Legendary in its own way, forever screening on video and hotel TVs, mocked in Clerks, killed Lewis Teague's feature career, and Michael Biehn's attempt at stardom. Also helped kill Orion. A chaotic production, surprisingly so for what one would assume was a simple shoot em up. But it's a mess, full of plots and different films - a training film, a more authentic style movie, a boorish service comedy, (bein' hungover, playin' golf) clash between two heroes (uptight Biehn and more casual, way out Charlie Sheen), a hugely unrealistic plot where Biehn tries to get information out of journalist Joanne Whalley, endless missions, endless Arab bashing, a hackneyed funeral
Whalley has bad perm, Biehn's hair is bad too, there's always movement but no sense of momentum. Weird gear shifts - over the top melodrama when Dennis Haysbert is killed for instance, then it goes investigation with Biehen doing research on terrorists via Whalley (because "intelligence aren't doing their jobs" - it felt wrong, wrong, wrong, then there's hyuck hyuck military comedy, then strained drama about Charlie Sheen fitting in.
Teague really struggled as a director without a set script. I was disappointed to read of his behavious in Brenda Feigen's book - she accuses him of changing the script with his writer, yelling at her, losing control of the film, refusing to let her go on location (I think he did lose control of the film, Charlie Sheen and Michael Biehn said they rewrote the film).
Watching his career he was better with a low budget and a good writer and a script that wasn't changed a lot.
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