Bullet Points: Act of War (1998)
The amount of Jack Scalia movies I saw before becoming a contributor here on BulletproofAction.com was exactly zero.
The amount of Jack Scalia movies I’ve seen since becoming a contributor on BulletproofAction.com is up to five now that I’ve watched 1998’s Act of War…
- What’s Going On?: There are a lot of moving pieces as Act of War begins. We see Jack Gracy (Jack Scalia, T-Force) packing a bag. Is Jack going on a trip? We see Jack packing up some books in boxes. Is he moving or does he have an eBay side hustle? We see Jack reading the paper where the headline has to do with the county of Bazrakhistan entering an era of democracy. We also see Jack getting dressed in a tuxedo (who takes a trip, moves or drops off eBay items at the post office in a tux?) And last but not least, Jack’s high tech briefcase sends out an alert that a nuclear missile silo in Bazrakhistan has been activated, which makes sense since in between the Jack clips we see Bazrakhistan’s Minister of Defense, Sergei Constantine and his troops take over the silo by force, much to the surprise of the soldiers that were assigned to the silo. Sergei then tells his men to get his shoes polished… he has a party to go to.
- Party Crashers: Now things are starting to come together. We find out that Jack Gracy has recently been relieved of his duties as head of security for the U.S. Ambassador to Bazrakhistan and is being sent home to the United States… but he needs to turn in his high tech briefcase and let Ambassador Pierce know about the missile silo and the Ambassador is attending a party celebrating Bazrakhistan’s independence… which explains why Jack was putting on his tux. Jack hails a cab driven by a cabbie with a great entrepreneurial spirit and a horrible singing voice. When Jack arrives at the Presidential Palace he is denied entry… but Jack is not the type of guy to take no for answer and after he gives the cabbie some more cash, the cabbie more than happy to crash right through the front door of the Presidential Palace! Maybe actions like this is why Jack Gracy is being sent home…
- Afternoon Delight: Ambassador Pierce is mortified and tells President Mirovich to send the bill to the U.S. Embassy. Jack then has a chance to speak to the Ambassador and President Mirovich to alert them to the missile silo going live… but ol’ Sergei Constantine (Douglas Arthurs, The Chronicles of Riddick) shuts it down and says he was there earlier and there’s nothing to be concerned with. Before Jack can be escorted to the airport, the President’s daughter, Katherina, has some business to discuss with him… and by business I mean she wants to screw him one last time before he returns to the States. With the farewell sex concluded, Katherina excuses herself so she can get back to her father’s party, while Jack relaxes in bed and basks in the afterglow.
- Coup Coup Ca Choo: Katherina gets back just in time to see the tail end of her father’s speech. President Mirovich then introduces Vice President Krutov. Krutov proceeds to drop a bombshell… him and Constantine are taking over. And like clockwork, Constantine’s troops make their presence known after infiltrating the Presidential Palace and taking out the security. The party guests are ushered into the mines below the palace and poor Ambassador Pierce is shot dead! Now all they need is the disc that will allow Constantine and Krutov the ability to launch a missile. To his credit, despite the beating he is receiving Mirovich does not spill the beans about the disc, but when Constantine threatens to kill Katherina, Mirovich has no choice but to divulge the location of the disc.
- Jacked Up Plans: The bad guys get the disc temporarily, but before the disc could be delivered to Constantine Jack Gracy becomes the fly in the ointment for this “Die Hard in a Presidential Palace” scenario and grabs the disc. This starts off a chain reaction of events.. including a bluff by Constantine that a nuke will target the United States if their demands are not met… the National Security Council giving the green light for a commando team to go in and reestablish the Mirovich regime… a couple of exploding helicopters… Jack’s replacement, George Wilmont, going all Hart Bochner and trying to cut a deal with Constantine (that does not end well) and the inevitable Jack vs. Constantine battle! No mystery on how this one turned out, my only concern was whether or not the cabbie would show up again.
Act of War was another in the seemingly endless line of Die Hard inspired films. Seriously, if you are an action star with any sort of longevity and you have not starred in a Die Hard clone, it has to be due to personal preference. I would not rank Act of War anywhere near the top of my Die Hard clones favorites due to the Scalia casting. I don’t think Jack Scalia was rough enough around the edges to pull off a John McClane role. Maybe it was the tuxedo or maybe they didn’t do enough to build him up as a renegade (aside from the party crashing). Whatever it was, Scalia in that spot felt a bit off to me.
Although the Scalia casting was not as off as the actual movement in the film. I am not sure if it was the copy I watched on Tubi or if something happened when this movie was transferred to digital or if Act of War was intentionally shot to make people think somebody screwed with the “action smoothing” setting on their TV before there was such a thing as “action smoothing” on TVs.
If you have your Bonus Bullet Points setting set to ON, keep reading…
- Directed By: Robert Lee was the director on Act of War. Lee also directed Crackerjack 2, The Silencer and Cyberjack (aka Virtual Assassin).
- Wall Street Quote: “Greed is good.” – Sergei Constantine
- Tagline: Some secrets are too explosive to keep!
