Special Forces soldier Cuba Gooding Jr., still troubled by the death of his superior (Ray Winstone, absolutely wasted), leads a crew of badasses to an underground facility somewhere in the Middle East to locate missing scientist (archaeologist more like it) Ron Perlman. Valerie Cruz is his somewhat secretive daughter, who is responsible for hiring Gooding and his crew, which includes lesbian medic Taryn Manning, wimpy hacker Brandon Fobbs, smart-alec communications guy Zack Ward, as well as macho (and mucho hot) Stephanie Jacobsen and standard action man Jason London. It’s not long before the team realises some freaky stuff is going on here, with Henry Rollins playing a babbling priest with a serious case of acne, and Bill Moseley turning up as a zombified nutter. And before you can say ‘Zombies!- Run, you idiots!!!’, our team are splitting off, hallucinating and generally ending up dead.
OK I’m finally calling it: Cuba Gooding Jr. is the new Lou Gossett Jr. I guess that would make this horror/sci-fi hybrid from one Jason Connery (Sean’s kid), Cuba’s own “Aces: Iron Eagle III”. Or maybe his “Firewalker”. You decide, either way it sucks ever-so much, and wastes a lot of other talent too (Perlman, Jacobsen, Rollins, Moseley, and especially Ray Winstone). And Taryn Manning (AKA the new, sluttier Lori Petty- not a compliment!), Jason London (who nearly used to be somebody…or somebody’s twin brother), are here too. I just don’t get what has happened to Cuba. He went from Oscar winner (“Jerry Maguire”) to being the next latter day Eddie Murphy (“Daddy Day Camp”), to direct-to-DVD junk like this and “Hardwired”. Is he happy making schlock? I like good schlock, but this is pitiful.
The plot and characters are dull and clichéd, and two of the film’s best actors (Winstone and Perlman) are shockingly wasted, with Winstone in particular relegated to largely irrelevant flashbacks. You do get to see trashy Manning and mumble-mouthed Jacobsen lock lips briefly, though. Bill Moseley (Chop-Top from “Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2”), in addition to looking different in just about every movie (he’s under a lot of makeup here), is usually a bright spot in genre schlock. Not here, and the electronically-altered voice is certainly no help. Meanwhile, I’m glad that Gooding is playing the stoic hero, because Fobbs is practically mugging like Stepin Fetchit here in his awful role. The casting of Henry Rollins as a babbling priest is probably the funniest thing in ages (at least since Dolph Lundgren in “Johnny Mnemonic”, also starring Rollins). Rollins is fun in the role, but the least likely casting you’ll ever come across. Ward, however, plays the exact same smart-alec he always does, and does it capably as always. Fine casting there, I guess, as it’s all Ward seems to know how to play.
Acting isn’t really the issue here, everything else is. It’s a tired and clichéd genre effort, you’re typical situation where characters wander off on their own tricked into investigating an hallucination and meet their deaths one by one. And making the characters heavily armed military-types just adds even more to the lack of originality, bringing to mind “Aliens”, “Resident Evil”, and a whole slew of other films. It’s pretty gory at times, but not amazingly so, and none of it is remotely interesting. Meanwhile, was Jacobsen’s character interested in Manning or London? Make up your damn mind girl! The screenplay is by Keith Kjornes, who previously scripted something called “My Big Phat Hip Hop Family”. I have no idea what that is, nor do I wish to find out.
OVERALL SUMMARY
Overall a waste of time for all concerned. There’s nothing new or involving here, despite a lot of name actors. And skanky Taryn Manning. Sorry, but she just is.
