I saw this on Channel 5 in the UK back in 2002 and having seen a lot of bad movies since then and having seen 2 other Yossi Wein efforts (Disaster aka Cult Of Fury and Lethal Ninja) and found them to be hilariously bad, I wanted to see U.S Seals again as I remembered it being bad but had forgotten most of it. Well, I found the DVD of it for a relatively cheap price and guessed there wasn't really anything to lose in buying it. Was there? Not really. Was it bad? Yes. Bad enough to be funny? Sure.
I'll start with what there is to say that's genuinely positive about it. This was a NuImage production, who work with larger production budgets than most B-movie studios around so unlike say, Crazy Six or Urban Menace, it does look like at least some of the people thought they were making a movie. With the exception of stock footage appearing rather often and outdoor locations which are obviously not the USA, the production values are better than your average Grade Z movie.
But that's all. Yossi Wein is perhaps the worst director in existence. At least Jim Wynorski has the excuse of his low budgets, but Yossi Wein was quite obviously handed a budget that something decent could have been made of with all the explosions, stunts and destruction that takes place. However, not only does he not know how and when to use these properly, he also doesn't seem to know the tiniest little bit about what he's basing the movie around, US Seals!
What this resembles is what a movie is like if it's on in the background and you're doing something else not paying full attention to it. For example, you may miss something and think something is a plot hole. However, this is chock full of plot holes and things happen without any explanation for it at all. In an action movie, I can always suspend my belief. After all, most are just escapist fun and that's why I love them and we have to accept continuity errors to a point. But this absolutely takes the p*ss. There are too many errors, so let's just pick off the most glaringly obvious.
How did the villains know where Mike and Melissa lived? I don't think I missed anything, but there was no explanation.
I'm pretty sure a navy seal would not be allowed to have bleached blonde hair.
Constant stock footage of vehicles driving through San Francisco, then cutting back and forth between locations that are obviously outside of the USA complete with European vehicles (Ford Transit's).
Completely random action that makes no sense at all. For example, the villains, while under attack from our heroes, drive into a cobbled square in the centre of a town and decide to destroy everything in sight. Why? Instead of defending themselves they go out their way to destroy every Lada parked there, while for no apparent reason one comes driving up at high speed and explodes. Again, why? This pointless scene is also badly edited together, as one of the cars is already crushed before the tank is shown going near it. There's more, including three scenes involving cranes, one in which for no apparent reason has an old army truck suspended over it, which they shoot off and it falls and explodes! It looks like Yossi just decided to have some fun with the pyrotechnics and at the last minute realized he was supposed to be making a movie.
Those seals are invincible! I can only assume they're cyborgs with incredibly fast reflex times and eyes on the back of their heads! That theory would also work considering their style of acting. While the villains they are against have never touched weapons in their lives before. In one scene, two goons with automatic weapons shoot at 2 of the seals from above, on top of a crane. Not only do they miss and the seals don't duck, they grab out their pistols and take both of them out with one shot!
These are navy seals and their tactics just include running into the line of fire and taking out the first enemy. Wow!
Weather which changes between sunshine and snow and back in less than a minute.
A small one but nobody is seen reloading in the entire movie. I guess Yossi just completely forgot about that.
There is a lot of action, but I don't think scenes where the good guys run out into the line of fire, don't get hit and take out all the bad guys is anyone's idea of how action scenes should be handled. Clearly, Yossi Wein has absolutely no idea how to make an action movie, and he obviously knows even less about navy seals. I see that he hasn't directed anything since 2001, perhaps NuImage have finally realized just how bad he is?
Anyway, this is a good example of how not to make an action movie. It's chock full of clichés, plot holes and continuity errors. Perhaps all the errors would work if the movie acted like a parody of the action genre and believe me, all the action scenes in this would be perfect fodder for a parody but no, this is marketed as serious stuff! Generally I like what most people call "bad action movies" so if you think they are bad, I recommend you to see this.
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