Tactical Force

I enjoyed this movie right from the beginning, knowing it was a B movie but with good action actors. I'm currently writing this review midway through the movie and decided to voice my opinion since I'm constantly reading others opinion about movies on IMDb. The movie isn't great some flaws but to be honest more enjoyable than a lot of over-hyped movies such as expendables, hanna, and iron man 2. Of course only an opinion and these movies budgets were much bigger but it is a trip to see unheard of movies actually being better than movies I anticipate to see and am let down. Hopefully this will help in your decision on whether to watch, should enjoy if you like to the point action.

The title is actual dialogue from the movie. Yes, some one wrote this, and another actually said it out loud in the movie! I think that tells you all you need to know about this movie. This movie is chock full of senseless macho bravado and brainless cliche lines. The police SWAT team has no concern for the safety of civilians when trying to take down a bunch of dimwits who storm and hold a convenience store like they besieging Fort Knox. The movie goes on to highlight bad acting (movie makers MUST APOLOGIZE to all Italians! LOL!), idiotic decisions (from good guys and bad guys alike) and the spectacular Shakespearean line - "EAT MY GRANDMA!". Finally, the massive twist in the final scene is so impractical that even the movie makers could not explain it themselves, so they just decide to ignore it.

In summary, this is a movie best put on when you are doing chores around the house, and you just want some mindless moving pictures to watch. You should not watch this for realism, accuracy or above average talent.

TACTICAL FORCE is another vehicle for bald, hulking, ex-wrestler turned actor Steve Austin, who seems to have become the new Seagal ever since he starred as a villain in Stallone's THE EXPENDABLES. So far, I've seen Austin in a passable variant of Van Damme's A.W.O.L. (called DAMAGE), but this is a straightforward shoot-em-up. It's as much fun as DAMAGE, proving that Austin is an adequate star for fans of light action.

The premise and setting for this movie couldn't have been much cheaper: a small SWAT team are on a training exercise in an abandoned warehouse, but they soon find themselves assailed by various gangster types. Cue lots of drawn-out fight scenes and sequences of characters firing heavy weaponry at each other. It's a workable premise - Tarantino revealed the brilliance of utilising such a setting and a small cast twenty years ago in RESERVOIR DOGS - and the decent pacing makes it a painless viewing experience.

The production values are a little weak if you look at them too closely, and it's fair to say that the cast are well-suited to B-movies; Austin is on particularly dodgy ground here, and would do better to just keep his mouth shut and hit people as that's what he does best. There are some heavyweights (physically rather than acting) in support, like Michael Jai White (just in case you wondered what happened to him after UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: THE RETURN) and the arresting Darren Shahlavi and Keith Jardine, but this looks and feels like a B-movie through and through.

The action isn't bad, but I would have liked a little more of it. The requisite shoot-outs and fist-fights are fun, although the van chase is ridiculously stupid and some of the explosions are a little on the fake side. The ending is also a tad disappointing, getting too mixed up between the bad-bad characters and the good-bad characters. But I went into TACTICAL FORCE expecting nothing, and I got a mildly entertaining movie instead, so I can't complain too much.

A great movie with some notable actors that was pulled off well. I think some may have seen this movie and thought it to be a serious film in t he likes of S.W.A.T. (Jackson, Farrell, 2003), however, this film I think is intended to take a more comical side, while still focusing on action and story. It does a great job at setting up the characters as a team, and showing you how well they can work together. Unlike other S.W.A.T. or Police themed movies this one does not confuse you with all sorts of law enforcement lingo and the like, but immerses you into the world of Law Enforcement in a mild, and progressively more serious manner.

I did see the twist coming to a point, however I don't think it was a dead giveaway. And again, I'd like to point out that this is neither a fully blown COMEDY or POLICE THRILLER, but instead a satirical police themed action film, in close similarity to Hot Fuzz (Pegg, Frost, 2007). I think the overall idea behind this film, and those like it, is to build a relationship with the main characters that will, by the end of the film, make you want to see a Part II. This film does that, and does that well.

After resolving a supermarket hold up in violent fashion, a Los Angeles S.W.A.T. team - leader Tate (Steve Austin), Hunt (Michael Jai White), Jannard (Lexa Doig), and Blanco (Steve Bacic) - are assigned to do training at a remote facility (with only themselves on the site...huh, no trainers?). This is bad news as two mob factions (including Michael Shanks doing one of cinema's worst Russian accents) have descended up on the warehouse looking for a mysterious briefcase. Walter Hill's TRESPASS, much? This is really bottom of the barrel stuff and I feel bad for the big names who actually signed up to be in this. Particularly the very talented Jai White, who deserves so much better. Director Adamo Paolo Cultraro, he of the many Os, just makes an ugly, ugly film with flat digital photography and horrible editing during the fights. For example, any time a person gets punched, they do a visual effect of the image rocking/blurring. Austin still has little personality (his attempts at comedy are almost unbearable) and I'm surprised he still gets these lead roles. The final fight is WWE vs. UFC as he takes on veteran MMA fighter Keith "The Dean of Mean" Jardine. I'll let you guess who wins.