Warhead (1996)

The Worst Film Ever

How sad is this?

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

When the diabolical villain Kraft (Lara) takes over a missile silo and threatens to launch an ICBM at Washington, only one man can stop the madness: Jack Tannen (Zagarino), of course. He assembles a team which includes Jessica Evans (Giordano), an MIT-educated scientist. Kraft kidnapped her father and forces him to help him, so Jessica has her own reasons to go on the incredibly dangerous mission to take down Kraft and his army of no-good-niks. Will Jack and Jessica succeed? In the first part of Warhead, we can tell director Mark Roper, director of Queen's Messenger (2001) and Marines (2003), among other DTV action outings, was trying to ground his movie in serious, topical themes. Raw news footage of neo-Nazis and references to such events as Ruby Ridge and the Oklahoma City bombing make the viewer think Warhead is going to be a gritty, "ripped from the headlines"-type film. However, once the silly action scenes begin, and Zagarino and Lara show up, we know we're in for something else entirely.The stars (and possibly some of the same sets) of Armstrong (1998) reunite! Zagarino is sub-Lundgren once again, and the dark haired, dark-featured Lara cast as some kind of white supremacist is just odd. Lara's forced "quirkiness" falls flat. His "seriousness" is, well...not so serious. And if they were going to make his political views abhorrent, they should have done a better job. His positions on taxes seemed right to us. He's pretty ahead of his time, that Kraft.Sure, Armstrong wasn't the best movie in the world, but it had Richard Lynch. Elizabeth Giordano, who teams up with Zagarino all the time (including Deadly Reckoning, 1998), doesn't add much to the equation. Because Warhead is filled with the aforementioned silly action scenes, as well as goofy dialogue, and relentless clichés, we can honestly say this movie is stupidity at its most dumb.But it's important to remember: you absolutely know that going in. Whoever acts shocked that a Zagarino/Lara vehicle is dumb should probably have their head examined. If you're in the mood for something very dumb, Warhead fits the bill well, because for most of the movie, it's just stupidly funny and reasonably entertaining. To expect more - or something else - would be wrong.Somehow, even the Jetskis with missile launchers attached to them seemed too little too late. That being said, the stuntwork should be applauded, but Nu-Image is really hit or miss. They're not a powerhouse like PM.If you feel you might have too many brain cells, check out Warhead.For more action insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com

Here's a surprisingly nifty little flick featuring some excellently crafted stunt work and a few highly memorable action sequences.Direct to DVD action man Frank Zagarino headlines as the leader of an elite special forces group who's sent in to tackle a far right militia type faction led by bad guy Joe Lara. Trouble is Lara turns out to be a decidedly slippery bastard and manages to escape and later seizes control of a secret military base complete with a number of nuclear missiles......yep, ransom demands are predictably very much on the cards here.Although one quite understandably may scoff at this admittedly cliché ridden effort on paper, a number of very well executed sequences lift this way above the average mark, most notably an ambush atop a bridge in which Zagarino's entire squad are slaughtered in spectacular style.For fellow fans loving daft plot contrivances also, the ending in this will be sure to please......suffice to say a nuclear explosion ostensibly isn't much to worry about according to the makers of this.....To summarise; approach this in the correct frame of mind and it may well surprise you. Certainly, it's well worth a watch for B-movie fans.

Mark Roper's directing style often reminds me of John Woo and that's not a bad guy to emulate. Cool slow motion, stylized gun fights to a dramatic score. This movie also had the Woo like quick flashbacks and a slow-mo white bird, another Woo trademark. The actors here do a nice job. A lot of them appear throughout the fun Operation Delta Force films, also by Nu Image. Frank Zagarino will never be confused for Bruce Willis, but he does a fine job as the leader of a U.S. Special Forces unit. Mark Roper is definitely one of the best low budget action movie directors around, along with Issac Florentine. I hope Nu Image lets Roper do another one.

This film was absolutely awful. Being a programmer and a computer man, the thing that bothered me the most was the so-called access codes for the ICBM missle launch. I wish it were as easy as 'DESTINATION WASHINGTON' and 'DEACTIVATE WARHEAD'. I also liked how when Jessica (who's hair never was messed up in all the action) was greeted by a giant 'HELLO JESSICA' when she logged in.Here they all are sitting around the table in the Pentagon listening to the threatening messages from the terrorists and our hero decides to go in. They have 12 hours to comply. Yet, our hero, manages to assemble a team, equipment, transportation, and make it to the carribean in under 2 hours. I must admit that is quite a remarkable.The fight scenes were awful. I don't know what kind of martial arts experts they hired to correograph this thing, oh wait, they didn't hire any. The fight scenes were slow and predictable. Half the time the gun shots were a half a second before or after the flare from the gun, as well as the re-coil from the actors.This movie was terrible. I don't know why any of these people acted in this movie. Having done a bit of acting myself, I don't know how anyone could have read that script and been excited about it. I guess looking at the actors filmographies, we can see why they would have taken it.I give it a 2 of 10