attractive Kathy Ireland). Produced just one year after it's obvious source of inspiration, Gridlock is about a suspected terrorist attack on New York City which is really just a cover for some "sophisticated" bank robbers to do over the Federal Reserve under Wall Street. Everything from Hasselhof's slide down a fire hose on the outside of the bank building to the baddies' escape through the subway is blatantly plagiarised from the Die Hard series. And not only is everything stolen for this story, it is reproduced so badly that Gridlock cannot even be passed off as an homage to it's marginally older, and infinitely better, sibling.

Hasselhof is the disgraced "maverick" of the NYPD traffic department named Gorky (or something like that), a helicopter pilot who believes in bending the rules to get his man; an attitude which infuriates his superiors who also include his dad. When Hasselhof correctly identifies the "terrorist attack" on New York as a cover for a heist, no one wants to know so in he goes. Alone. Heard it before yet? But wait, there's more - Hof's estranged girlfriend just happens to work at the Federal Reserve and she's in trouble. Spooky co-incidence or deja-vu?! Hasselhof, Ireland and co all prove that acting is far beyond their limited abilities and the production team should be similarly ashamed. Cheap in appearance and lacking in production values, Gridlock really is poor. And sadly there is not even any kitsch value to this waste of 90 minutes.

Steer clear - it's movies like this that give the acronym USTVM a very, very bad name.