Background: It's another Frank Zagarino banger here on the Depths. Zagarino is one of those actors that I can't help but keep coming back to. Sure, he's never going to win an Oscar. Hell, he's probably never made a movie that most people have heard of. That doesn't stop ol' Frank though. He always gives it his all and he doesn't care who see it. Which is good because no one does. Deadly Reckoning or The Company Man if you're IMDb also has Robert Vaughn in it for some reason. How far must the man from U.N.C.L.E. have fallen to star in a movie along side Frank Zagarino?
Behind the camera you have Art Camacho. He doesn't have a ton of directing credits, but what he does have is Fight Coordinator credits. That's never a bad sign for a cheesey action flick. A good fight can go a long way towards making a movie tolerable. Robert Preston Jr. wrote the movie and he's known for... let's see... Little Big Foot? That sorta rings a bell, maybe. Kid's movie, small sasquatch, I guess I might have heard of that. Who directed that? Art Camacho? The fight guy?
Plot: This movie sets the mark for its quality early on. It starts with a shadowy figure (Frank Zagarino, though I only know that because I've seen way too many of his movies) in a hallway, looking in doors, checking the place out, you know. Then starts firing at an empty doorway. Its empty because the guy that was supposed to be there missed his mark, after a shot or two he pops in and shoots back. One or both of them should have shot something, but they both miss. So Frank throws a grenade.
Turns out Frank is a CIA agent, code named Napoleon, and now he needs a new cover. Ten years later, he's Ernest Grey, bookstore owner. He's made a few new additions since we saw him last, glasses because he owns a bookstore, and his young daughter Jennifer. Her mom was killed in a car accident shortly after she was born. One afternoon, some local thugs shake him down for $50 and he just has to take it, he doesn't want his daughter hurt. His daughter, as it turns out, is a violin virtuoso, she's so good that she can take a real violin and make it sound uncannily like a cheap synthesized version of a violin. The next day at the shop, more thugs come around, but this time much more well armed. Then a terrible gunfight happens.
Frank goes to meet up with an old contact, Lewis and his old lover Marianna. Through Lewis, who's kind of a dick in a fun way, he learns that the murderous thugs were sent by his old boss, none other than Control 5. After this we learn about Frank's past with Marianna. They were lovers back when he used to be a spy, and she's hurt that he left so suddenly. They fight and cry for a little bit, but they make up with the worst sex scene in history. The gang (Frank, Lewis, Marianna and Jennifer) hides out in a large mansion for some reason which promptly gets invaded by more dudes with guns. The invaders wear all black, ski masks and all, even though it's broad daylight.
From about here on out, the plot gets just about as generic as possible. I could write about it, and you could read about it, hell you could even watch the movie if you want to, but it would just be a waste of your time and mine.
Why Was It Forgotten? Well, this was originally a Direct-to-Video release, so it had a hard life to begin with. Also, there are a lot of actors in this movie and just about all of them are truly terrible. Zagarino's daughter is a particularly bad case. Child actors are rarely the best actors, they're young, I get that. There's no excuse for her performance though. Even worse, she plays a constant, pivotal role in the movie, so you don't even get any reprieve from her. I'm not even criticizing the kid, I'm not a monster after all, I'm taking Art Camacho to task. A little coaching, maybe a second take here or there and her role might have been more tolerable.
Here's a fun game to play when watching crummy action movies like this one: Count how many bullets are fired between reloads. The shootout early in the bookstore is a few minutes long, and never once does anyone reload. It's amazing.
What Went Right? The few actors that actually do act, Zagarino and Vaughn are actually pretty good. Zagarino struggles on some more serious scenes, but when he has to crank it up a bit, he's a joy as always. Brian Genesse who plays Lewis is surprisingly fun as the good guy/dick, though he dies way too early. Vaughn, as you might expect revels in his villainous role.
It's a shame so much of the movie is so poorly made because there is a real story somewhere buried deep beneath the layers of thick, hot mediocrity. In the right hands, with a decent budget and just a minor shift in focus, it could have been a real movie.
Also, Art Camacho's pedigree does shine though. The gun fights might be boring as all hell, but the hand to hand combat, on the rare occasions it shows up is pretty neat.
Verdict: I'm still willing to watch more Frank Zagarino, but I'm not sure why anymore.
Score: 10%
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