Counter Measures

Michael Dudikoff's popularity as an action hero is a mystery that I'll probably never understand, but his output on the direct-to-video market was pretty consistent, even as the home video slump of the late 90s began. 1998's COUNTER MEASURES may be a pretty good vehicle as far as fans are concerned but can be regarded as an average low-budget adventure for the rest of us. Full of Cold War throwbacks and an agreeable amount of decent action, this is the fare of slow Saturday nights or Dudikoff completionists.

The story: A Navy SEAL-turned-medic (Dudikoff) finds himself trapped on a nuclear submarine commandeered by the crew of a merciless idealist (James Horan) planning to recreate the Soviet Union by starting a world war.

The film is directed by cheapo connoisseur Fred Olen Ray, whose economic style is evident in the ample use of recycled footage and the unconvincing submarine set. Beyond this, the movie is competently made but registers a notable cheese factor for its laughably patriotic, anti-red overtones: an anthemic orchestra kicks in every time we catch sight of a US naval ship, while many scenes featuring Russian characters open with a foreboding bellicose score. Villain James Horan is about as evil as the script demands of him but is all the more memorable for it – at least more so than Dudikoff. Dudikoff's sidekick is played by short-lived action star Alexander Keith/Wendy Schumacher, whose conventional role was probably edited to allow for some butt-kicking when the producers found out that s/he puts on a better fight scene than Michael.

Speaking of fight scenes, they are the heart of this one's action content, which is otherwise limited to some shootouts and a ho-hum submarine battle. The eight fights are middle-of-the-road type stuff, even when considering the most exciting ones like Keith's two-on-one brawl and the unexpectedly sound encounter of Lada Boder. Dudikoff is serviceable and makes grisly use of a corkscrew in more than one brawl, but his fights are not only predictable, they sometimes go beyond general suspension of disbelief. For example, I'd buy that Dudikoff's character can defeat the one played by MMA heavyweight Oleg Taktarov, but I have a hard time believing in the ridiculously slow strikes of a fire extinguisher that he uses to do the job.

Nevertheless, the fact that the movie keeps a good pace and is never boring is enough to buy it a passing score from me. If you're a general action fan and not too disappointed by the fact that the fighter jets featured on the DVD cover don't seem to appear in the movie, you may have the same impression.

I don't know if there's an aphorism to put to this type of movie, but there should be, because this flick reminds me a lot of Steel Sharks. And the similarities are unexpected. Both movies are set on subs, both movies involve terrorists (of a sort), both movies are very cheaply done, and critically unrealistic. What've those links got to do with each other?

You've got underwater listening devices that can identify screws among wreckage, an American submarine commander who has way less battle-sense than his Russian counterpart, and bad guys with ridiculously unrealistic, paranoid objectives. Anyone in any military service anywhere in the world could probably expand vastly on that list. They'd probably start with: instruments that do not register with military accuracy, but icons and labels that are marketed to American civilians.

Story of an ex-Navy Seal who is now a combat medical officer assigned to a state of the art Russian sub with a nurse. This is to answer a call for help set off by a dying member of the original crew. The sub has been overtaken by terrorists who are bent on destruction. So we see the duo try and gain control back. And this happens with the fear of the US Naval Forces is about to unleashing everything it has got on the terrorist sub to prevent it from launching its arsenal. Be careful of the early explicit sexual scene in the first quarter of the movie. A couple of unexplained scenes towards the end. Watch it when you have the time. Nothing to miss out even if you let the show run while you go get yourself a cup of coffee: slow moving.

Having already seen the superior CRASH DIVE, I wondered how another Dudikoff movie set aboard a submarine would be. Well, it wasn't that good. It's really the production values that sink this movie. Exterior shots of the sub were filmed on board the WWII sub U.S.S. Pomponito in San Francisco Bay (a great attraction to visit, by the way), while underwater and interior shots reveal a sub and a sprawling interior that looks like he came from an episode of SEAQUEST. A lot of scenes look rushed, like the filmmakers were running out of time and said, "Let's finish so we can return the equipment before it's overdue." As a result, performances are lackluster, scenes are choppy and seemed unfinished, and just the overall production looks bad. The sub-plot that runs throughout the film, set in Russia, always confused me. I could never tell what the purpose of it was, what relation it had (or may not have had) to the events occuring on the submarine. The climactic fight on the deck of the sub, between Dudikoff and bad guy James Horan, is probably the best moment in the whole film, though even it could have been better. But the way the bad guy gets it is actually one of my favorite climax moments from a Dudikoff film. But it's really not enough to save the film or make it recommendation-worthy. The Dudikoff/Fred Olen Ray (director) team faired better with FUGITIVE MIND and THE SHOOTER. If you want a see a good movie about terrorists seizing a nuclear submarine (and really the only movie so far to feature that concept, that I know of), Dudikoff's CRASH DIVE is much better.

To say the acting is wooden is an insult to trees.

The script is clearly the outcome of a Creative Writing project for 8 year olds.

The sets are so obviously made from plywood, MDF and cheap blue paint, they look like a school production.

The plot has more holes than Swiss cheese.

Especially. Authentic is that a Russian submarine has so many displays in English.

It sets a new low for the B-movie.