Hijack (1999)

Simply Perfect

Perfect cast and a good story

Memorable, crazy movie

Fantastic!

You know you're deep in B-movie territory when you end up watching a rip-off of a rip-off. HIJACK is a Z-grade piece of entertainment starring action man Jeff Fahey in a plot that openly rips off UNDER SIEGE 2: DARK TERRITORY, itself an obvious DIE HARD clone relocated to a train. HIJACK copies that film's plot and even some scenes directly, like Fahey getting thrown off the train halfway through and having to find his way back on board. This time around the terrorist goons are after a senator on board the train and Fahey is the only guy to stop them.It's not a bad film per se, just one that's constrained by deficiencies of budget and a lack of creativity and imagination. The performances are typically wooden despite the appearance of a few familiar faces and Fahey looks good but doesn't deliver much in the way of charisma. The bad guys overact a bit but have zero presence. The action doesn't contain any skilled martial arts, just a couple of brawls and death by knife. Everything else looks cheap and derivative. Cast-wise, we get turns from '80s action star Brent Huff as the baddie, old time Frank McRae in support, and the great Ernie Hudson as the senator (and even his kid shows up). Patrick Kilpatrick plays almost exactly the same role as he did in UNDER SIEGE 2, while Robert Miano, star of the cult PHANTAMASGORIA video game, plays a SWAT leader. It's not very good, but B-movie fans might feel differently should they be in a forgiving mood.

**Some Spoilers** Being obsessed in capturing outlaw militia leader David Anderson, Brent Huff, ATF man Eddie Lyman, Jeff Fahey, got himself suspended for overreacting, to say the least, in a raid on Anderson's secret hide out.It's when Eddie's girlfriend Valerie Miller (Beth Toussaint), as his press secretary, went on a train trip taking anti-gun campaigning Seanator Douglas Wilson, Eddie Hudson, down to Southern California that he, having nothing better to do, decided to tag along. Wilson plans to plead his case to the American public for unrestricted Federal gun-control laws in the congress which he hopes to get passed. It also so happens that Anderson has plans for the Senator and his staff that call for not only the use of guns, in all shapes sizes, but also the use of a suitcase nuclear bomb to blow up a good part of the Golden State!The action, when it finally starts, is fast and furious with Eddie taking on not only Anderson and his gang of militia men but his own ATF who are anything but happy with him being on the train, and unauthorized at that, and jeopardizing all those aboard including Senator Wilson. Despite Anderson and Co. being the bad guys in the movie he at least had an excuse for not liking federal enforcement agencies like the ATF in that they were responsible for the death, in a wild shoot out, of both his wife and young daughter. It was also ironic that Senator Wilson who's so fanatically anti-gun also had his wife and daughter gunned down, like Anderson, in a drive by shooting but had the exact opposite opinion on firearms that Anderson had! That was until the opportunity presented itself for Senator Wilson to get his hands on an assault weapon and then start blasting away!As the movie went on it became very obvious to everyone, but the militia men, that Anderson was insane with some kind of a death wish and was not only planning to murder his hostages but himself and his gang of terrorists as well! This had Anderson knock off more of his fellow militia men, who didn't have a clue in what he was planning for them, then even Eddie and the ATF did!By the numbers thriller with really no surprises to offer it's audience but lots of mindless shootouts and explosions as well as a major train wreck. The only surprises in the movie was the nuclear bomb that Anderson planned to detonate on board the runaway train. Being the size of a can of aerosol hairspray I wondered if it, when activated, could have even blown up doll house much less a major town or city. And what was even more ridicules about the so-called nuclear bomb is that it took nothing more then Valerie pulling out a single wire, or plug, to totally disarm the thing!

I found a lot to dislike about this movie. The characters are one-dimensional and unbelievable.Jeff Fahey plays an ATF agent who immediately gets into trouble with his commanding officer for being a head strong officer who refuses to play by the rules leading to his being relieved of his position. You know right from this beginning he will be the hero.The bad guys are a bunch of "right wing militia." The leader at one point explains, "Well, I don't care for the Federal government coming into our states and into our homes and taking away our freedoms bit by bit and taking away our right to bear arms. It's not the America God gave us. It's not the America I want to live in." This may very well be something a right wing militia member, intent on starting a revolution would say, but it is also something a libertarian, intent on following a principle of non-aggression -- one who believes in guns for defensive purposes only -- might say.The Senator's adviser played by Larry Manetti who is pegged early on as a weasel, pulls a classic weasel move, using a teenage girl as a human shield to protect him from the threat of gunfire.Most of the movie takes place on a train. Shockingly (not) there is a scene where Fahey walks on the top of the moving train.The nuclear bomb fits in a small briefcase. The smallest nukes known, with all peripherals needed are the size of a small refrigerator.All of this could have been excused a little if the movie had some sort of plot twist, excellent acting or memorable dialog.

A whistle stop campaign turned hijacking, this movie borrows a bit from Konchalovsky's "Runaway Train." It's a lean popcorn action thriller. Not a ton of character development, and the continuity between scenes is a bit uneven, but none-the-less it is a good example of the genre.