Rapid Exchange (2003) (V)

Director:

Tripp Reed

Writers:

Tripp Reed (writer)
Sam Wells (writer)

Release Date:

13 May 2003 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure

Plot:

The plan:Break in to a 747 during flight and steal 1/4 billion dollars-they have the right team but double cross follows double cross |

Cast

Lance Henriksen	...	Newcastle
Lorenzo Lamas	...	Ketchum
Aviva Gale	...	Sophie
Matt O'Toole	...	Brooks
Wayne Pére	...	Daltry
Gastón Pauls	...	Javier
Benjamin Burdick	...	Winkler
Tyrone Pinkham	...	Billy
Que Kelly	...	Rebecca
Butch Hammett	...	Matthewson
D.J. Johnson	...	McCoy
Lance Chwan	...	Captain Miller
P.K. Ewing	...	Stevens
Velizar Binev	...	Bank Manager (as Val Brine)
John Grossen	...	Police Sergeant

Also Known As:

Flight 747 (UK)

MPAA:

Rated R for language.

Runtime:

USA:97 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Cinecolor) | Color

Certification:

Finland:K-11 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Sofia, Bulgaria

Company:

Jet Productions LLC

Not quite that rapid...

The only reason any of the hundred or so users watched this movie was because they belong to the crew, were friends to the crew, or were obsessive fans of either Lance Henriksen or Lorenzo Lamas. I personally follow the "cult of Lance", so I was disappointed to see that despite being the headliner, it's in name only. Playing rich criminal Newcastle, Lance is a joy to watch but all of his screen time is relegated to the beginning of the movie. Newcastle sets up a 747 heist which includes Ketchum (Lamas) and a bunch of forgettable characters. The biggest shock to this viewer was that the pre-heist scenes were not all that bad. With the exception of somewhat obnoxious and rather confused looking Aviva Gale, who times every line with the finesse of a grade school play actress, acting was decent all around, and none of the lines really made me cringe.

But once the heist occurs, the movie falls asleep. Not only is their plan the most ridiculous thing ever captured on film, but it's dragged out for far too long. This isn't a very deep movie, and you have to fill out your 90 minutes, but these scenes are so boring I nearly nodded off at two in the afternoon. One particular sequence in which we watch each and every one of the characters perform the same task over and over again is especially difficult to get through. The movie's name is "Rapid Exchange", but the exchange is far from rapid - it's overlong and bloated to extremes. Perhaps it would have worked if any of the characters had real personalities, but come on, there's only so much you can ask out of a straight-to-video movie airing of Showtime Extreme.

Thankfully, there are several laughs, intentional and unintentional (Lorenzo Lamas is seemingly a master of disguise, which makes for a couple of incredibly bizarre scenarios), and Lance returns in the film's end, albeit for a brief period of time. It's a bad movie, and I probably didn't have to tell you that myself, but it's far from the worst thing I've ever seen. I wouldn't put it too high on the list of Henriksen films, since he's been in some real gems with greater screen time, and either way the movie loses a lot of steam once the heist begins, but the best thing I can say for Rapid Exchange is that the last two films I watched before it were the mainstream Hostage and the overrated, pretentious Crash - and this was better than both.