Seconds to Spare (2002)

Ex-DEA agent Paul Blake sets out from Miami to Sydney to track down a criminal he has a vendetta with. Meanwhile the EDL (Earth Defence League) carry out a raid on a chemical bunker in the Australian desert to make money and draw attention to the harm done to the earth, however the idealistic Eve Lambert doesn't realise that the "team" that is assisting with her work is none other than the associates of Larkin, the very man that Drake is hunting. Having spent about 15 minutes wandering around Sydney looking in corners, Drake spots Larkin boarding a train having carried out the EDL job. He follows them onto the train, meeting the sexy Rhonda at the same time however, when the Government try to stop the train Larkin's men take over, leaving Drake the only man able to stop him.I might say negative things about this film but please bare in mind that I chose, of my own freewill, to watch a film with Antonio Sabato Jnr and Kimberley Davis in the title roles. Regardless of this I tuned in to find a film that took about 15 minutes to actually set up the basic story (and does it in a pretty poor way) and by the time everyone had gotten onto the train I had gotten the gist that this was basically a version of Under Siege 2 and managed to make me realise just how much fun that film is. With a "by the numbers" plot involving nerve gas, things did not look good and, sure enough, things never got above the predictable and the obvious. This leaves the fight scenes and action to really involve and, while it isn't really bad, it certainly never gets above the average and more often than not is actually around the mediocre. Every now and again people get shot, punched or thrown out of trains; it is all done without any real style or imagination and the sheer blandness of the action just sucks any remaining tension out for good.There are people on this earth do think that the Van Damme's of this world are perhaps poor action actors but to them I simply say "you have not seen enough Antonio Sabato Jr films" because, if they had, they would hold Van Damme in higher stead. Here he is roundly poor – he has no screen presence, doesn't move that well, has poor chemistry with his co-star and, dammit, just looks plain weird. Of course he hardly risks being outperformed by Davies who is just a typical simmering blonde who doesn't even get that much screen time and barely looks mussed up at any point. Beahan is a bit annoying but, as with so many of these things, the bad guy dominates the film. This is not to say that Ehlers has a lot of competition but he does seem to be having fun even if his performance is just a poor carbon copy of much better ones.Overall this is a pretty poor film but might just about do very undemanding genre fans who find themselves stuck with nothing better to do/watch. However with so many "Die Hard in a….." type movies around you do have to wonder whether or not we really needed another one added to the pile? On the basis of the mediocre action, bad acting, predictable plotting and total lack of excitement or tension here, the most obvious answer is no.

Hollywood actioners which involve Terrorists/Trains/He-Man Heroes,etc were already tediously out-dated when this Australian hybrid was made;the only fun to be had is see if the Aussies can make them as derivatively and dully as Hollywood.The answer is they certainly can after this film,only on a lower budget!Kimberley Davies(Annalise from 'NEIGHBOURS)stars,and despite her limited acting ability is not helped by the hopelessly hackneyed script.She is,in fact,the only reason for watching;the dull,monosyllabic hero makes Arnie S seem like Larry O;the comic book villains are alternately over-the-top or wooden,with the wimpiest of cowards thrown in for good measure.Some incidents are reworked from SILVER STREAK(1976)and loads of other(equally clichéd)films.At least SILVER STREAK was often intentionally funny;the humour here is always unintended.Only watchable on that level.

SECONDS TO SPARE Aspect ratio: 1.78:1Sound format: StereoAfter serving time in prison on a trumped-up charge of corruption, an ex-DEA officer (Antonio Sabato Jr.) travels to Australia in search of the man responsible for his ordeal (Jerome Ehlers), a rogue CIA agent who has hijacked a passenger train and is threatening to detonate a nerve bomb in the heart of Sydney...Antonio Sabato Jr. is the perfect action hero: He's dark and handsome, and he can kick butt with the best of 'em. The only 'trouble' is his chest - he's got the best pecs in the business, and his costume designer knows it. When he wears a tight-fitting T-shirt (as he does frequently throughout this opportunistic mini-epic), or - better still - when he isn't wearing a shirt at all (there's only one gratuitous 'topless' scene, but welcome nonetheless!), some viewers will be hopelessly distracted by the size, shape and all-round magnificence of those plate-sized pectorals. Thankfully, Sabato wears another (loose fitting) shirt just long enough for Brian Trenchard-Smith's ho-hum actioner to emerge into some kind of focus, and while there's nothing new in either the script (by Trenchard-Smith and Dennis Pratt) or direction, the movie contains enough explosions and punch-ups to satisfy the target audience. Former soap star Kimberley Davies (sporting a rather magnificent chest of her own!) is Sabato's potential love interest, prone to falling into the wrong hands and being rescued by her hunky would-be boyfriend, while Kate Beahan suffers gracefully as Ehler's naive associate, a good-hearted soul who realizes - too late! - the hijack will end in disaster for millions of innocent people. Professional in all departments, the movie is no more than a routine time-waster, but Sabato's pumped-up torso is worth endless repeat viewings. Drool, slobber...

For every Natalie Imbruglia there are 10 Sarah Vandenberghs; there's a carload of Rachel Blakelys for every Kylie Minogue. What I'm getting at is that post-"Neighbours" life can be a sorry one - consider Kimberley Davies, aka Annalise. Now back on her home turf after an unsuccessful turn in the US (chiefly in "Pacific Palisades," a series from Aaron Spelling where she played a sexy real estate agent which was so unsuccessful that the producers drafted in Joan Collins - now THAT'S desperate), she's stuck in stuff like "Seconds to Spare." And she still can't act, but fortunately she's still gorgeous, which is one of the few things this Australian-American TV movie has going for it.To be honest, no one has the right to expect much from a movie where the names "Carlton America" and "Antonio Sabato Jr." appear in the opening credits; ASJr plays an ex-DEA agent chasing a criminal to Australia, who's fallen in league with a band of eco-terrorists who steal some canisters of nerve gas to make a statement against the Australian government's stance on toxic dumping, and hijack a train in order to get their point across. "Die Hard" on a train it's not (that was "Under Siege 2," anyway), in more ways than one; the movie not only lacks real suspense but has villains who are ultimately and infinitely more interesting than our plank-esque hero - the leader of the treehuggers (Kate Beahan) doesn't want to use violence to win, which puts her in conflict with the main villain (Jerome Ehlers, clearly enjoying himself).Chugging along at a pace considerably slower than the train, with a lacklustre score and effects work, and dire acting and dialogue ("All the while she was doing my root canal, my husband was..."), there's not a surprise to be had in the entire movie - with the exception of the name of co-executive producer Sabato Jr's production company (Namtab Productions Inc. - though given his uselessness, Etimtab Productions Inc. would have been more appropriate). Unless Nine Network Australia wanted to prove that the US doesn't have a monopoly on making naff actioners, there's not much of a point to this; and unless you want to see Nick Tate in something even sillier than "Space: 1999," there's no reason to watch.Kimberley Davies still fills out a white T-shirt wonderfully, however. (Okay, there's at least two reasons to watch.)