The President of the United States, in the midst of negative public opinion, is kidnapped while attending a charity function. However, this is all part of a plan to boost his ratings, the 'kidnappers' being a CIA black ops team. It seems like a great idea until the leader of the black ops decides he can make it away with the ransom money himself, but one of his team has other ideas.
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I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much
Powerful
Overrated
Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.
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.
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.
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 thatThe 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 yeahApologies for anyone expecting a proper review I just felt the need GET MY FEELINGS OUT THERE, no matter how incoherent.10 out of 10!
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.