Where to watch Bulletproof
1 Star
A group of dangerous terrorists succeeds to get hold of a tank of the army and all its crew.
Steve Carver, director of movies like Lone Wolf McQuade and The Octagon, is the person calling the shots on this strange hybrid action thriller that, unsuccessfully, attempts to merge Lethal Weapon with Rambo. Oh, and it stars everybody’s favorite action hero, Gary Busey. I have no idea how this film came into existence, and if I ever get a chance to interview screenwriter and prolific Australian director Fred Olen Ray, this will be the first movie I bring up. I have to know: were the oddities on-screen, like Busey sliding a crystal ashtray across a table, striking a bad guy in the groin, and others, in the original script, or was this due to the influence of the film’s star?
In any case, Bulletproof is a preposterous movie that is absolutely braindead. I have liked Steve Carver’s other films, and Busey is typically magnetic in that patently Gary Busey way, but this movie is a bridge too far in the suspension of disbelief category. It’s as if all the era’s troupes have been incorporated into one very subpar action film. From the supporting players reverence for the “bulletproof” Busey to the ridiculous banter between Henry Silva’s bad guy general and his female solider hostage, this is the definition of a bad movie.
That’s not to say the technical credits are lacking; they are not. In fact, the opening shoot-out, with an ice cream truck on an abandoned LA pier, is handled nicely and promises an enjoyable B-movie in the vein of Dirty Harry. But then the action switches to a military operation in Mexico, and Busey is sent south of the border, in jeans and a varsity jacket, to rescue hostages and retrieve a high-tech tank. It’s all exploration flick hokum; it just didn’t have to be so dull and dumb.
Directed by: Steve Carver
Written by: T.L. Lankford, Fred Olen Ray, B.J. Goldman
Starring: Gary Busey, Darlanne Fluegel, Henry Silva