Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Let's get one thing straight: I like much of Snipes' work. Unlike his other high-kicking contemporaries (Seagal and Van Damme) he can actually act. This film, however, does little to enhance his reputation; it's not exactly unwatchable - but I am not in any hurry to watch it again either. In fact, if I never saw it again it wouldn't bother me - there are just loads of better films out there to waste my on! It's a pity because with a bit of imagination and and some subtle changes this could have been a worthwhile film. Instead the director has chosen to almost try and bludgeon his audience into submission with too much over-the-top violence and very little characterisation.The biggest problem I have is with Snipes' co-star, Silvia Colloca. It baffles me that the producers of this film went to all the bother of hiring a stunning beautiful (for my money anyway) and talented actress like Miss Colloca and then give her such a pathetic one-dimensional character to play with. If she was hired to simply add a bit of "glamour" to the movie she doesn't even do that very well; there's no nudity in the film and also no sex scene worth mentioning. Strange, really. Given the amount of violence in this film it baffles me why the producers have taken such a conservative attitude to sex and nudity. Are we living in 2007 or in 1957? What the producers of this rubbish (and probably the actors as well) have forgotten is that films are meant to be fantasies. Like most of the inhabitants of this planet my real life is very boring. I would love to be chasing terrorists, be able to handle myself like Mr Snipes and hook up with a beautiful young thing like Miss Colloca. This film satisfies none of those fantasies very well. Which is precisely why I am giving it such a bad review!

After an undercover mission in Bucharest to disclose an international gang of weapon dealers, the agent Sonni Griffith (Wesley Snipes) is assigned to protect the Romanian Nadia Kaminski (Silvia Colloca), the widow of an accountant of the Romanian Mafia. However, the CIA safe house is broken in by the criminals, and Sonni realizes that the information was leaked from inside the Agency. Alone, trusting only in his friend Michael Shepard (William Hope), Sonni fights to survive and protect Nadia.The career of Wesley Snipes is downhill. I have just seen this flick, and it is another disappointing movie of this actor, whose career is presently very similar to Steven Segal's one. The movie has many explosions, shots and car chase associated to an awful story and horrible acting. First, the Afro-American Wesley Snipes is chased by the police of Bucharest, but they never find a black American man. I have never been in Romania, but I believe there are not many Afro-Americans in this country. His character does not like to bath, wearing the same clothes along many days. There is no chemistry between Sonni and the sexy Silvia Colloca, but she freely has sex, falls in love for him and shares her fortune with him. The boy that performs Nadia's son is horrible. My vote is four.Title (Brazil): "O Detonador" ("The Detonator")

Meh, Sums it all up for me really. Boring story, bland dialogue, dull action scenes (HOW do you make something like a fight or a shootout boring? Do you actually have to TRY to do that?), no real characters etc. Just dull. Snipes is a gifted actor and physical performer but none of this has come to the surface in ANY of his DTV work, when the opportunity is there to give the audience a much more superior product than they are used to. Imagine a decent script with a few solid characters that you care about and some damn explosive action, fights, shootouts, etc. How can it be that hard to handle? My personal opinion is that the primary players in the productions simply do not care. There is no evidence of enthusiasm for what they are doing. Look at Snipes in the first 2 Blades, Passenger 57, Rising Sun, New Jack City, Demolition Man etc? Awesome, intense performances complemented by decent (if not always outstanding) scripts, good supporting casts and wicked action.None of that is evident in any of these releases so far which is a tremendous shame. The distributors slap Wesley's face on the cover, knowing the audience will lap them up as they haven't realised yet that they haven't seen him in theatres for nearly 2 years.I'd love to see Snipes work with somebody like Isaac Florentine who really knows how to make the most out of a DTV production, and work with Alpha Stunts who are simply some of the best action guys out there. Together they would all make an awesome team and a Snipes action vehicle we would all be proud of seeing.Detonator sucks. It's not as bad as The Marksman, which chews, but it still really sucks.

There was a time when Wesley Snipes WAS action. Blade, Passenger 57, Boiling Point, Demolition Man...now he seems to be the king of straight to DVD and I hadn't seen him in action in awhile so I decided to go with The Detonator. In all fairness Snipes is not the problem. He stills kicks some serious ass and he can actually act which is a plus for an action star but the story was just bogged down with non-sensical and confusing plot and characters. The film falls victim to a common error committed by writer Martin Wheeler who is probably just an action film fan boy who thinks he can write his own. He's slapped together a film completely neglected plot holes, sense of style or even fitting together and just let it fly. Action films don't have to be realistic but they have to have a basis in reality so that the audience will ignore the lack of realism (ie: Transporter 2) Wesley Snipes plays scorned Government agent Sonni Griffith who is wanted back in the U.S. for murdered a mobster and yet apparently is allowed to roam Europe on assignment...yeeeah. He is after a big gun runner until his cover is blown by a mysterious phone caller. Now he has to escort a protected witness back to the U.S. Snipes is good, there is nothing wrong with his performance. His martial arts is wicked, and his gun play is superb, the man could still be an action superstar but the plot and story stinks. Italian actress Silvia Colloca plays the protected witness, Nadia Cominski who despite a rather poorly slapped together Russian accent does a decent job. She's tough, and her and Snipes have great chemistry although the I hate you, I love you routine is a little forced at times. Matthew Leitch gives a stand out performance as head bad guy Dimitru (misspelled Dimitri on IMDb.) For some reason I wanted his name to be Dimitri because that's the common name but no it was "u." Anyways Leitch gives a really great performance as a blood thirsty angry vicious killer/hit-man for a much larger mobster. Although Leitch and Snipes don't actually go head to head that often they are great adversaries and in a weak story such as this it would have easy for the bad guy to be a real pansy but instead he gives a terrific performance. William Hope plays brutally vicious mobster Michael Shepard. Seeing him in the same shot playing with children and then threatening and murdering other people is disturbing and he is a great mobster. He's mostly a straight to video kind of guy but he is a great actor and does a good job playing the bad guy. Warren Derosa plays fellow cop Mitchel who never quite fits in with the cast especially Snipes. He doesn't have the acting chops to fit in and he really just always looks like a schmuck. Deciding whether he is the one working against them never enters the mind because his character is boring and mostly useless.With a much, MUCH stronger screenwriter The Detonator might have been able to fly but because of the completely lost script the film is pretty much ruined. There are a few neat action sequences, and the story is watchable but there is just far too many plot holes, things that are completely not necessary and characters that don't fit in. Maybe there are fans of Wesley Snipes that still hold it out for a triumphant return to theater but I can tell you this won't help. Wait for this one to show where it belongs...on cable...5/10