Search - Face of Terror on DVD

Not too good, but not COMPLETELY horrible

Todd Rennells | Mesa, AZ United States | 05/05/2005

(2 out of 5 stars)

"In this passable action flick, a Los Angeles detective goes to Barcelona to find his sister, a model there whom he has not heard from in some time. His search for her brings him face to face with terrorists and arms merchants.



The main draw here will be the cast. Rick Schroder stars as the detective, Nick Harper. His performance is unremarkable, and the character isn't well-developed. Eric Balfour, as terrorist Saleem Haddad, tries a little harder and manages at least a little menace. Kadeem Hardison (of television's "A Different World") plays Harper's partner back in L.A., but he doesn't do much besides talk on the phone. And Dean Haglund, known to X-Files fans as Langly of the Lone Gunmen, shows up as a "sleazy photographer."



The real gem, at least for me (and most other males, I would think) is Marta Nieto, who plays Lola, another model mixed up in the craziness. It's a minor role but Nieto is simply gorgeous. It doesn't hurt that she (as Lola) is occasionally allowed to show actual emotional depth, rather than being just a one-dimensional sexpot.



There's little else worth commenting on. The story is serviceable but the dialogue is pretty bad. The movie was filmed in Barcelona, and the director wisely shot most of the scenes in the daylight, so there's some great scenery. Some of the action scenes are fair.



The main problem with the movie is that it's not good enough to really enjoy but not bad enough to laugh at. Unless you're a huge fan of Schroder or Hardison, or you want to check out Marta Nieto (who's certainly worth checking out), you'll probably want to ignore this."