A Terrorist- who's white, since this is pre-9/11- is planning something big- a mass Terrorist event.
Naturally, at least one Cop drives an old, '70s car so they can cheaply crash it.
A Colonel- Sam J. Jones- is put in charge of recruiting a team from the worst-of-the-worst of Military Prisoners.
A General- played by Joe Estevez- decides that the only way to stop the planned collaboration of Terrorists is a unique kind of Soldier- the criminal kind.
We just saw him be sad at the execution of a Soldier, so we know why he would agree.
In addition, we get a pair of Scenes- one early on and one before the 3rd Act- that give us the following...
He recruits a wide-range of Prisoners, filling all of the quota of minorities- not that there's anything wrong with that.
Notable among the group is Rory Gracie (of the famous MMA Family) and...Ludvig Borga (aka Thor the Viking).
Who else has Action Star (never as a Lead, mind you), Pro Wrestler, Boxer and Politician on their Resume?
Now here we get to the problem of the Film- the Pacing.
After setting up a threat and establishing a team, they spend a solid HOUR on showing them 'gelling' together, with only occasional reminder of the bad guy existing.
They train. They banter.
The best part though- the Colonel calls in his friend...Cynthia Rothrock (yes, she plays herself) to help train the team in Hand-to-Hand Combat. Movie has time for this!
Taking a page (10 years before the Film) from Anapolis, they also make sure to have a Boxing/Fighting Competition against some other Soldiers.
While fun, Movie *still* has time for this.
- T&A Shots of Strippers
- 'Ogre' as the Colonel's friend who offers to help (and does in the finale)
- The Colonel's ex-wife, who, I guess runs the place. She's here to lay exposition and then add pathos in case the Colonel dies.
With just under 20 minutes left, the team-and Ogre, plus a Biker- raid the ship in a so-so shootout.
We get a pair of them dying (to add stakes, I guess) and a bit where the Colonel confronts his former Soldier-turned-Terrorist before a cheap-looking CG explosion ends the Film.
It was never going to be great, but it definitely could have been better. I had fun watching the Film- don't get me wrong. The Action is good. The Writing is decent. The Acting is fine, but not great. It doesn't look too cheap. The problem is just the focus. This feels more like the 90-minute Pilot to a Show called American Tigers. We need all that set-up to be invested in their future stories. It would make sense to prioritize them over the Plot in that case. Sadly, this is *not* the Pilot to a Show- it is a one-and-done Film (AFAIK). It is just such a waste of time to commit so fully to this idea that we need them to be a team and THEN do the Plot stuff in the last 20 minutes. Why not have them form, show some friction and then bond on the mission? Maybe they get captured and break out, forming a tighter bond. Do we need them fighting the other Soldiers as some sort of test? No. Keep the Rothrock stuff- as distracting as her playing herself is- though, it was fun enough. It is just a matter of priorities. By the time they finally reach the climax, it is just hard to be invested in this bad guy who gets like 5 minutes of screen time. American Tigers is a decent, but flawed Action Film. It could have been better with some rewrites and re-focusing on the Plot. Here's a weird thing to leave you with- my digital copy of the Film has an alternate Title- see below- that was clearly added much later. Said Title is apparently the one used by the *German* DVD, but my copy has no German Sub or Dub Track. Odd...
A pretty fun, if meandering Action Film. While it is not light on Action per se, it is light on Action where actual stakes are involved.
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