Dean Cain Week: Militia

Dean Cain Week starts off with a bang!  Actually, it's a film by Jim Wynorski, but that's close enough.  Oddly enough, Jim was just starting to really do soft-core 'Skinemax' material around this time- 2000- and is actually credited here as 'Jim Andrews.'  Yes, use your real name for the pseudo-porn and your fake one for the mainstream stuff!  Today's film is Militia, a movie featuring Cain and Jennifer Beals battling, well, an evil Militia.  Seems logical.  As you'll learn, there is one part about this movie that is, well, off.  To find out what that is and why I care about it more than the actual movie, read on...

Beals and Cain are part of a team working for the ATF.  This opening scene is tense, but ultimately pointless. It is just there to set up the fact that Militia groups think that the government is out to get them.  You're a bit late, given that WACO happened in 1993...

In the next scene, we jump cut to two years later and...what the hell?!?

This whole scene blatantly uses Stock Footage from Terminator 2: Judgement Day.  The best part- it totally mixes.  I mean, check out the building that they're entering...

...and then look at the building from the T:2 footage.  It's not much to ask that you just shoot in a building that is NOT covered in red bricks, is it?  I pass at least four of them on my way to work every day!

Add in some confusing Editing too, why don't you?  In T:2 footage, the Cops burst in the building through the Lobby.  Mind you, there are only two guys in the building with M16s.

Moments later, the villains sneak out...um, the back using the second elevator to have different entry doors than exit doors.  Oh yeah, their two, tiny bombs make this explosion.

Should I bother doing the rest of the film after this?  Nah.  The End.

Even if I did review the whole film, my opinion wouldn't change all that much.  Wynorski is a master of making cheesy, B-Movies.  Unfortunately, this film is just too dry for his flourish.  This is the guy who makes magic items that are actually just doorknobs (Deathstalker II).  This is a man who made a scene of a woman being killed by stock footage from Night of the Living Dead (976-Evil II).  This is the man that would later make Cleavagefield!  No, I never get tired of talking about how that movie exists.  My point is that he's best served when just going over-the-top and silly.  This film is not about that.  It's about drama and pointless action filler.  Cain goes face-to-face with a Militia Leader/Radio Show Host (not to be confused with Glenn Beck).  It's all about who's right and who's wrong.  Has the government gone too far?  Has the Militia group gone too far?  That's all well and good, but you're the guy who made Chopping Mall.  The film is not bad, but it's just not what you hope for when you watch a Jim Wynorski film.  Maybe that explain the pseudonym better.  Let's just agree that the film is kind of 'meh,' shall we?

Next up, Dean Cain gets trapped in a burning building full of C-List character actors.  Let's mix this more complicated, shall we?  Stay tuned...