Bullet Points: Black Sea Raid
Daniel Bernhardt has one seriously lopsided action movie filmography.
For every great movie Daniel did like Bloodsport II, he had numerous nearly unwatchable movies like Supreme Champion and Bloodsport: The Dark Kumite to his credit. For every underrated gem like True Vengeance, Daniel also had some ho-hum movies like Mortal Conquest and the subject of this review… 2000’s Black Sea Raid.
- Nuclear Reaction: Our movie begins in Russia, years after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Nuclear physicist Natalya is at a Russian military base to supervise the dismantling of the remnants of Russia’s nuclear missile arsenal from The Cold War days. The speed in which the dismantling is being reported raises a red flag for Natalya who suspects things may not be exactly as they are being reported… her suspicions are justified when she sees a fully functioning nuclear missile in the back of a truck scheduled to leave the base. Natalya reaches out to her ex-husband and former member of the Soviet Special Forces, Ivan. Ivan then gets Natalya in touch with one of his old commanding officer, who assures Natalya and Ivan he can help… but it turns out to be a double cross. The double cross does lead to our first bit of action with a car chase that includes various vehicles going down steps, but ultimately Natalya is abducted and imprisoned in an old mental institution to keep her quiet about what is surely a lucrative arms deal for someone in the Russian military.
- The Unrelenting Power: Our hero, CIA agent Rick (Daniel Bernhardt) just so happens to be in Moscow when all this Natalya stuff is going down. A leather jacket wearing Rick, posing as a journalist, manages to get access to some Chechen rebels who are holding a female CIA agent hostage. Rick offers to tape their demands so the world can hear their message… when it is all said and done, Rick neutralizes the rebels and saves his female co-worker in the process. Rick’s old comrade Ivan (the two worked joint missions together in Afghanistan) catches up with Rick before he heads back to the United States. Ivan gives Rick the recap on what happened to Natalya and asks for Rick’s help… Rick tells him he’ll talk to his superiors and see what can be done. Moments later some guys show up and they attack Rick and Ivan… Ivan ends up dead and Rick has a little extra motivation to make the Natalya rescue/nuke recovery mission a reality.
- Putting the Band Back Together: After Rick gets the unofficial green light from his boss, he decides to track down some of his old special forces buddies to go on the rescue and recovery mission with him. First he finds Billy (Steve Parrish, Scanners III: The Takeover). Billy and his younger brother Joey are running a hustle in one of the many underground fight circuits in Los Angeles. Billy, who has no interest in ever having a real job, jumps at the chance to go on another mission with Rick especially if he is getting paid. Billy even pushes for his inexperienced brother/martial artist Joey to go on the mission too… Next up, Rick travels to New York City where he tracks down another former teammate, Neal The Wheel (Dennis LaValle, Bloodsport: The Dark Kumite). Neal is now a car thief and at first seems completely uninterested in joining Rick on a mission that will bring him less money and more danger… but then Neal finds out one of the cars he stole belonged to a powerful drug kingpin and decides it might be for the best if he left town for a while.
- All About the Benjamins: The team makes their way to Moscow, but now they are going to need an arsenal… and that’s where Leonid comes in. For a price, Leonid can get Rick and his team whatever they want… and when they realize they need someone who can speak Russian to get them inside the Mental Institution, Leonid even offers to come out of retirement and help the guys… if the price is right. With all the pieces of the puzzle now in place… it is finally time for some rescue and recovery. After all the build up, it felt like the rescuing of Natalya happened in the blink of an eye. I knew the runtime of the movie was relatively short (82 minutes to be exact), but the rescue seemed to happen extremely fast, but wait… THERE’S MORE! The team still has to track down the missing nuke and once they get the nuke, things end up becoming more complicated.
Black Sea Raid felt like an action movie that was going through the motions. It was completely uninspired. If you are a fan of Daniel Bernhardt, you’ll probably want to give this a watch, but it will also shine a light on another lopsided aspect of Daniel’s career… Daniel rarely gets the support he needs. As a supporting player, Daniel made movies like John Wick and The Matrix Reloaded better, but then he gets a starring role in a movie like Black Sea Raid and he’s got a lackluster supporting cast. It just doesn’t seem fair…
Bonus Bullet Points are always ready to support a review on this site, even for movies like Black Sea Raid…
- The Name Game: Black Sea Raid is also known as Special Forces. This should not be confused with the 2003 version of Special Forces that was directed by Isaac Florentine and starred Tim Abell, Marshall R. Teague and Scott Adkins or the 2011 version of Special Forces that starred Djimon Hounsou.
- Favorite Quote: “I told you I can do the cow shit.” – Leonid
- Cannon Fodder: Christopher Pearce, who was a long time producer for the Cannon Group, wrote the script for Special Forces. His one other writing credit was American Cyborg: Steel Warrior.
- Composed By: The music for Black Sea Raid was composed by Terry Plumeri, who also composed for such films as Death Wish V: The Face of Death, Storm Trooper, Black Eagle and Soldier Boyz.
