The Alternate (2000) User Reviews

This is a bad movie...real bad movie!

[EijnarAmadeus · 2/10 · 7 March 2004]

Eric Roberts and Michael Madsen, wow! This is probably a really exciting, well made thriller...but it isn't at all!! It is one of the very worst movies I've ever seen!

The plot seems interesting for two seconds there but then suddenly Roberts starts pulling a gun and stuff and the movie just keeps getting worse and worse. Roberts being the most pathetic and stupid looking "hero" ever running around like a complete idiot and trying to clean things up while the stupid president is being kidnapped by a wannabe psycho. It doesn't work at all man!!!

The action scenes are so bad edited and directed that I didn't want to agree with what I saw, Roberts getting a iron-stick stuffed into his stomach and banged all over his body too many times don't seem realistic, neither does a jump from a chopper from 30 meters above ground, neither does a safety wire hanging from Roberts' belt on his "super-exciting and super tough" escape from the roof, neither does a over-and-over attempt from Roberts to look where psycho wannabe is standing on the other side of the bathing pool, neither does the extremely dum coffee-idea from Roberts making the terrorist female die from electricity, neither does the car exploding twice cause of bad editing, neither does Madsen's dum performance as the dum negotiater...it doesn't work at all!!

"I know I loved her?" "So why did you kill her?!" This must sincerelly be the worst movie made 4-eva!! In the ending it seems like the makers of the movie thinks they've been making a Oscar-nomination motion picture, with Roberts walking out in the dusty s*it calling himself "the replacement". If you want a really good laugh, this movie is a very good ALTERNATE (title)!! STARS: 1/5 (if zero was possible, this would have been a sure winner of that number)

Who needs a high-powered rifle when you've got a blowpipe?

[loza-1 · 2/10 · 18 September 2005]

The president of the USA is addressing a charity dinner. Anybody attending is searched for weapons, but they have not reckoned on several of the guests turning up with drinking straw blowpipes that shoot poison-darts disguised as toothpicks at incredible ranges, and with such accuracy that the president's minders get it in the neck every time. What a weapon. I'm going out to buy a packet of straws and a box of cocktail sticks right now, and I'm going to wreak havoc in my neighbourhood.

It's an attempt by sinister forces to get the president re-elected by staging a fake kidnap attempt and have him escape to make himself popular. The president knows nothing about this plot and has a sudden attack of self righteousness, and the fake kidnap attempt turns into a real one.

Eric Roberts comes out of nowhere and does his Die-hard routine. But the difference between Eric Roberts and Bruce Willis as Die-hard is that Bruce Willis actually has a reason to be in the building.

Eric Roberts stymies the kidnap attempt after being shot in the knee, continually whacked by an aluminium pole, scorched with a flame thrower, falling down the side of a skyscraper and again down a lift shaft. He certainly earned the ransom money in bearer bonds that the president said he could keep at the end. But it would have been curtains for Eric Roberts if only one of the villains had thought of puffing a drinking straw at him.

Apart from those few little details this film is perfectly believable.

Sucks hard

[vincent_romeijn · 2/10 · 31 May 2008]

I got the movie a couple of years ago, on a double pack. It's bad. There's only one good thing about this movie: It's so bad it's funny (for example, the scene with the flamethrower). The plot is OK. It's about presidential elections coming up, and we are introduced to the current president, who wants to win again, but he is quite unpopular. The FBI, or whatever it's called in this movie, try to let everybody think he gets captured, and then gets free again to improve his popularity. But then some terrorists real capture him, and it's up to "The Replacement", or "The guy in the tuxedo" to rescue him.

There are some scenes which are just really stupid, like the scene with the flamethrower, the scene at the swimming pool, the helicopter that crashes, the same car that explodes twice, etc.

The scene with the flamethrower is just hilarious. It begins with some kind of Face Off with the bad guy (played by a certain Bryan Genesse) and The Replacement. First you see The Replacement from a distance. Then it swaps to a closer angle, and you see him closer. It goes to another angle, and then we only see his face. That piece is just unbelievably funny, but you have to see it before you know how funny it is. Then you see this bad guy shoot at The Replacement with a flamethrower, and The Replacement runs through the exact same door 3 times, the only thing that changes is the angle that it's filmed from.

