Gale Force

2002 "Don't mess with mother nature."
3.9| 1h36m| en
Details

Renegade L.A. detective Sam (Williams) takes a role as a cast member in a reality TV show where he leads a quartet trying to find ten million dollars in buried cash. But Jared (Dudikoff) secretly lands his violent militia on the island in an effort to slay the cast and steal the money. And Jared is successful: Thanks to a corrupt producer, the renegade mercenaries find the cache of cash and start off with it, but Sam and his intrepid, unarmed teammates interrupt them before they can depart. An explosion-filled chase across the island winds up with the good guys trapped by the heavily armed bad guys, and it looks like the game is over for the TV show survivors. However, Mother Nature, in the guises of a hurricane and tidal wave, has other ideas.

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Reviews

Jeanskynebu the audience applauded
Teringer An Exercise In Nonsense
Limerculer A waste of 90 minutes of my life
Sharkflei Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.
DigitalRevenantX7 Sam Garrett, an LAPD detective, is suspended from the force after claiming that a high-profile kidnap victim staged her own abduction in order to shake down her father for the ransom. But his captain gives him a chance to prove himself – all Sam has to do is to appear on a brand-new reality TV show called Treasure Hunt where he will earn a small fee & even a chance to win ten million dollars. Along with a group of contestants, Sam is dropped onto a deserted island for a week. But the host, who is facing a large debt, has hired a group of mercenaries to prevent them from winning. The mercenaries, led by ex-Navy SEAL Jared, decide to renege on the deal & kill the host & come after the players in order to keep their theft of the prize money secret. At the same time, a massive hurricane called Hurricane James is bearing down on the island, making escape all but impossible.I'd never thought I would see the day Jim Wynorski, one of the worst directors on the B-grade circuit, would make a decent film. Sure enough, Gale Force, a 2001 effort from the infamous hack, would prove to be a passable film despite the theft of footage from other films (the opening car chase has been lifted from Last Action Hero – look closely for a glimpse of Arnold Schwarzenegger driving the car – and the helicopter insertion is from Predator). The cynicism that populates the vast majority of Wynorski's films is also here but actually makes a favourable impression given it is mostly about actors griping about reality TV shows. Treat Williams, who had earlier starred in another Wynorski flick Crash Point Zero, makes for a good hero here & actually has some fun. Supporting him are such B-grade action legends as Tim "Jack Deth" Thomerson, Michael "American Ninja" Dudikoff & William Zabka. There were some small details that made me laugh – the hurricane is named after James Cook, the explorer who found Australia & who died on an island in the Pacific, where the film is set. On the minus side, there were traces of the spectacular lack of fact-checking that infests Wynorski's films – everything from the insane idea of hoods tossing sticks of dynamite at the hero's car during the chase; the idea of said car escaping a minigun attack from a few metres away by driving off a bridge & the idea that a reality TV show host would hire professional killers to help him escape the country by killing the players. A reasonably action-packed & funny film that is one of Wynorski's better films.
Rick Blaine Give credit to writer Steve Latshaw for some memorable quotes in this masterpiece. For example, try this one on for size:'It's our only chance!'Who said Shakespeare was the bard?This movie has been credited as being 'a good B movie'. Not even close. This movie is 'a bad Z movie'. It can't even make the end of the alphabet.This is truly painful. It must have been at least mildly unpleasant for everyone except the writer, the director, and the money - who probably thought they had a winner on their hands.Note the IMDb have no info on how much this blockbuster cost. Pocket change most likely.But couldn't they have at least paid more money for a good screenplay? Or is that against the rules too?Does a bad movie have to be bad through and through to really qualify as bad?And don't forget to check out the filming locations for a really good laugh.
Barry_Norman After reading the comments here I was fully expecting a bad film. This gave me the incentive to watch this film as a good cheesy romp can be entertaining. I wasn't let down.I agree with an earlier comment made that obviously people here have taken this film WAY too seriously, judging by their reviews. Think, how many disgruntled, suspended L.A detectives do you know get invited to appear on a T.V reality game show?The first 'controversial' scene with the car chase ripped from Last Action Hero was comical if anything else. It does seem a bit disjointed from the rest of the film but sets up the premise (an over-the-top one) of why our hero is off work and has nothing better to do other than to eat barely-cooked hot-dogs dipped in mustard and appear on Reality TV game show.After that were introduced to the rest of the contestants and the shady game show host. It appears he has plans about pocketing the cool $10 million prize for himself rather than the unwitting contestants. Again, what T.V company would bury $10 million in a treasure chest on a remote island?They get there, have a getting to know period where the dominant characters emerge to lead the two teams to the treasure. Of course Treat is one. They later find out that a team of 'pirates' will hunt them down to prevent them from getting the secret stash.Next day they set off with good intentions but eventually run into a band of men carrying large machine guns, and not paint-ball guns as they were led to believe, and run for their lives. Meanwhile a huge tropical storm is brewing.Basically then it turns into a cat-and-mouse type of affair but the cats aren't very proficient killers. An over-the-top sequence that resembles the nuke scene in Apocalypse Down, just to take down half a dozen straw huts is hilarious. I wouldn't say this was a particularly violent film. Just an implausible one. Like hiding in a beach cave while a huge 50 foot tsunami wave is just outside threatening to destroy the whole island. And what happened to the building at then end.You can't really go into this film expecting a masterpiece, just accept it for what it is, ridiculous, over-the-top hokum and you won't be disappointed. 6/10
Movie Nuttball This Treat Williams film was good but most of it is scenes from other films such as Predator and Last Action Hero.The original scenes are good but the film is just an entertaining action film.If you like Williams then I recommend you to see Deep Rising as I think it is his best film.