Leofwine_draca A cheap, ineptly-made action thriller which tries to mix some TOP GUN-style aeroplane heroics with an on-the-ground plot involving Rutger Hauer seeking revenge on Robert Patrick for shooting him down in Iraq six years previously after he went berserk and tried to shoot down a passenger plane. Obviously the budget was spent on uniting the two once-were-great actors; Hauer for his memorable turn as an android in BLADE RUNNER, and Patrick for his excellent portrayal of the fiendish "liquid metal man" in TERMINATOR 2.Sadly, this film wastes their talents and makes them both look bad; Patrick seems to be a one-note actor here with an expressive face but little else, while Hauer is pure ham, laughable and unthreatening. You won't have heard of the rest of the cast, and you won't recognise them either. I may have been tired while watching this film but not many movies have me struggling to stay awake. The acrobatics and shooting in the sky have always been boring and thrill-free for me, while the tank chase at the end seems to be from a different film; as Hauer suddenly changes from low-key threat to all-out psychopath. This ending is kind of fun but it comes as too little, too late. TACTICAL ASSAULT is a typically generic (just look at that title) late '90s straight-to-video flick; seemingly made without any passion for the genres it covers and with no talent whatsoever. Give it a miss!

bob the moo Several years after he was presumed dead after an "incident" in the Iraqi no-fly zone after the first Gulf War, Captain John "Doc" Holiday shows up, eager to pick up life where he left off. Former flying partner and friend Colonel Banning helps him get his old job back and the two are in action again over Bosnia as part of a NATO operation. However, even though the report of the incident looks clean, Holiday blames Banning for the years that he lost and seems not all together right in the old head there. As minor peculiarities turn into out and out barking behaviour, Banning starts to worry.Fifteen minutes into this film and I had yet to hate this film as much as everyone else seems to have done; I had managed to ignore the made-up history and enjoy the scenes of jets flying and men going "alpha roger, I'm taking fire" etc etc. However at this point the film shifted slightly to Banning's wife and the back-story where Holiday starts to semi-stalk the family. With this the film joined the heap loads of films that already exist within this similar "man/woman appears normal but gets obsessively crazy" genre (trips off the tongue doesn't it) and it doesn't even match the low standard of the majority of them.Let me just deal with the whole setting – that of military action in Bosnia in the mid-nineties; now I'm no expert but the whole thing was not only horribly simplistic (Americans were the good guys in the conflict and those on the ground were "bad") but it is also plain wrong. I won't linger on this too long though because facts are not the point of this film and, to be honest, if you're coming to a Rutger Hauer film expecting a history lesson then you deserve all you get. Ironically the rubbish history provides the only pieces of vague entertainment as the usual stock footage of planes and explosions and the actors inside planes against blue screens at least provides some distracting motion even if it never is exciting or involving (and potentially annoying if you pay too much attention to the identity-swapping planes). Meanwhile the usual stalker stuff plods around on the ground until, finding itself with no dramatic drive at all it simply ends with a ludicrous set piece involving tanks that have the keys left in them and a dogfight high above Bosnia. It is poor throughout and only made more annoying by just how obvious and predictable it all is.The cast act as a clue as to how average this is going to be, given that it features two men who really don't do anything to deserve bigger projects that this. Hauer is obvious from the start to the end and never makes for an interesting character. In his defence, Patrick at least comes across as a sort of real person but even he can find little of value to use in his performance. Glasser is the damsel in distress and does nothing but that. The support cast are all average, with nothing to do but spit out the required lines in the basic required fashion.Overall this is a very poor film that tries to milk two genres but does neither of them well at all. The Top Gun action is distracting but full of stock footage and historical stupidities; meanwhile the stalker stuff on the ground is plodding, dull and tiresomely predictable. Don't make the same mistake as me – just avoid this.

Enchorde ** Here be a little spoilers **My expectations when I started to watch this movie was not great. In fact, I expected a really bad movie, as many of these not very famous thrillers are. Now, this is no masterpiece either. The plot is predictable, and the fights are not very surprising nor long enough to build any amount of suspense. Hauer is his usual insane self (no, I don't mean he is insane, but his characters very often are), and he does it good. The other cast, including Patrick puts in some average performances.Well, as mentioned, not as bad as expected. If you have nothing other planned, watch in on TV or rent it, not that bad at all (but, do not expect any greatness)5/10

ismitje It's as if the Stay-Puffed Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters had been reincarnated in Rutger Hauer's body and is taking revenge upon a rival's pregnant wife! If seeing an obese Hauer chase a very pregnant Isabel Glaser (imagine the spine-tingling thrills in that contest) sounds good to you, see this film! Seriously, if Hauer is what an Iraqi POW looks like after six years in prison, then hungry people everywhere should make a bee line to a jail in Baghdad. Overall "Tactical Assault" rates 2 stars instead of 1 because Mike Mitchell as Hawk is terrific. Mitchell burns up the screen as a NATO pilot until his plane is burned up itself (by an enemy missle), whereupon the film loses what little verve it had to begin with.