Counterstrike

Essentially a made-for-TV film masquerading as an actual film. The story is silly, the characters are weak, and the plot points will only make sense (or work) if you have undergone a lobotomy, and even then you might still scratch your head and wonder who thought this movie was a good idea.

Let's see: A historical summit set on a cruise ship. Oh yes, makes perfect sense. After all, why go to Camp David, what with its complete defensive systems, when you could just hop on a cruise ship with a movie star to teach you Tai Chi. Oh sure, why not. If the whole idea of a cruise ship as the setting for a "historical summit" that might just bring about nothing short of world peace doesn't make you roll your eyes, how about the notion that the ship will be "blacked out" from the rest of the world during its voyage. Oy. And to think, this started out as a book that was translated into a movie script!!

A poor movie, especially since it had the enticing Ms. Marie Matiko. Laughably bad, but not as laughably bad as the people who actually considers the film to be worthwhile.

okay... aside from the movie's actual acting and filming, I've got problem with its story. I am sure the writers are aware of the issue of Taiwan gaining its independence. However this is the first time I have seen Taiwanese pro-independence advocates portrayed as *terrorists*. For decades Taiwan has been peacefully trying to gain international recognition, by applying for United Nation membership, or even World Health Organization observer status. The last thing I would expect to hear from Taiwan was a story like this. Hrmm... did the story writer also hinted that United States was founded by terrorists? Let's just call them *revolutionists*.

The movie is weak and contrived but this lady shines! Not only is Rachel Blakely gorgeous to look at as Brittany Cooper but she's quite a wonderful actress and sometimes, this critic feels, overlooked. Hope to see her again in better material and, hopefully, with someone like Will Snow, her co-star in THE LOST WORLD television show.

It's also interesting to see a great many unknown and known Australian actors in the cast which may be familiar if you ever watched HERCULES, XENA. BEASTMASTER or even THE LOST WORLD and TALES OF THE SOUTH SEAS. I think spotting the talent in COUNTERSTRIKE was even more fun than the actual movie!

I found this movie in a thrift store, where it had been renamed "Attack on the Queen" for the Dutch DVD release.

It's a pretty suspenseful direct-to-TV thriller that scores undeservedly low here on IMDB. Sure, the story isn't very realistic, plot and character choices are predictable and obviously there wasn't a lot of budget. But still, I've seen much worse movies with higher scores!

The acting is excellent, the action scenes are neat and if you as a viewer can put aside the absurd premise - the president of the USA and China who want to negotiate world peace at sea on a cruise ship but are hijacked by the entourage of an actress from Taiwan - then you have a thrilling, realistic 90-minute action thriller.

For fans who couldn't get enough of Under Siege.

The main reason I finally watched this movie is because of the actress who played Brittany, the ship's security chief...Rachel Blakely. She frellin' ROCKS! Of course...watching Joe Lando was a bonus, hubba hubba. But the story and script were a bit too cheesy for my tastes and I like cheesy! LOL It was a nice cheesy diversion for a couple of hours...but it could have been so much better. As for the little know actors factor...I've seen a few shows from Australia so a lot of the actors in this flick were familiar to me. Most of them have done guest spots on "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World" and on "FarScape". So it was fun playing "spot the TLW/FS guestie" while watching this flick. I give it a 5. Wasn't terrible, but wasn't a blow me away kind of action flick. I have a feeling that several of the cast were thinking "rent check" while making this flick. LOL