There is also some FBI guy who leads some "special agents" and "tries to rescue the president". Well, actually, he does almost nothing. And those "special agents" are so bad, they're more like random people who volunteered to hold guns.

And what's also really funny is the part where the bad guy falls off the roof. The camera swaps to the FBI guy, who just casually stands and looks a the guy falling from a high rise building.

So, if you want a great comedy, get this movie. But if you want a action movie, don't bother about this one.

2/10

Stupid

[belialprod · 20 June 2001]

This is a truly poor excuse for an action film. the characters act so stupidly and have so little charisma, it's hard to care for them one way or another. At one point, the villian fakes his death through a helicopter crash. Though he has the money he'd asked for as ransom and has no reason what so ever to go back to the site of his crime-he goes back. Another ridiculous plot point- the hero, having saved the president from a "Die Hard" style terrorist attack, doesn't just walk the Pres out of the building, but rather sits around, making calls on his cell phone.

This idiocy would all be okay if this flick had some decent action, but the fight scenes are choreographed with the energy of a sloth monkey and the shoot outs take place with enemies twenty feet from eachother, yet unable to hit a damn thing...and would the hero really shoot back at the villian if the President, this movie's "macguffin" was between them? Yes he would in this flick, because it means he can dive between pillars. This movie isn't bad because it's dumb- dumb ain't bad, I love dumb action movies- it's bad because it's insulting even to the undemanding.

Average low budget actioner.

[Hey_Sweden · 5/10 · 4 July 2013]

Umpteenth variation on the "Die Hard" formula stars Eric Roberts as an unnamed hero who turns out to be the only hope for the President of the United States (John Beck) when a traitorous government agent (Bryan Genesse, who also wrote the movie) takes advantage of events that occur. You see, it seems that the Presidents' ratings are very low and a member of his staff engineers a phony kidnapping to try to make him look sympathetic. Genesse, a part of the group involved, sees this as his opportunity to make a bunch of money. However, Roberts, an agent himself, still has some scruples and tries to foil Genesses' plans.

The movie isn't completely worthless. Director Sam Firstenberg, who'd guided so many classic martial arts movies of the 1980s, keeps it moving forward at an adequate pace. Some of the action set pieces, such as the fights and one amazing stunt, are competently done. However, the script isn't very good, and the nods to "Die Hard" are way too obvious. The characters are fairly nondescript, good guys and bad guys alike, although some of the actors try their best. If one is watching this for co-stars Ice-T and Michael Madsen, be warned that they never do very much. Things very much fall on the shoulders of Roberts and Genesse. The oddest touch is occasionally cutting back to a redneck couple watching the whole event on TV and making commentary.

A cast of familiar faces helps some. The movie co-stars Roberts' wife Eliza as the Presidents' Chief of Staff and Genesses' wife Brooke as one of the villains (with whom Roberts has a big fight scene). Also appearing are Larry Manetti, Sal Landi, and Brookes' TV dad Bill Kirchenbauer (from the series 'Just the Ten of Us') in a cameo as a "loud Texan".

If you stick it through to the end, you do get rewarded with some fairly amusing outtakes that play out alongside the ending credits.

Five out of 10.

Really horrible

[luc-21 · 1/10 · 29 July 2002]

The Alternate, a story of President's mock-kidnapp that turns into a real hostage situation was aired just recently on nationwide TV here in Czech Rep. I saw it rather accidentally all through to the very end as I really wanted to know if every other minute will be as stupid as all the previous.

The Alternate really does it all, but unfortunately the other way out. All the plot twists (all places tha are supposed to be twists) are really the weakest links - the characters do almost always the opposite of what would any sane person do. The president just sits there (afraid of heights), our main hero makes silly phone calls with FBI in which he only says that he is fine and that he is the guy in the suit, and the bad guy (as well as the good guy) just always miss and in situations that should be filled with action, they just start with lines of stupid chat.

Really nothing in this movie was quite right. The FX were sometimes really silly, the martial fights were oscillating between acceptable quality and total crap and out of the thousands of rounds fired in the movie there is hardly dozen on target.

The act is horrible, but that is mainly due to stupid script and bad direction. You should see this only if you fancy B movies that are so stupid, that you can laugh at them.

Poor action film with one good actor (Michael Madsen) and a good premise.

