Tactical Force is a movie that only exists because Steve Austin and Michael Jai White wanted to blow their money on a high-tech game of Cops and Robbers. They wanted to run around with big guns, blow stuff up, and kick the crap out of bad guys. I want to believe that they were planning this big elaborate Cops and Robbers game, and one of their friends, who happens to be an aspiring action director, asked if he could show up and film it. Austin and White looked at each other and asked, “What about the plot? I mean, we're just chasing bad guys around a warehouse in the middle of nowhere.” The director told them not to worry about it, that he would work something out. The director then went home, watched a bunch of The A-Team, and wrote the screenplay in one night. This would explain the abundance of goofy action film tropes, cheesy one-liners, and the baffling (and unnecessary) plot twist that happens right before the credits roll.
Tactical Force follows a hostage rescue team led by Tate (Steve Austin) and Hunt (Michael Jai White) that gets sent back to training because their methods, while effective, cause expensive property damage. They are sent out to an abandoned warehouse to run drills for the day with the stern order not to cause any trouble. Unbeknownst to them, two rival crime bosses are at the warehouse trying to find a hidden briefcase with something extremely valuable inside. When the cops show up, the bad guys first turn on each other and then team up to take out Tate, Hunt, and the rest of their team.
Now, Tate and Hunt aren't normal cops that play by the rules. I mean, it's Stone Cold Steve Austin and Black Dynamite! If they are taking down bad guys in a supermarket, they will chuck steaks at the bad guys and discuss the qualities of different cuts of meat on the drive back to the police station. They will get all the hostages out alive, but the police chief will still yell at them for not following protocol. All this ground has been tread and re-tread countless times, but since Tactical Force doesn't take itself seriously in the slightest, I didn't mind the recycled tropes.
My biggest complaint about Tactical Force was the ending. This movie was set up as a straight-forward action movie, and the twist didn't fit with the rest of the movie. I felt like they got to filming the last scene of the movie and the director said, “Wait, wouldn't it be cool if we ended it this way instead?”and the cast and crew decided to run with it without thinking it through. Other than the ending, though, Tactical Force was a dumb action movie that kept its running time short and didn't irritate me like many of these straight-to-DVD fighting movies. It isn't a bad way to spend an evening, but don't by any means go out of your way to see it.
SPECIAL FEATURES
Special features on the Blu-ray release include a making-of featurette, a closer look at the fight sequences, and the trailer for the film.
"Tactical Force" is on sale August 9, 2011 and is rated R. Action. Directed by Adamo P Cultraro. Written by Adamo P. Cultraro. Starring Michael Jai White, Steve Austin.
