The Alternate (2000)

If you watch a lot of Direct-To-Video flicks, The Company called Nu-Image pops up a lot. They make on-the-cheap knockoffs of "Die Hard" and monster flicks like "Octopus 2: River Of Fear" (A real title)."The Alternate" is no exception. For the millionth time, John McClane...I mean "The Replacement" (Roberts) has to foil a plot to stop terrorists from killing the Prez. Michael Madsen plays the Reginald VelJohnson part as the agent on the ground. All he does is bark orders and waits to tuck into the craft service table. Bryan Genesse plays the terrorist leader. He's okay. Eric Roberts is his usual self as the hero. The action scenes are ripped off from "Die Hard" wholesale. The scene with Eric hanging on to a building, and the climax. I'm surprised there wasn't any stock footage. Ice-T pops up to make a cameo. He reads his lines off the cue card like the pro he is.Sam Firstenberg is also the director of the Michael Dudikoff classic "American Ninja". How far the mighty have fallen...Overall, "The Alternate" isn't bad, It was just written with no personality.For more insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com

When i first saw the movie i couldn't actually determine if it is an action movie or a movie mocking other action movies. I was surprised when they used the ultimate tom and jerry prank were the good guy literally pulled the carpet from underneath the bad guy sending him into a magnificent somersault in the air.I personally believe that its very naive. there is no plot what so ever. It is a movie about a guy who was so lucky and avoided being killed several times in one day.The stunts are bad. There was a moment where i could have almost swear that the guy was gonna trip and fall on his face

The president of the USA is addressing a charity dinner. Anybody attending is searched for weapons, but they have not reckoned on several of the guests turning up with drinking straw blowpipes that shoot poison-darts disguised as toothpicks at incredible ranges, and with such accuracy that the president's minders get it in the neck every time. What a weapon. I'm going out to buy a packet of straws and a box of cocktail sticks right now, and I'm going to wreak havoc in my neighbourhood.It's an attempt by sinister forces to get the president re-elected by staging a fake kidnap attempt and have him escape to make himself popular. The president knows nothing about this plot and has a sudden attack of self righteousness, and the fake kidnap attempt turns into a real one.Eric Roberts comes out of nowhere and does his Die-hard routine. But the difference between Eric Roberts and Bruce Willis as Die-hard is that Bruce Willis actually has a reason to be in the building.Eric Roberts stymies the kidnap attempt after being shot in the knee, continually whacked by an aluminium pole, scorched with a flame thrower, falling down the side of a skyscraper and again down a lift shaft. He certainly earned the ransom money in bearer bonds that the president said he could keep at the end. But it would have been curtains for Eric Roberts if only one of the villains had thought of puffing a drinking straw at him.Apart from those few little details this film is perfectly believable.

This is a truly poor excuse for an action film. the characters act so stupidly and have so little charisma, it's hard to care for them one way or another. At one point, the villian fakes his death through a helicopter crash. Though he has the money he'd asked for as ransom and has no reason what so ever to go back to the site of his crime-he goes back. Another ridiculous plot point- the hero, having saved the president from a "Die Hard" style terrorist attack, doesn't just walk the Pres out of the building, but rather sits around, making calls on his cell phone.This idiocy would all be okay if this flick had some decent action, but the fight scenes are choreographed with the energy of a sloth monkey and the shoot outs take place with enemies twenty feet from eachother, yet unable to hit a damn thing...and would the hero really shoot back at the villian if the President, this movie's "macguffin" was between them? Yes he would in this flick, because it means he can dive between pillars. This movie isn't bad because it's dumb- dumb ain't bad, I love dumb action movies- it's bad because it's insulting even to the undemanding.