[Brad K. · 3/10 · 16 May 2000]

Watching Agent of Death aka The Alternate I had the feeling that the movie was going to suck. After all it had a good premise, fake kidnapping of the President goes bad when someone decides to make it real. It also has a cast of famous names, Eric Roberts, Ice-T, and Michael Madsen. Yet the film went direct to video, not a good sign. After watching the film, I know why it went direct to video. The screenplay is filled with terrible dialogue and bad scenes. Several times in the movie, either the bad guy (a bad performance by writer Bryan Genesse) or the hero (a bad performance by Eric Roberts) has an easy chance to kill the other one, but gives it away by talking to them. Ice-T is ok, until his character disappears from the movie right away. Out of the rubble comes the great actor Michael Madsen to save this movie. This might have worked, except they gave Madsen the terrible role of the FBI agent in charge of getting the President back. Madsen is as good as possible, but is given nothing to do. Don't watch this movie.

good concept turned into a bad movie

[joesgrille · 1/10 · 15 October 2002]

The original concept, the president sanctioning his own kidnapping to help his popularity, is always an intriguing one. Unfortunately, then finding out that the President didn't authorize anything and that it is the Cia and then not really the CIA and that Eric Roberts is some anti gravity, bullet dodging hero ends any

integrity the movie started out with. Find something else to watch or watch the grass grow. It will provide more entertainment.

Terrible, but has the chuckle factor

[ajbru · 1/10 · 30 August 2005]

I personally was brought up on Mystery Science Theater 3000. In light of that, I have to say that what makes this movie good is the riffability. The plot is weak, the acting's bad, the situations are totally unbelievable. Some highlights include Eric Roberts' constant gasping for air and groaning, the Super Soaker flamethrower, and the bad guy's ability to kick the back of his head.

This movie has terrible editing, terrible action, really crappy fighting. Essentially, it's sheer cinematic punishment. How the bad guy can fling a heavy chain around Eric Roberts' gun holding hand is beyond me. It's not exactly a whip. The reason I don't give character names is because there are none. But I digress. The straw dart guns are fun to watch. Watch for Eric Roberts' sneaker/tux combo when he and his team first enter the hotel. That also leads me to think about the 20 person protest against the President of the United States. What they're protesting, I don't know. It definitely isn't plot-related. Watch for forgotten lines, and this one Secret Service dude who appears in about three other roles. He's kinda overweight with reddish hair.

This movie avoids a 1 rating due to the fact it is so darned funny!

The whole point of getting this turd would be to get in a few cheap laughs. I don't wanna give the other points of hilarity away, but I will say that it is worth the few bucks for a used VHS. Buy it. Take it home. Watch. Laugh and be satisfied.

P.S. Michael Madsen's whole character and his incompetent LAPD is another highlight.

Think You've Seen Dopey 'Die Hard' Rip-Offs?

[Droid_Gunner · 5/10 · 12 February 2017]

Well, meet the dopiest of them all. And that ain't a bad thing.

My oh my, was this silly, ridiculous, borderline idiotic... But it was so darn fun, it can't be considered a waste.

Eric Roberts turns in his usual 'cool guy' persona, but this time with a dash of Schwarzenegger for good measure. He moves around pretty well in the few stunt pieces and shoot-outs they let him perform, though most are done with a poorly- matched stunt/fight-double.

Ice-T is there for a paycheck, but is still fun to watch. Same can be said for Madsen, who clearly shot his scenes in an afternoon. Probably even left his car running when he arrived.

Sam Firstenberg has certainly directed some b-movie action classics. This isn't on the level of 'American Ninja' by any means, but the fights and stunts are well shot for the most part (forgiving some lousy CGI explosions here and there) and the plot moves at such a quick place you can forgive the usual b-movie blemishes of this era.

This is the type of movie you can have on in the background while doing something else, not pay too much attention, and still get something out of it.

Also, the bloopers during the end credits are a lot of fun.

Not bad, but written with no personality.

[tarbosh22000 · 4/10 · 12 May 2010]

If you watch a lot of Direct-To-Video flicks, The Company called Nu-Image pops up a lot. They make on-the-cheap knockoffs of "Die Hard" and monster flicks like "Octopus 2: River Of Fear" (A real title).

