Bullet Points: U.S. Seals
When it comes to the world of Nu Image, one movie stands head and shoulders above the rest for me… 2001’s U.S. Seals II.
This past August when we celebrated Bulletproof Action’s 9th Anniversary with a countdown of the best Nu Image films, I was happy to see that others shared in my love for the Isaac Florentine directed film.
For years I have been curious about the other U.S. Seals movies that Nu Image released, but I think my love for U.S Seals II actually prevented me from checking them out. I had a strong feeling that the others were going to be nothing like the second installment franchise, both action wise and star power wise. But my curiosity (and the never ending need for site content) got the better of me and I finally checked out 2000’s U.S. Seals…
- Wait for the Beep: Mike Bradley (Jim Fitzpatrick) and his wife Melissa are hosting a barbecue at their home in the San Francisco Bay Area for friends and family (most notably Mike’s SEAL team buddies). Mike’s team find themselves playing basketball with Mike’s young son Tyler, hitting on women, consuming potato salad and processing Mike’s big announcement… at the end of the year Mike is going to leave his SEAL days behind him and take a C.O. spot that will keep him at home with Melissa and Tyler. But it’s not the end of the year yet and Mike is reminded of that when his beeper goes off and he sees that Admiral Patterson needs to speak to him.
- Pirates: Mike and his team are set to shut down an oil rig off the coast of Bulgaria, that has become a base of operations for pirates that have hijacked more than a dozen ships, stolen their cargo and killed off their crews. Knowing this is only a small part of a much larger operation, Mike has been instructed to bring back or prisoner or two so they can get more information. Mike and the team are able to secure the oil rig, they to do take a prisoner, but they also lose a member of the team in the process… rest in power Gepson, we hardly knew you. Literally, we hardly knew you. But there was another casualty on that oil rig that will set up the movie’s inciting incident.
- You Border on the Adriatic: Now that we’ve got to spend some time with our heroes, the movie cuts to Albania where Cane Whitlock (J. Kenneth Campbell, Turbulence) is hosting a party on his estate. We meet Whitlock’s right hand man Foster Byrd (Velizar Binev, Target of Opportunity) and a woman who seems to be the apple of Whitlock’s eye (and also the movie’s wildcard) Lucia. The festivities are interrupted when Byrd has to inform Whitlock of the attack on the oil rig and that his brother, who was overseeing the operation was killed during the attack…this sets off Whitlock!
- This Time It’s Personal: Whitlock finds out where Mike Bradley lives and as a result Melissa Bradley is killed via car bomb and young Tyler is hospitalized. This incident gets the Feds involved but something like that is not going to top Mike and his SEAL team from trying to track down and take down Cane Whitlock on their own. That would signify that business is about to pick up and it does.. we get trains and tanks and boats and things blowing up… still I don’t think I have ever cared less if a “hero” got his revenge or not as I did watching U.S. Seals.
U.S. Seals was exactly the movie I expected it to be. The stand out performance was J. Kenneth Campbell’s Cane Whitlock (or Rusty Blaise for those in the know), that is faint praise however and he was not a strong enough villain for me to care about Mike Bradley and his team. I hate to say it, but had the entire oil rig operation at the start of the movie failed and Mike Bradley and his team all perished opening the door for the real heroes of the movie led by an actual action star that I recognized, I think I would have enjoyed this movie much, much more. That big twist would have prevented U.S. Seals from being the forgettable action movie it actually was.
Don’t you forget to read these Bonus Bullet Points…
- Award Winning: If U.S. Seals did not win some sort of award for most generic cover art, it should have. The fact that they recycled the very generic cover (depicted above) for the much more over the top U.S. Seals II is mind boggling.
- Directed By: U.S. Seals was directed by Yossi Wein. Lethal Ninja, Never Say Die and Operation Delta Force 2: Mayday were among Wein’s other directorial efforts.
- Best Quote: “I’ll tear off your jaw and shit down your windpipe!” – Cane Whitlock
