Interceptors (1999)

STAR RATING:*****Unmissable****Very Good***Okay**You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead*Avoid At All CostsLt. Sean Lambert (Olivier Gruner) leads his team of mysterious government agents against a mysterious alien force that has taken over a small town.This is directed by Philip J Roth,who helmed Digital Man and A.P.E.X.,two other low-budget,DTV sci-fi actioners that I enjoyed,and this is pretty much on their level.Sure,like those films,it's low budget and direct to video,and as such,it must have the production values that would indicate this,but very rarely do they seep through.It opens with a neat,energetic soundtrack that plays throughout the film,adding excitement to the numourous action sequences,in the shape of some fine explosions and Gruner's very impressive kickboxing prowess.It's a good job that the guy can kickbox with the best of them though,because if it was his acting ability we had to concentrate on,the film would be a dead cert loss.Seriously,anyone who ever considered Jean Claude Van Damme the worst thing ever committed to celliloid,I say,just look at this guy.His unemphatic delivery,shoddy execution and lack of panache render his performance nothing less than nauseatingly wooden,as he cheerlessly bites off his bland lines of dialogue the script wisely allocates him.He's complimented,however,by some weak supporting characters that ultimately expose weaknesses in,well,the script itself.Generally speaking,though,it is of superior quality for a film of it's ilk,with some nice lines of dialogue that flow thick and fast and plenty of what the audience came expecting to see:action.I enjoyed it.Chances are,you might too.***

I saw this movie on late night Sci-Fi. This movie sucked. It's hilarious, but it's not a comedy. The leader of this group has the most laughable accent changes. First he has a German accent, then an American accent and the surprise twist, he's from FRANCE! And the actor who is supposed to be French can't even muster a good accent of his birth country. And then there's the guy who yelled in order to portray a Mexican accent and shot people for the hell of it. And they had the "hot chick programmer" who wasn't hot. The black dude who's dead before he's even seen on the screen (another insult.) And the most random ending ever. Jumping into a well is the best way to avoid being hit in a nuclear blast.

Ho-hum. It's shape-shifting aliens time again. There's nothing in here you haven't seen dozens of times before, which pretty much wipes out any suspense and surprises in there. You've seen it all before, you -know- what's going to happen next. Every plot element has been done to death, and often done much better. The only standout feature of this film are some pretty hard-hitting fight scenes (who may seem needlessly over-the-top for some), and that's it. The rest is just a dose of rather dull same-old, same-old cheapo sci-fi. Not worth your money, in the end.

This was obviously very low budget, but saying that it wasn't too bad, the plot was fairly obvious but isn't that what action movies are about. The ending may have been a bit cheesy but that can't be helped. The Lead actor Olivier Gruner has a future in action movies if he can keep that level of action up in his movies, he's Van Damn-esq right down to his accent. The alien was a bit like the predator but it was still quite a fun film.