"The Alternate" is no exception. For the millionth time, John McClane...I mean "The Replacement" (Roberts) has to foil a plot to stop terrorists from killing the Prez. Michael Madsen plays the Reginald VelJohnson part as the agent on the ground. All he does is bark orders and waits to tuck into the craft service table. Bryan Genesse plays the terrorist leader. He's okay. Eric Roberts is his usual self as the hero. The action scenes are ripped off from "Die Hard" wholesale. The scene with Eric hanging on to a building, and the climax. I'm surprised there wasn't any stock footage. Ice-T pops up to make a cameo. He reads his lines off the cue card like the pro he is.

Sam Firstenberg is also the director of the Michael Dudikoff classic "American Ninja". How far the mighty have fallen...

Overall, "The Alternate" isn't bad, It was just written with no personality.

For more insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com

In The Nature of Die Hard, Nature Suddenly Turns Ugly

[biodgradable · 10/10 · 29 August 2005]

Any fans of unintentionally hilarious action films are in for a treat, this film was a delightful, and I mean DELIGHTFUL piece of cheese.

As I picked it from a bargain bucket there were 3 things I spotted that gave it away; Ice-T for one, the tag line "Kill the president, kill the hostages, escape. A great idea!" which isn't really much of a great idea considering it doesn't mention making it away with millions in bearer bonds, it just promotes violence which is wrong for children, and Eric Roberts' smirking face.

When I sat down to watch it within minutes I was hooked, Ice-T angrily slamming his hands on the table like a bullied 5 year-old, Eric Roberts firing a harpoon into a block of wood, and some INTENSELY bad acting.

The quality in the film only continues to decrease, inexplicable decisions from the bad guy, good guy and a concerned looking Madsen (just watch his face when 3 S.W.A.T. guys plummet from the rooftop...) do nothing to help matters, and neither do the questionable stunt men, plot line, or fight scenes.. or special effects... or dialogue.. actually come to think of it how did this even get made? I propose there is some sort of official ratings board (of which I am a member) that decides if a film should get a stamp of abject disapproval, the likes of which this film thoroughly deserves.

Things to watch out for:

Eric Roberts - Watch this man like hawk. He gets battered by a woman (nothing against women, it just makes it funnier) and his stunt double is NOT CONVINCING.

The Flamethrower Bit - Out of nowhere the main bad guy produces a flamethrower, and just when you think you might get to see Eric Roberts in flames, it produces a measly flame which reaches about 2 feet, not exactly ideal with Roberts at the other end of a 30 foot (at least) corridor.

The Dummies - Two top-class dummy sequences here, the aforementioned S.W.A.T. team receive a spray of bullets from the bad guy with moments of abseiling from a chopper and we get to see 3 very competent looking dummies, twisting and turning the air this way and that.. One appears to have a leg straight out 90 degrees from this body, possibly part of S.W.A.T. training but don't quote me on that

The second dummy sequence is the bad guy's death (not that that can count as a spoiler since it was clearly going to happen, this is the 'Nature of Die Hard' for crying out loud!). This is probably my favourite of the two. It requires THOROUGH analysis with your slow-motion button.

The bad guy falls backwards from the top-floor, but sadly we aren't with him for his whole flight. We catch up with him probably only 50 or so feet from the ground. Looking like a ventriloquist's dummy with a bad wig (even better when you've seen the guy we're supposed to believe it is), it sort of hits the ground and crumples, and for the few bittersweet moments we see the dummy on the floor it looks more like a pile of clothes and hair than anything in the rough shape of a human, bones completely broken or not.

So yeah

Apologies for anyone expecting a proper review I just felt the need GET MY FEELINGS OUT THERE, no matter how incoherent.

10 out of 10!

Waste of time

[magedhussein85 · 1/10 · 16 November 2007]

When i first saw the movie i couldn't actually determine if it is an action movie or a movie mocking other action movies. I was surprised when they used the ultimate tom and jerry prank were the good guy literally pulled the carpet from underneath the bad guy sending him into a magnificent somersault in the air.

I personally believe that its very naive. there is no plot what so ever. It is a movie about a guy who was so lucky and avoided being killed several times in one day.

The stunts are bad. There was a moment where i could have almost swear that the guy was gonna trip and fall on his face

Mostly unsuccessful "Die Hard" imitation

[Wizard-8 · 19 October 2001]

Despite this movie being an obvious rip-off of "Die Hard", I wouldn't have minded seeing this same story again had it been written and executed with relative competence. But overall it's not. The things that happen here are so implausible (shootouts where everyone keeps missing despite it being VERY OBVIOUS that there's no way they could survive, as well as extremely stupid decisions by both the hero and villain) that it becomes quite annoying - quite soon you get annoyed at the gall the filmmakers had for not even TRYING to place one foot in reality. It seems they just had all these stupid things happening so that the movie would last 90 or so minutes.

