Shakedown
USA (2002): Action
Produced by: New Concorde International
Screening: February 22, 2002
Review by Sam Ragnarsson
Elman Rating: 2 stars out of 4
90 min, Rated R for violence and language, Color, Budget: $250 thousand
Director: Brian Katkin
Cast:
Wolf Larson (as Mac), Erika Eleniak (as Julie), Ron Perlman (as St. Joy), Fred Dryer (as General Wolf), Ray Laska (as Agent Greenwood), Morocco Omari (as Tony B), Matt Westmore (as Agent Lee), Brandon Karrer (as Scotty), Maurice Irvin (as J), Robert Arce (as Siebert), Deborah Shelton (as Agent Neal), Sam Scarber (as Agent Taylor), Hugh Hodgin (as Crozier), Charmaine Cruz (as Ms. Grant), Rachel Balzer
Review:
Shakedown has all the characteristics of poorly made B-Movie, with a script which seems to have been made up as they went a long, lousy one-liners, which didn't serve the plot, and horrible filming. The only thing good about this film is Ron Perlman, which seems to be incapable of producing bad work. Erika Eleniak is always nice, though sadly she keeps her clothes on completely in this film. The story line is something along the lines of; a cult, headed by Ron's character, is trying to spread a deadly virus, which will kill everyone it gets to instantly. The showdown (which takes over the whole movie) is that the good guys and the bad guys get all stuck in a high story building after an earthquake, shooting and beating up one another. What irritated me the most was the constant shooting, where the bad guys would be shooting at the heroes, but never hitting anything, even when they are standing 1 meter in front of him with automatic gun. Each scene is also drawn out, in an effort to get the movie to a regular length. This could have been a much better movie, but ends up being boring, not in the least funny, and not at all exciting. Unless you like B-movies with lots of pointless shooting, and no conversation with more then couple of lines, then you should stay away from this one.
