Striking Range (2006)

That was an excellent one.

So much average

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

The beginning of this movie was fashioned after a popular online video game. I don't play it so can't comment but the dialog does a good job with introducing the characters and how they view their jobs. And I like that final shot of the opening sequence where he shoots the bad guy in the heart but has to shoot through his bosses shoulder to get at it. I think it reveals another side of his character that would not have been evident in the movie otherwise.And in response to whether or not Tom Wrights ad lib should have been cut out? I liked it and thought it was a good addition.As for the rest of the movie? It would be my life's dream just to produce something half this good.

This is, without a doubt, one of Lou's worst film. "Red Water" was better than this. Just horrendous. Even Lou's acting was bad...and it is usually decent.I love Lou like the next guy, but I could not tolerate more than 40 minutes of this film - and that was the most tedious experience I have ever felt while dealing with a shoot 'em up flick. Ever.I can not in good faith recommend this film to anyone. I am sorry if the director reads this, or anyone involved with the project, but this movie was just bad.The worst, most inane, dialog of all time. Shifty and lame script that is all over the place. Bad acting, as well.Not a pleasant experience.

When his career began, Lou Diamond Phillips promised so much as an actor, that I have continued to see his films hoping that this promise would be fulfilled. But, while Phillips' acting is as good as ever, he has just made one bad film after another, so, until he or his agent learn what to look for in a script, I'm afraid "Striking Range" is the last time I'll be seeing Phillips for a while.This is an action film, and the actions scenes are OK. But the script really reeks. line by line the dialog is OK, but the story is a real mess. The idea of tossing a psycho-killer into the mix of a conflict between two mercenary groups might have seemed good on paper, but it's a bad strategy: psycho-killers have to be explained at some point in a film, because otherwise their motivations come off as silly. I know that sounds bizarre, but what I mean is that the explanation helps the audience suspend their disbelief in why anybody would want to kill people simply because they work at some office or attend some school or stopped at the wrong restaurant for dinner. This disbelief is essential to our sense of morality - it is why the violence of real psycho-killers, like the Columbine boys, is so horrifying and why we take such strong measures to counter it: we simply cannot believe anyone could be that vile.Since the writer of this film has left himself little time to develop the psycho-killer aspect of the plot, he has to resort to cheap tricks, stereotypes, and cliché to make the whole thing work somehow. The psycho-killer comes across as a parody.Meanwhile a plot twist seems to resolve the mercenary conflict - except that it doesn't, it's so wholly unprepared and obviously artificial. We want clues to this sort of thing, so we can look back on the film to say "I should have seen that coming," but we can't do this here, no one could have seen it coming, it doesn't make sense.And what is the thematic connection between the mercenary conflicts and the psycho-killer's? Even Sigmund Freud couldn't tell you; I don't think there is any.the writer here needs psychoanalysis for coming up with this hodgepodge, and Phillips needs it to try to figure out how he could throw away his mature career on such hooey.Four stars for the action scenes, the rest gets - blah!

What's the point of having a movie on DVD? It has to be entertaining enough to let you want to watch it more than just two or three times. Thanks to the amazing creativity and enthusiasm of Director Daniel Millican and the whole cast and crew Striking Range definitely has all the necessary ingredients: outstanding performances of Troy Baker, Glenn Morshower and Yancy Butler, Lou Diamond Phillips and Tom Wright managing it perfectly to pull the audience on their sides, an intriguing plot with surprising twists, long, thrilling sequences, fast-paced action, hard, fast and straight fight scenes, dry jokes, great video and soundtrack, a brilliant sound design and what I call "some ideas" aka something unusual, like in this case for instance all the cool high-quality F/X goodies, which I had never seen in a low-budget independent production before.When you start watching Striking Range, it will capture you within a few minutes and won't let you go until the closing credits start rolling. Striking Range is an excellent action thriller to enjoy together with friends, thankfully the DVD finally hit the stores ... and my player.