Search - Military Special Operations: Terminal Countdown/Black Ops on DVD

Just Simply Stupid

Christopher J. Martin | Alexandria, VA | 05/10/2009

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Blackops, a thriller with a no-name cast is perhaps one of the stupidest movies I've ever seen.



The premise is that a re-commissioned ship from World War II being used off the coast of Iraq for "black ops" or completely off the books, interrogations, looses contact with U.S. military forces. A U.S. Marine task force along with two "scientists" are sent to investigate the cause. When they arrive, they find nearly everyone on the ship dead. The cause? A terrorist named Fadawi, or is it?



What at the outset seems like a run of the mill average post-9/11 movie about terrorism and Iraq turns into a supernatural horror film focusing on fictional experiments done by the Nazis during World War II. There is a supernatural entity aboard the ship, created by the Nazis. One that the U.S. government wants to "capture" and use for their own anti-terrorism purposes. Of course, in post-Iraq invasion Hollywood, the U.S. government has to be portrayed as sinister and sending their soldiers to die in a mission they didn't inform them of the details, and will use their deaths to justify another invasion in the Middle East.



At an hour and a half, this movie might be ok if a horror fan is really bored, and if you're predisposed to hate the U.S. government and U.S. military. But otherwise I just can't recommend it. Too many plot elements are haphazardly explained, or just happen and the explanation is left out entirely. The movie also seems to live on gore, as the majority of the killings, and the entire first quarter of the movie when the Marines are sweeping the ship looking for survivors, is absolutely needlessly bloody.



The back of the DVD case does not mention this movie has anything to do with the supernatural or that it's, essentially, a horror film. If it had, I would have skipped it entirely.



In short, this movie is just awful."

Black Hole

Sammy | Washington, DC | 12/21/2009

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Okay. I am not sure what this was about. I do, however, take exception to the first review. Lance Henriksen is not quite a "no-name" actor, having been in the casts of Dog Day Afternoon, Aliens, and The Terminator. That said, his imdb resume should be a clue that the "supernatural" might be involved.



The problem with this flick is that it doesn't know it's audience: scifi, horror, war, supernatural? It tries to appeal to many and ends appealing to few. Standard crew, including the token female, runs around the ship and each is killed/disposed of in the usual fashion.



This is a movie you watch w/friends in order to laugh at how much they got wrong (or, to take a drink everytime they do something we've seen a million times before).



Don't buy it, don't rent it, wait for it to come on cable and if you have a little time to waste, it won't kill you to watch this...then again, it adds nothing to any of the canons it tries so hard to emulate.





"

Poor

A. Brashears | USA | 05/24/2008

(1 out of 5 stars)

"The synopsis said Marines were sent in when actually it was SEALS. During a tense moment one SEAL tells another to "get a grip, soldier" No Navy seaman would dare call another one "soldier".

The plot was weak. The story was silly and the sound was so low I couldn't make out some of the dialog. The main character was too old to be a SEAL and too disorganized.

On the whole this movie was a major disappointment."