The Coolest Team In South Beach Is About To Turn Up The Heat
Starring: William Forsythe, Daniel Bernhardt, Amaury Nolasco, Erika Eleniak, Matthias Hues, Andrew Divoff, Burt Reynolds
Director: Mike Kirton
2003 | 95 Minutes | Rated R
“Merry Christmas and get the fuck out of my house!” – Simon
Strike Force is a movie I stumbled on while flipping through Netflix looking for more Daniel Bernhardt movies. To find out it also had the great Matthias Hues, Amaury Nolasco of Prison Break fame and Andrew Divoff who had a short stint on Lost (another of my favorite shows) plus a host of other stars had me quite surprised considering I had never heard a peep about it.
Mercenaries Simon (William Forsythe), Toshko (Daniel Bernhardt) and G-Man (Amaury Nolasco), collectively known as The Librarians, are hired to find the missing granddaughter of one of their closest friends. A Miami mobster, Marcos (Andrew Divoff) and his thugs, The Techno Boys, are in the business of underground fighting and white slavery. It is in this world that The Librarians will find the secret to the girl’s whereabouts.
Strike Force is also known in some circles as The Librarians. Apparently it was decided that a name like Strike Force would sell better than a movie about librarians. I can’t say I disagree with that sentiment but Strike Force certainly isn’t original and it doesn’t seem like this movie sold much as it was. They might as well have called it The Librarians.
William Forsythe, the leader of The Librarians, sounds like he’s doing his best Detective Friday from Dragnet impression. Every word he and every other member of the cast spits is over acted to perfection.
The action in Strike Force really isn’t anything to write home about. There are basically three action scenes. The opening is pretty dumb. Then there is a poorly filmed, poorly planned underground fight between Matthias Hues and Daniel Bernhardt. It’s unfortunate, these two probably could have put on a real show. Then a little later is the big finale where Erika Eleniak’s undercover cop / stripper / underground fighter joins The Librarians in a battle in which many shots are fired but few ever connect. This is definitely the best scene of the entire movie even if it defies all logic.
The big flaw with Strike Force, aside from the lack of quality action, is that there aren’t a ton of really great laugh out loud moments. If the action isn’t going to deliver in over the top spades in a movie like this then it had better dole out the laughs and Strike Force misses the mark a bit.
I think that this was meant to be a parody of B-action movies. I’m about 90% sure this was done on purpose but I can’t completely rule out the possibility that the director completely missed his mark on making an awesome action shoot ‘em up. Viewed in the parody mindset, Strike Force can be a lot of fun. I bet with the right chilled beverages it would make for a great Friday night in with friends. And the older I get, the better a Friday night in sounds.
Action Movie Fanatix 