Movie special effects man Roland Tyler (Bryan Brown) is hired by two Justice Dept agents (Cliff DeYoung and Mason Adams) to fake the killing of a mobster (Jerry Orbach!) who's in the Witness Protection Program. He agrees but the mobster is actually killed by mistake. Soon Roland has the FBI AND the NY police led by Lt. Leo McCarthy (Brian Dennehy) on his tail...but he has plenty of special effects (F/X) tricks to fool them.
If you stop to think about this for one moment the plot has HUGE loopholes and some of the F/X Roland pulls off could never happen in real life...but the movie is SO entertaining you won't care! It moves quickly with a particularly vicious fight scene and a long exciting car chase thrown in. The F/X Roland uses to fight back are a lot of fun if totally implausible. The acting is (with one exception) very good. Bryan is handsome, muscular and lots of fun in his role. His Australian accent somehow helps. Dennehy plays his umpteenth cop role but he's still very good and lots of fun. DeYoung and Adams are great as the slimy villains and Orbach plays a role you've never seen him playing before--a villain! The only debit--Martha Gehman as Roland's assistant. The woman is a TERRIBLE actress and basically shrieks all her lines. Still this is a fun, quick little thriller well worth catching. I give it an 8.
If you stop to think about this for one moment the plot has HUGE loopholes and some of the F/X Roland pulls off could never happen in real life...but the movie is SO entertaining you won't care! It moves quickly with a particularly vicious fight scene and a long exciting car chase thrown in. The F/X Roland uses to fight back are a lot of fun if totally implausible. The acting is (with one exception) very good. Bryan is handsome, muscular and lots of fun in his role. His Australian accent somehow helps. Dennehy plays his umpteenth cop role but he's still very good and lots of fun. DeYoung and Adams are great as the slimy villains and Orbach plays a role you've never seen him playing before--a villain! The only debit--Martha Gehman as Roland's assistant. The woman is a TERRIBLE actress and basically shrieks all her lines. Still this is a fun, quick little thriller well worth catching. I give it an 8.