Also, the low budget of the movie is quite obvious at times. Now, I've seen action movies with similarly low budgets that managed to stretch their few dollars out for the entire movie. This time around they do manage to overcome the low budget in several aspects (the cinematography, for one), but every few minutes we see something that smacks of cheapness - a crowd of protesters consisting of just a few people (and all holding signs with exact same style of writing on them), hotel hallways that don't look like the hallways of a high class hotel, a goofy-looking flame thrower that is supposedly shooting long flames (but is obviously not in each shot), etc.

The cast is wasted. Ice-T is given prominent billing, but only appears for the first 20 minutes. Madsen has nothing to do but bark orders. Roberts appears in almost every scene, but with the material he's given, the movie ends up being another waste of his talents.

It's not all bad. There are a few hand-to-hand fight sequences that, despite not having the speed and flow of Hong Kong movies, have excitement and high power to them. (And are quite brutal.) And a hilarious blooper reel runs during the end credits.

Worst movie ever

[lynnrance · 1/10 · 24 July 2005]

I love action movies. Die Hard, Lethal Wepon, you name it. I would have said exactly the same thing as the previous reviewer. The shootouts were a joke. Why would anyone take the time away from watching their prisoner to drag dead bodies into a helicopter, destroy it and try to get a helicopter to fly away in? He should have just left in the first place.

There must have been 10 million shots fired in this movie. They were all expert marksmen yet no one was ever hit by a bullet.

Not only was Eric shooting at the president who was shielding the bad guy, but he flew Tarzan style across the pool with a gun in one hand shooting as he swung. No aim. How dumb..dumb..dumb.

The actors seemed embarrassed to be in this movie. They should be.

The worst Die-Hard wannabe ever! (spoilers)

[Boy_with_no_name · 1/10 · 3 February 2004]

The plot is totally SUPER BOGUS. The action is so awful you'll sleep throuhg it. It's G.I. JOE, fire a 100 shots and still no one's hit. The acting is not even plastic, it's hysterical and pathetic.

The cast made me watch it. BUT 1)Eric Roberts's is a career wasted and the film does'nt add much to it. It even makes you wanna swear you won't watch his movie ever again.

2)ICE T falls asleep in the first half hour and does'nt get up. (Maybe he ran away.)

3)Micheal Madsen looks like he shot for the movie while going for a walk and did it just for the goggles.

Rest of the crew is the hotel staff 9I'm not kidding.)

Save yourselves from it.

I COULD'NT.

This is not a Jackie Chan movie, but it pretends to be one

[Chuck-188 · 1/10 · 2 January 2001]

The Alternate (aka Agent of Death) appears to be a take off on a Jackie Chan film. The good martial arts actor declines to use his gun on the moral grounds that he cannot shoot American citizens. The evil martial arts actors uses their guns often, but are very bad shots. The result is a long string of martial fight scenes. In each fight, the good guy is driven from the scene and makes a miraculous return. (This is repeated with several variations). Add to the mix an inpotent SWAT team, bad dialog, and illogical events, and you have a really bad attempt to mimic a Hong Kong martial arts film.

The Alternate would probably do well in the Hong Kong market if the English sound track were dubbed out so the audience would not know how stupid the actors appeared to be. For example, in the midst of a hostage situation, the good guy gets to a telephone and contacts the commander of the SWAT team. Does he tell him how many hostage takers there are? Does he provide information about the condition of the building's security system? Does he report on the President's physical or mental condition? Does the SWAT team leader ask any of these questions? No, he says "Who are you?" and the reply is "I am the guy in the Tux". End of conversation. In none of the scenes that follow is there any further attempt at strategic communication.

The only redeeming feature is that I recorded over it.

