Shakedown

Hello movie goers, How do you know when you have seen a bad movie? Well, I will tell you what, this movie is one of those that answers that question. One way is that who ever made this movie used scenes from two other movies: "Earthquake" (1974) and the "Great California Earthquake" (1991). Number two: when most of your special effects are computer generated, that tells you something right there. I see it like this if you don't have enough money to use for special effects, don't even make the movie! If you have computer generated graphics, make sure that they look so real, they look good! Other than that keep watching for movies that do this:_)

This is the best film to come out of Roger Corman's studios in years. Director Brian Katkin does an amazing job with no budget. Clearly, he is a director to keep an eye on. Like his first film, the little seen nail biting thriller "If I Die Before I Wake", Shakedown keeps you on the edge of your seat from beginning to end. It's a shame the budget does not support his intent. The timely plot, shot before the 9/11 homicide attacks, tells the story of a group of suicidal terrorists who steal a deadly virus, only to become trapped with a lone FBI Agent inside a building by a tremendous earthquake. While this set up may sound far fetched, (and at times, it is!), the director keeps things moving so fast you hardly have time to catch your breath. Think Die Hard meets Resevoir Dogs and throw in a little John Woo and you get the picture. If only director Katkin had Woo's budget and schedule, one can only imagine what he could do. The cast standouts are Ron Perlman (Blade 2, Star Trek Nemesis) who seethes with low key menace, Erica Eleniak (Under Siege) who brings intelligence and wit to what might have ordinarilly been just an "eye candy" role, and Wolf Larsen (LA Heat) who carries the hero role with ease. All in all, Shakedown is a fun, popcorn movie in the best Corman tradition.

This is one of the worst action films I have ever seen. This is particularly due to much of the factual implausibility (like an obvious agent posing as a bank loan officer while making obvious that he is speaking to someone through a wire or the scene where the scientists assume it is safe to enter a room in which a virus has been released even though 'it has not found a viable host' does not mean that it will never find one), the cheap sets (the bank looks like it was poorly constructed to resemble a dungeon), and the bad acting. It is the story of an organized crime group that has successfully stolen a capsule of the lethal virus. However, the head honcho who decides to remove it from a bank security deposit box, does so at the same time a bank heist is going down, at the same FBI agents have been informed of this, and at the same time a terrible earthquake erupts. Needless to say, the aftermath of the quake is messy in more ways than one. However, the results do not make for an enticing action film, but instead, one that has been obviously z-grade junk from the beginning of the film. (Perhaps this is why some of the screen captures on the packaging look to be created with computer graphics rather than being actual screen captures from various sequences of the film). What the hell Ron Perlman was doing in this, I have no idea. I wonder if he was as embarrassed to be in it as I was to have watched it.

An average TV movie quality, totally formula story of religious fanatic (Ron Perlman, who gives good "I'm not just the President of 'Psychos R Us,' I'm also a client.") who gets control of a biochemical virus (think the virus from the movie "The Rock"). Too bad for him that he also gets stuck in a bank building during an earthquake with bank robbers and the government agents trying to stop him (led by the impressively physiqued, mildly entertaining Wolf Larson, backed by Fred Dryer) along with the standard "in the wrong place at the wrong time" spunky female (the forever bland Erika Eleniak) and "lived as a wimp but died as a hero at the last minute" male (Brandon Karrer). Has the standard background story to give sympathy to the religious fanatic (wife and son killed in a police raid a few years previous).

Basically a decent rainy day movie.

Favorite line, spoken by Ron Perlman after he finds the vial of the virus hidden in Erika Eleniak's cleavage: "A woman and her mystery."

Worth a rent.

The only reason I saw "Shakedown" was that it has Erika Eleniak in it. She's sexy as always, but she plays second fiddle to leading man Wolf Larson. It's a pity, because she has more action capabilities than she's allowed to show here. The film largely consists of endless shootouts that quickly become monotonous - especially when most of the time you are seeing the bad guys armed with machine guns constantly missing Larson and him armed only with a revolver (that NEVER runs out of bullets) taking them all out rather easily. The earthquake effects are decent, but there is also a lot of blurry motion and poor CGI explosions. As the psychotic "spiritual leader", Ron Perlman tries, but the pseudo-religious mumbo-jumbo he has to spout is simply boring. Eleniak, Perlman or Larson (assuming he has any) completists might want to give this one a look, for others it is barely worth a rental. (*1/2)