The Base (1999)

In a U.S. army base, a senior army officer leads a group of young men into drug trafficking.

Director:

Mark L. Lester

Writers:

Jeff Albert (screenplay), Craig J. Nevius (story)

Stars:

Mark Dacascos, Tim Abell, Paula Trickey

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Mark Dacascos	...	Maj. John Murphy / Cpl. John Dalton
Tim Abell	...	Sgt. Michael S. Gammon
Paula Trickey	...	Lt. Kelly Andrews
Noah Blake	...	Cpl. Nicholas Castellano
Darcas Macopson	...	Cpl. Theodore Knox (as Dwayne Macopson)
Christian Bocher	...	Cpl. Richard P. Henderson
Madison Mason	...	Gen. Leo Oxenberg
Frederick Coffin	...	Brig. Gen. Albert Becker
Marco Rodríguez	...	Rosato
Joe Renteria	...	Ray
Louis Perez	...	Santos (as Louis Anthony Perez)
Josh Cruze	...	Pablo (as Josh Cruz)
Alex Carl	...	Lt. Stephen Doyle
Tom Schultz	...	Commando 1
Brian Hite	...	Commando 2

Storyline

Major Murphy, a US Army Investigator, has received a new assignment. Sgt. Gammon is suspected of dealing cocaine from his base, and Murphy must gather enough evidence to shut down Gammon and his entire operation. Along with his partner, Lt. Andrews, the Major goes undercover to infiltrate the gang and find out just how far up the chain of command these activities are going.

---

Plot Keywords:

u.s. army | undercover | bare breasts | strip club | greco roman wrestling | 

---

Taglines:

One Man. The Strength Of An Army

---

Genres:

Action | Drama

---

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for pervasive strong and brutal violence, language and some nudity

Did You Know?

Trivia

The entire movie, with the exception of the scenes in Los Angeles, was shot at former Victorville Air Force Base.

---

Goofs

A tank's gunbarrel cannot depress low enough to fire at the ground that close to itself - and in any case, the barrel was raised, not lowered.

---

Quotes

Sergeant Gammon: Let's lock, cock, and rock.

---

Connections

Followed by Guilty as Charged (2000)

User Reviews

Reasonable plot but poor action

Military Intelligence Officer, Major Murphy is assigned to go undercover on a military base to expose a drug smuggling ring which is run by a group of soldiers and a senior officer. Murphy goes undercover and attempts to infiltrate the group as they begin to move in on the existing dealers.

The plot behind this is pretty weak - a group of soldiers are running round killing drug dealers and running drugs themselves, and they don't raise any major suspicions outside of the base and some military intelligence officers. Surely the police or someone would have picked up on this without having to start an internal covert op to get any evidence. Outside of that it's so-so but don't bring your brain.

The plot doesn't allow that much action. Sure there's plenty of shootouts with drug dealers but Dacascos doesn't have too many opportunities to do his martial arts stuff. There's a fight when he first enters the base and there's the final fight at the end, but other than that it relies on the plot to drive it. Unfortunately even the shoot outs aren't great and the film doesn't totally deliver on the action.

What is good is the two main performances and the sense of drama. Dacascos is good, but he's a little too pretty to be believable, and too much is made of how good he looks on a motorbike. Although he does give a good performance because he's got the looks and talent of someone who should be a bigger star. Tim Abeck is really good as the corrupt Sergeant Gammon, he brings a great sense of military meanness to the role and is believable psychotic. Unfortunately all the gangsters are played by Espanic stereotypes and the military base constantly has groups of soldiers running around in groups (until there's a gun battle then the base is strangely deserted!).

Unusually for a Dacascos flick this is low on martial arts action and has good performances from the leads, but really this isn't any better than the usual straight to video stuff that Dacascos does.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

1 June 1999 (USA)

Also Known As:

A Base

Filming Locations:

Francis Scott Key Bridge, Washington, District of Columbia, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

American World Pictures (AWP), Lions Gate Films

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1