John Henry Irons is a weapons designer for the military who has been key in the development of a range of experimental weapons that immobilise enemy troops without any fatalities. However when Nat Burke tries to increase the power of the weapon during the test, the result sees a Senator dead and one of his colleagues disabled. The court martial sees Burke kicked out of the military and John decides his days of weapon design are over returning to LA to work in a small steel mill. However when his weapons somehow make it into the hands of LA's criminal underworld, John decides that it is "on" and takes steps to counter the threat.
Universally derided ever since it was even green lit for production, this film does have little to recommend it but still produces very basic distraction if that is what you want. The plot is obvious and goes just where you expect it to and it offers little for the discerning adult viewer (or to be honest the undemanding ones too). The action will please children but it is the wider delivery where it all falls down and, contrary to opinion, it is not all Shaq's fault. The script is clunky for the most part and has lots of injokes, most of which are embarrassing basketball references although, that said, the "Shaft" joke drew a laugh from me simply because it was so unexpected and so disrespectful to the film! This is very basic stuff though and nobody seems that interested in trying to make it more than that.
Johnson is happy to deliver a kiddie-friendly superhero movie for the most part and this is all it seems to be. The cast have potential but too few of them have any decent material to work with. O'Neal can't act and that's the truth. He can play basketball and, given the riches this has given him we should not feel too sorry for him here. He says his lines and he stands where they tell him to stand but that is not the same as producing a character and being engaging neither of which applies in this situation. Gish has little to do and Roundtree seems happy just to be a walking reference. Nelson hams it up in an obvious baddie while Harper, Hall and Ray J (!) are not the ones to address the lack of quality. The only person that I actually noted with interest was Kevin Grevioux, not because of his performance here but more because he is an interesting man who has built a small but varied career.
Overall then this is a poor superhero movie but one that has had just about enough money spent on it to make it distract children and undemanding adults. The backlash against has been a bit overly cruel but it is still not any good with basic acting, basic script, basic plotting and action that only aspires to be colourful and noisy.
Universally derided ever since it was even green lit for production, this film does have little to recommend it but still produces very basic distraction if that is what you want. The plot is obvious and goes just where you expect it to and it offers little for the discerning adult viewer (or to be honest the undemanding ones too). The action will please children but it is the wider delivery where it all falls down and, contrary to opinion, it is not all Shaq's fault. The script is clunky for the most part and has lots of injokes, most of which are embarrassing basketball references although, that said, the "Shaft" joke drew a laugh from me simply because it was so unexpected and so disrespectful to the film! This is very basic stuff though and nobody seems that interested in trying to make it more than that.
Johnson is happy to deliver a kiddie-friendly superhero movie for the most part and this is all it seems to be. The cast have potential but too few of them have any decent material to work with. O'Neal can't act and that's the truth. He can play basketball and, given the riches this has given him we should not feel too sorry for him here. He says his lines and he stands where they tell him to stand but that is not the same as producing a character and being engaging neither of which applies in this situation. Gish has little to do and Roundtree seems happy just to be a walking reference. Nelson hams it up in an obvious baddie while Harper, Hall and Ray J (!) are not the ones to address the lack of quality. The only person that I actually noted with interest was Kevin Grevioux, not because of his performance here but more because he is an interesting man who has built a small but varied career.
Overall then this is a poor superhero movie but one that has had just about enough money spent on it to make it distract children and undemanding adults. The backlash against has been a bit overly cruel but it is still not any good with basic acting, basic script, basic plotting and action that only aspires to be colourful and noisy.