Rapid Exchange (2003)

Newcastle wants a $9 million Scottish scepter, and Ketchum, Brooks and others use their special skills to try to get their hands on it. Then a SWAT team shows up (at least that's what their uniforms say). Can they still succeed? Regardless, Newcastle has an even better opportunity for which Daltry (an annoying jerk, plus other names probably inappropriate here) is put in charge. Syrians have been printing counterfeit money--so much that new plates were made necessary. Hundreds of millions of dollars in new cash must be shipped by 747.Daltry, Ketchum and Brooks are joined by Sophie, who is pretty, smart, confident, physically strong and quite flexible. As in the first operation, their team includes scientific types (not really geeks) who can hack into computer systems and get into places they are not supposed to be.This operation should not be too much of a challenge because the people guarding the money do not seem all that competent, though the plane's pilots appear quite intelligent (if this is realistic, pilots have to know A LOT these days). Matthewson is an obnoxious trivia expert who seems to be too much of a coward to be on a plane, and he comes across as a bumbling idiot. His female partner may be smarter, but not by much. The uniformed guards aren't exactly rushing into action when the situation looks suspicious.This film reminds me of "Ocean's Eleven" (which was a much better movie because of its stars and their performances), as well as "Sneakers" (which had stars and much more humor). The viewer wants the crooks to succeed.A lot of work appears to have gone into making the computers and equipment look realistic, as well as the characters' knowledge about what to do. The stunt work looked good, and the military-style rappelling and climbing competently executed.Now the planes looked like models, even on a 13-inch TV. This wasn't too much of a distraction because the excitement level stayed high much of the time.Normally for me to get interested in this type of movie I need to see familiar stars. I didn't know any actors' names except Lorenzo Lamas (and I'm not even really familiar with him). He is at least good-looking, which should attract at least a few gals (who might also enjoy seeing Sophie as a strong, capable woman).There wasn't a lot of humor, but this film was occasionally funny. The violence was not excessive. I did hear the sound go out a number of times, but it appeared to me that the f-word was being used in a lot of those situations.It was pretty good if you're not expecting a whole lot.

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.

It's a heist movie. Sure, the idea's not original, and you can predict roughly what's going to happen as soon as you meet the players; but it's still good fun.There are very few big-name stars, which helps a great deal - if you see Bruce or Mel, you know he's going to come out on top, and here there's just a little bit of doubt.I was repeatedly reminded of The Italian Job - particularly in the "you're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off" scene (it doesn't use that line, but you'll know the scene when you get to it); it's a shame that this didn't get the publicity that the remake of that film did, as I found it much more enjoyable.The special effects aren't bad. They're not hugely flashy as on films with bigger budgets, but they do the job; most of the action takes place at night, which certainly helps with the bluescreening. The technicalities are a bit iffy, but not as wildly implausible as usual for Hollywood; they may actually have got a competent technical advisor on this one.Not an intellectually engaging movie, but a good choice for a relaxed evening in.

Like a cross between Air Force One, Cliffhanger and Lassiter, only without Harrison Ford, Sylvester Stallone, Tom Selleck (or any other real stars - I'm about to give up on Lance Henriksen), decent special effects or - well, basically anything worth watching.Good music by Hans Zimmer and The Alan Parsons Project. The music actually written by Christopher Holden, however, pretty much reminds me of something left over from Dallas or Dynasty.