Memorial Day (1999)

Touches You

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

A rogue arm of the intelligence community creates a false terrorist group (Red Five) who do acts of destruction via a deadly orbiting satellite in order to get the government to increase military and security spending. They try to use a presidential candidate and an ex- soldier deemed insane as fall guys but things don't go to plan. Cue lots of stock situations, stock footage and stock music. One spent most of the movie thinking, where have I seen that bit of film or heard that bit of music before? Jeff Speakman is a bland leading man who is supported by an uninteresting cast apart from Bruce Weitz who makes a fine villain. Not much excitement here.

The film deals with Edward Downey (Jeff Speakman) , a government agent/ex-Marine imprisoned mental sanatorium where has strange dreams about his mentor (Bruce Weitz) . He's just been released from a mental ward by general Willard (Paul Mantee)and assign him to kill senator Lancaster(Frederick Coffin) and Presidency candidate . There's only one man you can count on when the final countdown begins. As an embittered satellite expert gets the opportunity for revenge against the USA by aiding terrorists in a plan to destroy the country's military base . A satellite called Eagle from 'Star wars project' is robbed by terrorist organization called 'Five Red' and formed by ex-KGB agents . The laser satellite launches a series of ray attacks on orbiting space station and US atomic underwater . Downey's needed to stop a terrorist band that's stolen the laser satellite . Meanwhile , he's helped by a beautiful journalist (Stephanie Niznik) .This routine-low budget movie contains suspense , action , thrills and cheesy effects specials . Routine , and low quality to the point of boring though some moment gets thrilling . The film is starred by Jeff Speakman . He's 6th degree black belt in American Kenpo Karate . Speakman is director of American Kenpo, an International Kenpo Karate organization with more of 50 schools . In the cinema his greatest success was 'Perfect weapon' but his career failed with C grade films (¨Hot Boyz¨, ¨Deadly outbreak¨) , like this one , becoming himself a failed star . Secondary cast is formed by usual B-movie actors such as Bruce Weitz , Frederick Coffin and Joe Stevez who holds an uncanny resemblance his brother Martin Sheen . The movie was middlingly directed by Worth Keeter . He's usually TV movies director (Power Rangers episodes) and occasionally cinema director , such as ¨Hijack¨ , ¨L.A Bounty¨ , ¨Trapper county war¨ and ¨Scorpio one¨ (again with Jeff Speakman and with similar plot and FX) . Rating : Below average , though displays some action but also boredom .

The previous user comment about this being an OK movie is quite bizarre... it's quite clearly a low budget, c-grade, made-for-TV quality movie -- if it was made for TV in the early 80's. The fight scenes are awful, and I can't imagine anyone, not even someone who knows Speakman's martial art of choice would really care about what kind of punch he is throwing at any stage. Maybe his comments were actually about a different movie... the back cover of the DVD that I picked up for $3 reads:"Chicago SWAT TEAM leader Jimmy Fain (Jeff Speakman) is committed to a mental facility, blaming himself after he fails to diffuse a terrorist bombing threat. There he meets a mysterious inmate who insists that Fain is the man destined to save the world from nuclear disaster. Going against all sane logic, Fain breaks out of the asylum, racing against time to save the human race from self-destruction.In desolate Siberia, mercenary saboteurs armed with a HI-TECH STEALTH HELICOPTER steal the control codes for Russia's orbiting LASER SATELLITE called TALON. Within hours, ruthless industrialist Gerald Lancaster launches a series of space-based laser attacks on American NUCLEAR SUBMARINE and a Russian ORBITING SPACE STATION. Soon, Russia's capitalist government falls victim to a hard line communist coup and the West prepares for the return of the cold war.Crossing the Canadian border, Jimmy Fain rescues a defecting Russian scientist who holds the key to destroying the TALON satellite. Pursued by Lancaster's hit squads, Fain battles to destroy the TALON satellite, before Lancaster plunges the world into NUCLEAR Armageddon."Now THAT's a movie worth $3! However, in the movie I actually saw:1) There is no character called Jimmy Fain. 2) The character Speakman plays is not a SWAT TEAM leader. 3) His character doesn't have a breakdown, he is forced into an insane asylum, but doesn't meet anyone there. 4) Siberia is never mentioned or seen. 5) There are no HI-TECH STEALTH HELICOPTERS. 6) Russia is never mentioned or seen. 7) Canada is never mentioned or seen. 8) There are no defecting or any other kind of scientists (technicians, maybe). 9) There is no-one called Lancaster. 10) There is no nuclear threat at any stage. 11) There is a LASER SATELLITE, but it's called EAGLE, not TALON.Apart from that, it's a perfectly accurate description of the movie. What's odd is the IMDb Plot Outline for this movie reads: "An embittered satellite expert gets the opportunity for revenge against the USA by aiding terrorists in a plan to destroy the country's military base."This is also completely inaccurate. There is no embittered satellite expert, there are no terrorists, and there is no plan to destroy any military base. The movie DOES have a satellite in it though, I'll give it that. And 2 out of 10.

I guess the two biggest or best things about this movie are:1- The in-joke/rumor that there was a sequel to Independence Day called Memorial Day. Hum, this movie is obviously a rip on ID4 (even the box logo is similar), but there is nothing else.2- Martin Sheen's cameo. Hmm, no credit, hmm.. bad movie...Yes, this is a bad movie, I'd recommend passing on the film that has some decent sets and may appease Speakman fans, but otherwise, the story is full of holes and is just plain wierd.Rating: 3