[orpple · 1/10 · 21 September 2002]

Sure Ice-T is cool and Michael Madsen is cool in strange way and Eric Roberts has a cool sister. Unfortunately she wasn't in "The Alternate". I've seen thousands of films and this has got to be the baddest yet, not bad in the good sense, just plain bad. The "action" scenes were among the poorest I've EVER seen, or Eric is just plain good at dodging the several million rounds fired at him. His Glock should be investigated as it held in the neighborhood of 100+ rounds between reloads, perhaps that's why he couldn't hit anything-the thing was too heavy from all the bullets. The director, who's name I choose to forget and I hope Hollywood does likewise, should be given one more chance, to direct a kindergarten play in Spudville, Idaho. I will admit that Eric's use of the action verb "GAACK" several times was one of the thrilling moments of the film, perhaps the apex.

Warning! Keep a way

[moghaiseeb · 1/10 · 6 March 2007]

Warning! Keep a way This movie is a waist of your time and money. I never saw worse acting than this. The effects are ridicules, especially the weapons effects the Special Forces in the beginning of the movie are firing m-16s at the attackers but they seem to hit none, zero then finally they hit the attackers keep in mind that they are using full auto and they are facing each other!!! but the worst scene was when the attackers moved in a small room and the special forces attacked them by entering the room firing rapidly with their m16s and some how they did not hit anyone then the attackers used a smoke grenade to push the special forces outside the small room.

Has to be seen to be believed

[Fles · 1/10 · 30 March 2008]

Fortunately I read the comments on here before viewing this movie and was therefore able to enjoy it purely as the giggle-fest that it is.

The DVD box cover shows a black and white photograph of the Whitehouse, which is also the title screen of the DVD itself. This is only really worth mentioning because the Whitehouse features at no point in the film. This is a clue.

The box also lists its Special Features as Scene selection and Trailer. There is, of course, no Trailer on the disc. This is a clue.

The disc itself is just plain white bearing only the title and certification. This is a clue.

The stunts are laughable, the dummies are appalling (see other comments here for more vivid descriptions of how truly dreadful they are) and continuity errors abound - at one point we see a gun battle from two sides of the same door which has three times as many holes on one side as on the other.

There are many, many flaws in this piece of celluloid nonsense which have been picked apart most ably by others on this site but what truly amazed me was the out-takes at the end which showed what had been taken out but gave no excuses for the ninety minutes which had been left in.

A Severely Underrated Movie

[starlina7up · 9/10 · 7 October 2023]

This film was unfairly grilled by hardcore Action Fanatics, but I want to say that this film is in fact good. This is among the best works that proves that Good overpowers the forces of Evil.

This was among the acting performances by Eric Roberts as the Unsung Hero saving the President from the masterminded Creep who is responsible for his family's murder. The ending is bittersweet but a win for the Good Guys. Thanks to Whistleblowing blasting recruit turning the tides against the backstabber and his goons. I would recommend this movie for those who crave action and cheer the Underdog Heroes on for Victory.

Very standard Die Hard clone with no surprises.

[aloep · 17 November 2004]

I bought this on a double set DVD with Black Moon Rising for £2.99 here in the UK. I didn't have particularly high hopes after reading the majority of the reviews here. Nevertheless, I decided to watch it anyway and it more or less met my low expectations. I certainly didn't find it as bad as some people are making it out to be for sure. Some have labelled this as "the worst Die Hard wannabe ever", "funniest movie ever" and even "the worst movie ever". It's none of these. Go see "Blast" if you want to see the worst Die Hard clone ever. See "Disaster" or a Jim Wynorski movie if you want to see the most unintentionally funny movies ever. See "Crazy Six" if you want to see the worst movie ever. People who aren't used to "B-grade" movies probably watch it based on the familiar names in the cast and overreact. Because while by no means good, it passes fairly painlessly.

The plot, while just another take on the basic Die Hard plot, is acceptable enough for the kind of movie we're in and although it takes a while before getting onto the real kidnapping, overall it moves at a comfortable enough pace and is rarely boring.

What the biggest problem the movie is faced with is that for the majority of it there is only one villain and he makes some incredibly stupid decisions, and they both appear to have appalling shots. Most of the gunplay consisted of firing thousands of rounds of ammo and destroying background scenery rather than hitting the targets. Plus those scenes had zero suspense as he was only up against one person, so you knew neither of them were going to hit until the end. There are also certain times when both could have taken each other out and don't, and some ridiculous decisions from the villain - he decides to chase Eric Roberts character around with a flame thrower for ages and has no success. However, the action scenes and the stunts do get better as the movie progresses and there are some entertaining hand to hand action scenes, and a relatively exciting climax. There is a faked helicopter crash which looks surprisingly convincing, and some pretty explosions.

