Is it just me or is Steve Austin turning into THE action star of this generation? Whilst not exactly setting the world on fire at the cinemas (with The exception of stuff like The Expendables and The Longest Yard), he has been making consistently good action films ever since he stopped wrestling. And for some reason, and it was never intentional, I own all of them (yet to watch The Stranger, Damage or Knockout yet though.)
Yeah, not everyone may like stuff like The Condemned and Hunt To Kill, but I found them both to be fantastic little action films and great vehicles for the artist formerly known as 'Stone Cold'. Hell, he's even done a 'training a kid to fight' film in Knockout (or Born To Fight as it's known over here, review soon), but he's never stepped foot into Disney films, shoddy comedies or Uwe Boll films (Dwayne Johnson, Vin Diesel and Jason Statham I'm looking at you all respectively here.)
While the names above look and act the 'action hero' part most of the time (although I don't rate Diesel much), they have compromised their position with the sort of thing I mention above. Didn't work for Arnie, Sly, Bruce or Chuck, branching out, and the story remains the same still.
Tactical Force is the latest in quality (albeit low budget) action films that Austin is getting a real name for. He plays Tate, the captain of a SWAT team who are ordered to go on a training mission in a disused hangar after a brutal grocery store takedown. Unknown to the team, though, two rival gangs are having a large disagreement in the same hangar. Armed with nothing but blanks, and with no back-up, the team must battle their way out.
It's not the most original storyline, but I was hooked from the moment it started. Helpful, that was well as Austin the rest of his team contain familiar faces in Michael Jai White as Hunt, and Lexa Doig (Stargate) as Jannard. The team are immediately likable, and all the cheesy banter between them is totally plausible.
The film does feel like a Stargate reunion (not a fan personally), with Michael Shanks playing lead villain Demetrius, as well as cast members Steve Bacic and Adrian Holmes having also appeared in the show. UFC fighter Keith Jardine also features, and has quite the bruising brawl with Austin near the films end.
A problem I did have with the film, however, was the editing. Continual 'side swipes' with added sound effects were used throughout to change scene, and they did get quite annoying after a while. I guess I should be glad the films editors didn't find the 'star wipe' button.
Tactical Force, overall though, is a violent, fun blast which harkens back to the OTT days of 80s action movies, albeit on a much smaller budget. And as long as Steve Austin keeps making films like this - and his next two projects feature Danny Trejo and Dolph Lundgren - I'll be watching them.
***
While it never re-invents the wheel, Tactical Force is a high octane blast filled to the brim with cheesy one liners and some great action. Check it out.
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