The movie's premise is that by 2011, the USA economy has collapsed, crime and unemployment are rampant, and the UN now controls the country. With prisons overflowing, virtual reality gaming offers the public a needed diversion. Prisoners fight for their lives ("die in the game, die in life") in middle ages' jousting, viking raids, 17th century US/British fort battle, and jet fighters dog fighting scenarios. What little remains of the US army, have become rebels dedicated to freeing prisoners and destroying the gaming system. Not bad, sounds promising.
Unfortunately the dialog is poor which translates into mediocre acting. As for action, the gun play is comical; actors shoot wildly in various directions without ever aiming, and the act of poking their heads around corners and shooting alternates between good and bad guys. It seems like no one in the cast has ever held a firearm before. The sword play is not much better, with some obvious fatal thrusts under the armpits of the victims. At one point our heroes make their escape on a two seater ATV, which I would guess has a top speed of 20 mph, but that's all the speed they seem to need to, out run soldiers who are only a split second behind (and lack the marksmanship hit a target just in front of them) and zigzag between pursing tanks (which they blow up with dynamite sticks).
It gets worse. The sets are improvised and revolve around an abandon industrial warehouse. Prisoners in suspended animation sleep on a racking shelving system available at Walmart, the VR goggles are adorned with gold document stickers available at Staples, prisoners are moved about in a plastic dumpster (the type apartment buildings use for recyclables), surgical tubing is used for handcuffs, the knights helmets are obviously made of cardboard/plastic, and I could go on, but you get the idea.
To top things off amateurish titles and special effects that could be (and probably were) created on a PC, are dispersed throughout.
This flick does have a few redeeming scenes, to men at least. Topless nudity is featured prominently. Amy Lynn Baxter (formerly a Playboy playmate and a Penhouse pet) has an incredible set. Then there's the viking raid scene, where four women run around topless and get there tops ripped off (repeatedly in that order).
If you're thinking, hey I got a camcorder, a PC with simple video editing software, a few days to write a script, two dozen friends who can serve as crowds/soldiers/prisoners/commandos/indians/knights or whatever, some stock news footage that can be spliced in, cooperation from the local army reserve detachment, and maybe some government funding (to pay for Amy Lynn's topless scene). Then you've hit on the formula for this venture.
J. Christian Ingvordsen wrote, directed and stars (as the main villain) in this venture. It wouldn't surprise me if he claimed to be a reincarnated Edward D. Wood Jr. A+ for tenacity in getting this thing made. If you're a fan of low budget movies then this flick might be of some interest, but still does not have the appeal of Mr. Wood's cult classic turkeys. By the way the DVD previews other movies from Mr. Ingvordsen. Airboss (1.8 IMDb rating), Bog Creatures (2.5 IMDb rating), both distributed by mtiVideo, I don't intent to see either or visit the web site.
Why did I bother renting and watching this to the end? Good question. My gym offers free movies, to encourage members to return for another workout before $5/day late fee kicks in, and on that particular night little else was available. I watched it mostly thinking I could do better, and the topless scenes prolonged my attention as well. Maybe having free movies at the gym is not such a good idea. I need to find another gym before this happens again.
A 2 on 10, out of respect for getting this thing made some how. OK, OK, the rating is mostly for seeing Amy Lynn topless.
