Counter Measures (1998)

More madness from the mind of Fred Olen Ray! Can anyone confirm he and Jim Wynorski are two different people? Has anyone ever seen them together in the same place at the same time? Anyway, in this underwater escapade that is highly reminiscent of Under Siege(1992) ... When Navy medic Captain Jake Fuller's brother is murdered by Russian spies, Jake goes underwater to investigate. Even though Jake is a pacifist and doesn't want to fight, evil Russians take over the supersub Odessa and plan to blow up/take over the world. Only he and Lt. Swain (Wendy Schumacher of skinemax softcore fame, here strangely credited as "Alexander Keith") can save the day, so they both board the sub. The Russians and their special gas that makes people vomit yellowish green liquid are no match for these two. Will Fuller and Swain be able to stop "Operation Hailstorm" and prevent a new cold war? Remember the Wynorski vehicles Desert Thunder (1999) and Stealth Fighter (1999)? Just change the fact that those had to do with planes, and switch that to a submarine, and there you have it. It even has the trademark stock footage we've come to know and love. The Dolph Lundgren classic Agent Red (2000) is basically a remake of Counter Measures and uses some of the same footage. But where did Counter Measures get their stock footage? The world may never know.One of the funny things about Counter Measures is that it is solely cast with celebrity lookalikes. Besides Dudikoff and Schumacher, the rest of the cast resemble Tim Roth, Michael Imperioli, Bob Newhart and Christopher Titus, who, strangely enough, was actually in Crash Dive (1997), the movie to which Counter Measures is a sequel. But the lookalike in Counter Measures plays a different character than the one Titus did in Crash Dive, so it must be a weird coincidence.Also in the weird department, on the back of the VHS box (released in the U.S. on Avalanche), Michael Dudikoff's character is said to be "Zach Silver". Seeing as his name is Jake Fuller in the film, where did this name come from? Apparently someone just made it up. Did they not watch the movie? You don't see that type of error often.Dudikoff turns on the charm when he could easily go on autopilot and let his cool hair do all the work. Instead, he brings some funny body language and interesting mannerisms to his character of Jake Fuller (NOT Zach Silver). He is as animated here as he was in the awesome TV show "Cobra" where he played Robert "Scandal" Jackson.On the negative side, there is some jumpy editing, as well as some jumbled plotting and cheap-looking sets, but all that is to be expected and the presence of Dudikoff (and the rest of the cast, whoever they may look like) smooths it all over. you will probably be entertained by Counter Measures.For more insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com

The movie has a good story line, the action is good in some parts, but not all of them. Some of the parts, I just felt like the bad guys wouldn't have dosed off yet, from my experience from taking Martial arts. Some are the actions are long, like always mostly for the boss, but for the least important ones, they were killed or dosed off with a few hits, but some where quite unrealistic or could have done a better job at.The least important actors or stunt people were the right picks for the movie, my girlfriend started to have a crush on them that she started to watch the movie more than she spends her time with me.The movie is good, that is all I can say.

Having already seen the superior CRASH DIVE, I wondered how another Dudikoff movie set aboard a submarine would be. Well, it wasn't that good. It's really the production values that sink this movie. Exterior shots of the sub were filmed on board the WWII sub U.S.S. Pomponito in San Francisco Bay (a great attraction to visit, by the way), while underwater and interior shots reveal a sub and a sprawling interior that looks like he came from an episode of SEAQUEST. A lot of scenes look rushed, like the filmmakers were running out of time and said, "Let's finish so we can return the equipment before it's overdue." As a result, performances are lackluster, scenes are choppy and seemed unfinished, and just the overall production looks bad. The sub-plot that runs throughout the film, set in Russia, always confused me. I could never tell what the purpose of it was, what relation it had (or may not have had) to the events occuring on the submarine. The climactic fight on the deck of the sub, between Dudikoff and bad guy James Horan, is probably the best moment in the whole film, though even it could have been better. But the way the bad guy gets it is actually one of my favorite climax moments from a Dudikoff film. But it's really not enough to save the film or make it recommendation-worthy. The Dudikoff/Fred Olen Ray (director) team faired better with FUGITIVE MIND and THE SHOOTER. If you want a see a good movie about terrorists seizing a nuclear submarine (and really the only movie so far to feature that concept, that I know of), Dudikoff's CRASH DIVE is much better.

I agree with Eric's comments, this is a pretty basic action flick, sort of like a TV movie, not up to the Rambos or Arny's stuff. To start it off they throw a bunch of Russian boobs and buns at you, to get us guys' attention (it worked), but from then on it's straight cheesy acting and lots of hand fighting and shooting. It's on the same level as Act of War with Jack Scalia. Not worth the rental bucks. -Bob