Expected more

As Good As It Gets

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

Apparently it is very hard to get a copy of this film and even Bruce Campbell makes fun of his role in My Name is Bruce. Luckily for me someone posted it on a video site in very good quality so I could enjoy it. And let me tell you. It is one of the better Die Hard clones. Is it a good movie? Not a chance. This one is as cheesy as they come although in a good way. The biggest reason to watch this clone is Bruce Campbell. He is hamming it up big time and is simply a joy to watch. The main character Chase Morran played by Joshep Culp (son of Robert Culp) is actually very believable as unwanted hero. You will have to ignore his one liners because they are far from funny. Although the fact that they aren't makes it funny. So what about the action? For some reason the director Gilbert Po (who never directed a movie after this one ever again) thought it was wise to shoot the action scenes in slow motion. And in general that does make it visually more appealing. However in this case the slow motion is done poorly and has a very laughable effect. But it's not over used so that most action scenes are decent. In general I think his direction was quite decent. It certainly is much better than say that of Brett Ratner or Uwe Boll. I wonder what happened to him? Assault on Dome 4 is incredibly fast paced, witty and blatant copy of Die Hard. In fact one could almost see it as a parody on it since the motive for Alex Windham (Bruce Campbell) is so ridiculous and far fetched that it must have been meant as some sort of satire. Overall this TV Movie is entertaining from start till finish and it definitely belongs to the better Die Hard rip offs. Then how come it is so difficult to get a hold of this movie? If you can get hold of a copy or can watch it on television or online then do so. It's a lot of fun.

I wasn't expecting a huge amount out of Assault on Dome 4 in the first place, but as I like Bruce Campbell I thought there might be some entertainment at least. And although I do not deem Assault on Dome 4 a good movie at all, there were some entertaining parts. All of them provided by Bruce Campbell, the villain is the movie's most colourful character and Campbell's gleefully enjoyable(even if a little hammy at times) performance and some sharp one-liners help. The movie also isn't shot too bad. Unfortunately, while Campbell is great, the rest of Assault on Dome 4 just doesn't match. The special effects are cheaply constructed, and audibly it is an uncomfortable mixture of loud and murky. Campbell's witty one-liners show some bright spots, but the rest of the script is clunky, the inclusion of literary quotes was just clumsy writing, rather than sharp with lowbrow and bordering on childish humour. The story is plodding and by-the-numbers with nothing suspenseful and thrilling at all, even the action-y sequences look tired. Of the characters Campbell's is the only halfway believable one, the rest are so stock and bland with one of the dullest heroes of any movie seen recently or ever. The direction is flat, and the rest of the acting including Joseph Culp- I'd also go as far to say especially so- is just lazy. Overall, Bruce Campbell is great and hugely enjoyable but the rest is not worth bothering with. 4/10 Bethany Cox

Like most people (I would imagine) that have seen this film, my only reason for doing so was the fact that it stars Bruce Campbell. It's a good job Bruce is on board too; otherwise this cheap mess would be a complete dead loss. It's clear that the film's main influence was the classic action flick Die Hard, and indeed Assault on Dome 4 is basically a carbon copy of said film, except instead of being set on a skyscraper, it's set on a research facility somewhere in space. Bruce Campbell plays Alex Windham; an intergalactic terrorist. He breaks out of jail (it's supposed to be a very high security prison, but in my opinion the security is rather lax) and escapes into space along with a load of other convicts he has freed. They set their sights for Dome 4; a research facility that Alex wants to capture and use for his own special research program. Meanwhile, and unbeknown to Alex, Chas Moran - an ace 'peacekeeper' (futuristic cop) is visiting his wife, who happens to work at Dome 4. The terrorists take the place hostage, while Chase attempts to bring them down on his own.I am extremely glad that Bruce Campbell is in this film; his scenes are really the only ones worth watching and he does seem to relish his role...but if I'm honest, he was the wrong choice to play a terrorist. He spouts off one-liners and its lots of fun, but he doesn't look like a terrorist at all. On the other hand, Joseph Culp, who plays the 'hard as nails' hero, doesn't look the part either! ...so the whole thing is a bit difficult to swallow. Still, there's plenty of fighting and shooting (maybe even too much) and some of it is decent; although director Gilbert Po would do well to lay off the slow motion. The plot itself does basically run in exactly the same way as Die Hard does, so anyone who's seen that (which should be everyone who has seen this) is likely to know exactly where it's going to go. A major problem for this film, though, is the fact that it's so difficult to like the hero - Chase Moran is just dull, and I found myself cheering on Bruce Campbell's terrorist for most of the film. Anyway, the ending is not too bad and while this film is cheap and hokey, it's worth a look for Bruce Campbell fans.

Despite the best efforts and trademark hamminess of Bruce Campbell, this is a real clunker of a movie. Lowbrow humor and gratuitous violence (a guy gets his hand sliced off and it's used as a joke later in the film - REALLY funny there, guys) can't cover up the retread plot and thuddingly dull pace of this film. I'd choose anything - doing dishes, poking a paperclip into a light socket - rather than sit through this again.