The Base 2: Guilty as Charged (2000)

hyped garbage

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

The acting in this movie is really good.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Lt.Col. Strauss (Remar) seems like your typical gruff, hard-nosed Army man, but there's a sinister secret behind the goings-on in his unit. It seems certain soldiers are disappearing under his command. In order to maintain his iron grip, he has a small, tight-knit group of underlings who he barks his orders to. To the relief of everyone, they're a multi-racial outfit, with the token Black guy, the token Asian guy, the token White guy, and the token Woman...guy. When not posing for Benetton ads, they do the bidding of Strauss. Usually that consists of taking the person they have convicted of some kind of moral offense, bringing them to the woods, and forcing them to reenact scenes from Surviving the Game (1994). So an Army investigator, Lt. John Murphy (Sabato Jr.) goes undercover in their unit to find out what's going on. Thankfully, he poses as a guy with the awesome name Lt. Hawks, dons his sunglasses, and gets on his Harley in order to detect justice. If he didn't go undercover as the ultimate coolguy, he would never get results. But will he? The Base 2: Guilty As Charged pretty much exemplifies the inevitable slide into DTV oblivion for the action movie industry in general, and director Mark L. Lester in particular. Having started his directorial career in the early 70's, to action fans the world over he became known for Commando (1985), during the golden 80's when action was everywhere and could seemingly do no wrong. In the 90's, he directed back-to-back Comeuppance Reviews classics Showdown in Little Tokyo (1991) and Extreme Justice (1993), and things were looking promising. But the cracks were beginning to show after he directed the first installment of The Base (1999) when he turned in the cringe-inducing Hit-man's Run (1999) the same year. and then in the 2000's, he eked out Blowback (2000), with James Remar, then teamed up with him again the same year for the movie up for review today. While it is impressive what Lester can do with a low budget, TB2:GAC (as all the real fans call it) certainly feels low-budget in every way. At this point in time, he was a long way from Alyssa Milano and Arnie promising to kill you last (but lying, of course). Here, the lead is Antonio Sabato, Jr.Sabato is perfectly serviceable in the lead, and we certainly don't want to bash the guy. But sharing the screen with him is personal hero and American Treasure Deron McBee (AKA Malibu). Sadly, he's only in a few short scenes, but he does indeed shine in them. He plays a raging redneck named Cletus (though that may be redundant - how many MIT professors are named Cletus?). Remar essentially keeps the movie afloat, and there would be no women in it if Melissa Lewis as Lee didn't happen to be involved. Of course, there is the Prerequisite Torture of the hero, plenty of highly unnecessary yet perfectly welcome blow-ups (the best kind?), much gun-shooting, and lots of dumb-guy hand-to-hand fighting every couple of scenes, just to make sure what remains of the plot doesn't get in the viewers' way too much.So while The Base 2 (or al-Qaida 2 as its terrorist fans call it) is more or less an inconsequential DTV trifle, it's just entertaining enough while it lasts. Why is there a sequel to The Base? Heaven only knows. Even Dacascos said no thanks to a second go-around. But Sabato Jr. makes sense in the shoe-filling department. He even resembles Dacascos in a few scenes. The movie certainly won't tax your brain cells (though it may deplete a few), and there are definitely worse things out there, but it doesn't stick to your ribs like a good, satisfying meal. Much like Sgt. Hawks, it does its job and moves on.

In a way, this looks like a reworking of an old noir, "Street With No Name," or, if you like, Sam Fuller's "House of Bamboo," which has the same plot.An undercover cop, in this case an investigator for the Army's Justice Department or whatever it is, is inserted into a suspected gang to get enough evidence on them to convict. In previous versions the gang were thieves. Here the unit consists of a handful of moral zealots. They execute soldiers who, in their judgment and in the judgment of a contact they have in the higher echelons, are guilty of some serious criminal act (a brutal rape and the theft of army weapons are used as examples). When the "target" has been selected, he is abducted by the gang, taken to the kind of densely wooded area where dead bodies are always found, and given ten seconds to run like hell before the Furies pursue him, blasting away with the ugliest guns you ever saw. The target having died what the reigning Lt. Colonel (James Remar) calls "a warrior's death," the body is buried and the next target selected. Oh -- and they also execute anybody who hesitates to perform his mission. In the end they all meet warriors' deaths, except the undercover cop.The movie frankly sucks. All the soldiers are bulked up and carry their frames on huge bone structures. Yet when they punch and kick hell out of each other in training or for real, nobody bleeds. Nobody's even out of breath. Melissa Lewis, as Lee, the only woman in the group, turns out to have the heart of a marshmallow after all and receives a warrior's death from Col. Strauss. That is to say, she is shot full of holes for letting the undercover cop (Antonio Sabato) get away. Lewis is a beautiful woman and cannot act. She does have a nice uncomplicated, not to say unmotivated, sex scene with Sabato, which is the reason I suppose that a woman had to be a member of the unit. I can think of no other reason. She's a tough babe alright, but I don't see her standing up in toe-to-toe combat with Goose, a mean, bald black guy the size of Godzilla who could crunch one of her long bones between two fingers.I said she can't act, but I don't mean to single her out. Nobody can act. Not even the players in featured bit parts. Except James Remar. He has a level, husky voice and a stern demeanor. Now, this may be all the talent he can muster -- I don't know -- but it fits the role rather well.On the whole, you might consider skipping this and renting "Street With No Name." This one has more exploding fireballs and exploding heads but "Street With No Name" is far more exciting.

Guilty as Charged is a fair film that has a good cast which includes Antonio Sabato Jr., James Remar, Duane Davis, Yuji Okumoto, Melissa Lewis, Elijah Mahar, Emilio Rivera, Johnny Urbon, William Jones, Deron McBee, Randy Mulkey, Gary Cervantes, Robert Crow, Bob Rudd, and Dean Hayman Mason. The acting by all of these actors is very good. The thrills is really good and some of it is surprising. The movie is filmed very good. The music is good. The only downfall is the sex and nudity scene which I thought brought the excitement of the film down a few stars but however, the film is quite interesting and the movie really keeps you going until the end. This is a very good and thrilling film. If you like Antonio Sabato Jr., James Remar, Duane Davis, Yuji Okumoto, Melissa Lewis, Elijah Mahar, the rest of the cast in the film, Action, Thrillers, Crime, Dramas, and interesting films then I strongly recommend you to see this film today!

Only rarely does such a great film come along! This film is one if the best action films you will ever see - Using a familiar premise (the most dangerous game) this film puts a neat and needed twist onto it, making it a shock a minute marathon! This film makes you hate the devilish army officers responsible for performing the deeds, but you also sympathise with them, because it is their way of trying to make the world a safer place. This film has all the makings of a great action movie, and deserves so much more than to be classed as b grade fodder.