Bullet Points: Operation Black Ops
It is my genuine love of action movies that has kept me chugging along for almost 9 years now reviewing movies and writing features for Bulletproof Action. However every now and then a movie will come along that makes my creative outlet and my fun hobby feel more like work.
Watching 2023’s Operation Black Ops was one of those movies. And it wasn’t just work, it was painful and mind numbing work and watching is not something I would recommend anyone else to do…
- Red Flag: The movie starts off with some “battlefield” action, presumably from the past based on the uniforms. It looks like they were going for a World War II vibe, but it looked more like World War Poo or World War Number 2 or to be more blunt… it looked like shit. The soldier “CGI blowing up” when stepping on a landmine set the bar of what to expect FX wise in the film. It was also the first red flag that I should probably cease watching the movie, but I thought… it’s only 80 minutes, it should fly by.
- Familiar Territory: We are introduced to Tito Ortiz’s Noah as he is engaging in some underground fighting. Noah notices a familiar face from his past in the crowd, Georg Doerfflinger… We find out that Noah was once an enlisted man and that things didn’t end well for him. Georg has come to Noah with a mission that could prevent nuclear war… Noah’s immediate reaction is to reject the mission. Then Georg dangles some carrots that Noah can not resist… his record will be cleared and he’ll have a chance to get even with the man who ruined his life and who is now running a human trafficking ring and hanging out with a Neo-Nazi group called The 4th Reich and don’t forget the possibility of nuclear war.
- Getting the Band Back Together: Noah is now on board with the mission, but he can’t complete it on his own, he needs to get his team back together… the first guy he turns to his Schroder played by Mike Ferguson of Breakout and The Last Deal. Schroder is now a youth soccer coach and doing a bang up job with a 2-11 record and like Noah really has no interest at first, but he joins anyway… Noah and Schroder then track down Chicago (Cris Cyborg), who they don’t approach at first because she is too busy reading a notice posted on a building, however she eventually joins up… Then Noah and Schroder visit Eric. Eric has a beef with Noah because he slept with Eric’s mom, sister and ex-wife, but he joins anyway… Last but not least, Noah and Schroder visit the seemingly suicidal Parker, who instead of killing himself joins up with Noah and company… This teams leaves a lot to be desired. Any member of this team would make a good 4th or 5th wheel on a team led by and containing actual action movie veterans like a Michael Dudikoff, Daniel Bernhardt, Olivier Gruner, Don “The Dragon” Wilson or Gary Daniels. That’s the kind of talent you need to really make a direct-to-video version of The Expendables. Instead the team assembled for Operation Black Ops felt more like The Forgettables.
- Men (and a Woman) on a Mission: By the time “The Forgettables” go on their mission to prevent World War III, I found myself half paying attention and half scrolling through social media where interestingly enough I saw a post from Film Combat Syndicate about Operation Black Ops that read… “This movie was terrible… So terrible.”. They weren’t lying… I wish I would have seen that post sooner, it may have made me rethink my decision to give Operation Black Ops a watch.
When I review these lower budget films I always go in with tempered expectations and I do my best to focus more on the positives… but there were no positives of note to focus on in Operation Black Ops unless me being positive that this is the worst movie that I have watched all year counts?
Here’s a positive that you can focus on, some Bonus Bullet Points…
- One Question: I didn’t mention the Rachel character because I am unsure how to describe her. When we first see her she is being interrogated and clearly cutting the ropes behind her, although the bad guys don’t seem to notice. She does pop up later and it almost sounds like she could be a cyborg or perhaps her delivery was just robotic. My question is, if they wanted a female cyborg in the movie, why not just use Cris Cyborg??
- Worst Sound: There is a scene early on, prior to Noah reuniting with his team, where two bureaucratic sad sacks that are discussing the geopolitical impact of the pending mission, at least that’s what I think they were talking about… the audio quality in that scene was some of the worse I can recall hearing in any movie I have watched.
- Unsung Hero: During the warehouse fight scene where we are first introduced to the Noah character, one of the fight fans caught my air. He was standing alone, throwing air punches in his excitement which made it look more like he was dancing… it was like a combination of the fight fan from Fists of Iron and Jean-Claude Van Damme’s extra work in Breakin’. My apologies to both of those fine films and JCVD for mentioning them in this review.
