Terminal Rush

TERMINAL RUSH is a very poor showing, even for fans of Don "The Dragon" Wilson and his admittedly less-than-stellar filmography. This one's one of those DIE HARD rip-offs that filled video shelves at your local Blockbuster back in the 1990s, with terrorists taking over the Hoover Dam and lone renegade cop Wilson the only man who can stop them.

Sadly, this film is so cheap-looking and ineptly staged that it's impossible to enjoy. There isn't much action really, just a lot of overacting, and the action when it does arrive is mechanical and rather dull. Wilson isn't really on form either, and seems to be struggling with his role; he never really convinces as a Native American either.

The bad guys are played by the tag-team of Michael Anderson Jr. (LOGAN'S RUN) and Roddy Piper (THEY LIVE), doing their best impressions of Tommy Lee Jones and Gary Busey in UNDER SIEGE. Their overacting is frankly an embarrassment. Old-timer Brett Halsey (RETURN OF THE FLY) has a minor part, but there's no reason to bother tuning into this waste of money and time.

Jacob Harper is the only one that was above a 1 rating. The FBI Agent was dumber than dirt. The plot lacked any version of credibility. Some of the action scenes worked OK, but there seemed to be an unlimited supply of bad guys. And then where did they all go at the end?

"Terminal Rush" was not the first "Die Hard" rip-off that Don "The Dragon" Wilson appeared in. Four years earlier, he starred in the Roger Corman-produced "Bloodfist VI: Ground Zero". As bad as that movie was, it looks like professional filmmaking compared to "Terminal Rush", especially since this movie was directed by Damian Lee, one of Canada's worst directors. This movie is bad in every way you can think of - the cinematography looks bland and washed out, the sound is poorly recorded, the camera-work is clumsy, the locations look bland, the fight scenes look like they were choreographed in five minutes, the script has a number of plot holes, and Wilson doesn't look or act very enthusiastic. The biggest sin the movie makes is being so incredibly dull. It's poor efforts like this which explain why Wilson stopped appearing in movies.

This movie sits perfectly in its era although probably only one for die hard Roddy Piper movies. The plot is simple, the action is a bit misjudged, and the acting is of that you would expect from its cast.

A little too stereotyped, but this is the mid 90's !. The setup for the movie is quite strange, doesn't seem to bare a lot of purpose to the story. Once you get to the main part of the story you can probably work out any twists.

The mid 90's offer a very strange time for the start to video releases. Cable would have picked stuff like this up.

Decent watch if you are looking for some mid 90's nostalgia.

The premise of taking over a dam and threatening to blow it up if the terrorist's demands are not met is interesting enough, yet I doubt you'll ever get that far into the movie. From the very beginning of the opening credits, you can tell it's yet another lame movie HBO will probably use to fill up dead air time at three in the morning. The acting is laughable, the camera shots off-center, out of focus and they constantly wobble all over the place, and the music is just some guy tapping on the lower end of his keyboard continually. And it is more than obvious no one ever came into physical contact with anyone else while throwing a punch. Gunshots are barely heard and sound like popcorn popping and there is no blood - even when people are shot in the face at point blank range. At one point some guy gets blown up by a grenade and one moment later you see him just lying there, no damage done. Maybe it knocked him out? Also, another hysterical point of interest is how the bad guy kills like six of his own men just because they ask him a question. Pretty lame, even as a "bad movie night" entry.