What Not To Watch: Freedom Strike
Michael Dudikoff is beloved at this site. He is held in the highest regard. In fact, fellow Bulletproof Action founder Chad Cruise idolizes Michael Dudikoff. So don’t be surprised if Chad asks me to leave the site after this edition of What Not To Watch is posted.
From the team that brought you Crash Dive, comes another military themed movie starring Michael Dudikoff… it is called Freedom Strike. And it proves to be a strike against Dudikoff’s filmography.
The major problem with Freedom Strike is the storytelling. There are two explanations for this in my opinion…
1) They had a bunch of footage of jet fighters landing and taking off of aircraft carriers and decided to write a story around it, instead of allowing the stock footage to enhance a story that was already written.
2) There were plans to make Freedom Strike a television series, but when there was no interest, they cut their losses and mashed together the 2 or 3 episodes they filmed into one movie. That would explain how the story seems to jump from the team completing a mission and losing a member in the process, to suddenly there’s going to be a “Arab World Peace Treaty” signing.
There’s also a very unentertaining subplot about a pompous old news anchor and the woman looking to take his job over at ZNN. And let’s not forget their door mat of a producer. The best part of the whole news anchor angle is when Amanda (who is listed as Linda in the credits?!) tries to schmooze Col. Rama into giving her an exclusive interview and he spits on her.
But one of my biggest problems with the movie was a scene prior to the peace treaty signing, where the Admiral explains they were going to have the signing out on the deck, with flags and decorations, but due to weather concerns they had to move the ceremony inside. Why even bring this up? The real reason it was being “moved inside” is there was no way they would be able to film that scene on actual aircraft carrier… this would be the equivalent of a scene where the Admiral thanks Tom Dickson (Michael Dudikoff’s character) for accepting his invitation, then mentioning the only reason Dickson was invited was because John Rambo turned him down. Why shine a spotlight on what you don’t have?
And every scene after the “weather concerns” scene features a bright blue sky.
The only positive of this movie is Michael Dudikoff. The final fight between Dickson/Rama is decent, but if you aren’t a die hard Dudikoff fan it is not worth your time getting there. In fact, the only people who should watch this movie are die hard fans of Michael Dudikoff, because if you can get through this one and still call yourself a fan than you are the real deal.
It is kind of like supporting a sports team, it is easy to do when they are having a winning season, a lot harder when they are losing every game and are a laughing stock.
Did I mention that Tone Loc is some sort of computer expert? Tone Loc may be an expert on the Funky Cold Medina, but I don’t believe for a second he has any sort of military intelligence. In order to erase my memory of Tone Loc in this movie, I think I’ll watch the video below on a loop…
