All Critics (24)
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Fresh (6)
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DVD (13)
Leaves behind almost as many derisive laughs as dead bodies.
Mr. Lundgren, who glowers his way all too convincingly through the role of a rabid bully, may well be the only man in the universe who can make Mr. Van Damme look like an actor.
Though the idea is dumb enough to be fun, director Roland Emmerich does the Terminator thing without much style, and the two stars bash into each other but never connect.
I suppose there is a market for this sort of thing among bubblebrained adolescents of all ages, but it takes a good chase scene indeed to rouse me from the lethargy induced by dozens and dozens of essentially similar sequences.
The action and the campiness barrel along in entertaining counterpoint. You can laugh when you're not absorbed with truck chases.
Perhaps Van Damme and Lundgren trade blows more easily than lines, but the whole affair is enjoyable in a mindless way.
With no real plot tying them together, the impressively staged big scenes become empty exercises in logistics, while the smaller scenes never develop any momentum.
It may be little more than an expensive arcade game for overgrown kids, but it moves too fast for critical flak to stick.
Mostly this is an amalgam of ideas, images and whole scenes lifted from other movies.
Roland Emmerich's best film, and Lundgren's best acting job. Admittedly that ain't saying much in either case, but a fun flick all in all.
In the end, the main drawback is the brainlessness of the story and the lack of a believable emotional payoff.
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