The production values in general look okay with good lighting and clean, earthly colours but there is grainy stock footage of police cars that occasionally pops up and adds absolutely nothing. There are also certain other things that make it obvious that costs have been cut such as the older cars that explode and especially old police cars that I find hard to believe would have been in use by LAPD as late as 2000, and then there's the protesters that others have pointed out.

Overall, this is a very basic Die Hard clone which moves in exactly the way you'd expect it to and really doesn't do anything new or original and has a lot of problems. However if you catch it on TV or find it for a very low price and have nothing else to do, by all means watch it. Just don't actively seek it out or get your hopes up. Certainly a watchable, inoffensive affair but nothing memorable at all.

Amazingly funny...was it intentional? (Possible spoilers)

[ET20Fan · 9 August 2004]

"The Alternate," a bad movie connoisseur's dream come true, concerns Eric Roberts, Michael Madsen, and Ice-T taking turns recycling bad clichés from action films. You will see so many unintentionally funny things in this film! Some of these things include:

Firefights in which hundreds of rounds cannot hit a target

Ice-T half shouting, half lisping his way through a twenty-minute role and still getting second billing

Michael Madsen proving that his shame knows no bounds

Eric Roberts smirking and mugging through silly plot points and lazy lines (courtesy of co-star/co-producer/writer/stunt coordinator Bryan Genesse)

Protesters with lazy, mixed message signs (are they trying to stop world hunger, impeach the president, or save whales?)

Things happening multiple times (in fight scenes, extra gunners will get shot dead at least twice every time)

And of course, the inept extra in a banquet scene who flashes a goofy grin and makes an "L" with his hand in the camera frame (known to "fans" of this film as "The L-Train")

The Alternate/Replacement/Agent of Death/Bad Action Star is great for a laugh. Just imagine: this could have been Die Hard...if Die Hard was a bad film. No Stars.

Punishing martial arts action overshadows the conventional weapons in "Agent of Death."

[Spenser-4 · 1 May 2000]

The video that I watched calls it "Agent of Death" but AKA "The Alternate" and "The Replacement."

Basic story: Election day is approaching and the President of the United States is not doing well in the popularity polls. Elizabeth, his Chief of Staff and organizer of his re-election campaign, decides to hire a gang to stage a fake kidnapping of the President thinking that this will give him lots of free TV coverage. When one of the members of the gang doesn't show up, a former CIA agent (Eric Roberts) is hired as the replacement. The kidnapping is staged as planned until the leader of the gang (Bryan Genesse) reveals that they have turned it into a real kidnapping and they have no intention of letting Eric and the President leave the building alive.

At first it was a little difficult not to compare this film to "Heaven's Fire" or "Die Hard" but it turns out to be a totally different film.

One happy difference -- the FBI agent outside the building, who was sort of annoying in "Heaven's Fire," is replaced by a much smarter and more entertaining Agent Briggs (played by Michael Madsen) in Agent of Death. His smirk is worth a thousand words.

Another plus is having Steven Lambert as stunt coordinator. While his work on the film "Titanic" probably reached a wider audience, true fans of mayhem will remember his work on films like "Total Recall," "Army of Darkness" and John Carpenter's "Vampires."

The second half of the film showcases a variety of weapons from handguns to blow guns to a flame thrower but they take a back seat to the martial arts. Eric Roberts looks in good shape and has shown off his martial arts skills in other films but with Bryan Genesse both choreographing the fights and playing his adversary, we have a situation where the good guy doesn't get in all the good moves. As Eric and his tux get the worst of the deal, Eric quips, "There goes the deposit."

Watch for the running gag as, behind the main action, the ditzy blond television reporter (played by Heidi Jo Markel) ducks and dodges but never lets go of her mike.

Fans will also recognize Larry Manetti (Rick on Magnum PI) playing Agent Harris and Eliza Roberts, real life wife of Eric Roberts, playing Chief of Staff Donaldson.

I don't want to give anything away but, please stay for the credits.

Action-packed movie

[Gregster-5 · 6 September 2002]

I'm not sure whether I was watching the same movie as everyone else here, but I thought movie actually worked very well, even if it was derivative. The action was continuous and the characters were well defined, if not particularly deep. check it out.