Assault on Dome 4

This is the kind of movie that assures Bruce Campbell of his cult status. The movie is downright awful, but Bruce shines by overflowing with his characteristic cockiness. If your interested in story, special effects, good screen writing, or little things like a cohesive plot or originality, then pass on it; but if you appreciate the over-the-top idiocy of a pure guilty pleasure B-made-for-TV movie, then this is definitely a must see.

I love the movie because of the sheer balls it must have taken to produce: The dialog is awful. The characters are cut-and-dried stereotypes. The entire movie seems as if it was written overnight. It was awesome.

Seemed like "Diehard" on a low budget, in space. Was Okay, Great for you to watch if you're a Bruce Campbell fan. I good film for when you can't find something else to watch.

Apparently it is very hard to get a copy of this film and even Bruce Campbell makes fun of his role in My Name is Bruce. Luckily for me someone posted it on a video site in very good quality so I could enjoy it. And let me tell you. It is one of the better Die Hard clones. Is it a good movie? Not a chance. This one is as cheesy as they come although in a good way. The biggest reason to watch this clone is Bruce Campbell. He is hamming it up big time and is simply a joy to watch. The main character Chase Morran played by Joshep Culp (son of Robert Culp) is actually very believable as unwanted hero. You will have to ignore his one liners because they are far from funny. Although the fact that they aren't makes it funny. So what about the action? For some reason the director Gilbert Po (who never directed a movie after this one ever again) thought it was wise to shoot the action scenes in slow motion. And in general that does make it visually more appealing. However in this case the slow motion is done poorly and has a very laughable effect. But it's not over used so that most action scenes are decent. In general I think his direction was quite decent. It certainly is much better than say that of Brett Ratner or Uwe Boll. I wonder what happened to him? Assault on Dome 4 is incredibly fast paced, witty and blatant copy of Die Hard. In fact one could almost see it as a parody on it since the motive for Alex Windham (Bruce Campbell) is so ridiculous and far fetched that it must have been meant as some sort of satire. Overall this TV Movie is entertaining from start till finish and it definitely belongs to the better Die Hard rip offs. Then how come it is so difficult to get a hold of this movie? If you can get hold of a copy or can watch it on television or online then do so. It's a lot of fun.

Like most people (I would imagine) that have seen this film, my only reason for doing so was the fact that it stars Bruce Campbell. It's a good job Bruce is on board too; otherwise this cheap mess would be a complete dead loss. It's clear that the film's main influence was the classic action flick Die Hard, and indeed Assault on Dome 4 is basically a carbon copy of said film, except instead of being set on a skyscraper, it's set on a research facility somewhere in space. Bruce Campbell plays Alex Windham; an intergalactic terrorist. He breaks out of jail (it's supposed to be a very high security prison, but in my opinion the security is rather lax) and escapes into space along with a load of other convicts he has freed. They set their sights for Dome 4; a research facility that Alex wants to capture and use for his own special research program. Meanwhile, and unbeknown to Alex, Chas Moran - an ace 'peacekeeper' (futuristic cop) is visiting his wife, who happens to work at Dome 4. The terrorists take the place hostage, while Chase attempts to bring them down on his own.

I am extremely glad that Bruce Campbell is in this film; his scenes are really the only ones worth watching and he does seem to relish his role...but if I'm honest, he was the wrong choice to play a terrorist. He spouts off one-liners and its lots of fun, but he doesn't look like a terrorist at all. On the other hand, Joseph Culp, who plays the 'hard as nails' hero, doesn't look the part either! ...so the whole thing is a bit difficult to swallow. Still, there's plenty of fighting and shooting (maybe even too much) and some of it is decent; although director Gilbert Po would do well to lay off the slow motion. The plot itself does basically run in exactly the same way as Die Hard does, so anyone who's seen that (which should be everyone who has seen this) is likely to know exactly where it's going to go. A major problem for this film, though, is the fact that it's so difficult to like the hero - Chase Moran is just dull, and I found myself cheering on Bruce Campbell's terrorist for most of the film. Anyway, the ending is not too bad and while this film is cheap and hokey, it's worth a look for Bruce Campbell fans.

Assault on Dome 4 could have been a completely disposable Die Hard in Space movie made on a Sci-Fi Channel budget, however, it is made all the more memorable for the fact that its villain is just Bruce Campbell but evil. He chews the lack of scenery up a treat even when he's given some truly awful dialogue, but Campbell manages to make it all work. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the rest of the film. It keeps intercutting the main Die Hard plot with an unnecessary and dull trial which is all happening after the fact so there's zero stakes for the majority of its runtime, most likely a consequence of it being made for TV. The music in the film is lots of simplistic synth work and the sound mixing is shoddy at points. The direction feels locked down and restricted, lacking any form of energy, all resulting in a meandering pace even at 90 minutes. However, despite these flaws, the film is entertainingly chaotic from beginning to end, more than worthy of a watch kicking back with friends and a few beers.

Oh and Jack Nance, Eraserhead himself, turns up in a small role that is comparable to that of Marvin from Die Hard 2.