Check Out the Trailer

This interesting thriller presents an intriguing premise. Government agents, lead by Lipton (Cliff De Young, GLORY) and Col. Mason (Mason Adams, UNDER SIEGE), hire special effects wizard Rollie Tyler (Bryan Brown, COCKTAIL) to help them fake the murder of gang informant Nicholas DeFranco (Jerry Orbach, TV’s LAW & ORDER). But as in cases like this who can be trusted is questionable.

Aiding Rollie is his actress girlfriend Ellen (Diane Venora, HEAT) and f/x assistant Andy (Martha Gehman, THE LEGEND OF BILLY JEAN). Once things get really hairy, detective Leo McCarthy (Brian Dennehy, COCOON) is assigned to the case and smells something funky.

The set-up is great and the plot provides a bunch of nice twists. Unlike a lot of thrillers and action films, the main characters have realistic skills and use them to save their lives. The action seems to actually be building one event at a time without a predestined plot driving the story direction.

Acting isn’t the main point of the film, but Dennehy is fun as the grizzled veteran cop. The f/x theme is really fun when the magic of cinema isn’t hidden but used front and center for our amusement. It would have been nice to have a more layered central character, because Rollie Tyler isn’t a character that you remember. But as a solid action thriller that keeps you engaged and guessing from start to finish, the film works very well.