Where to watch Danger Zone
2 1/2 Stars
American mining expert, Rick Morgan, is the only person who can find a missing shipment of toxic waste that could kill thousands of innocent people. There are other powers that be who have very different plans for the cargo. Morgan ends up in the middle of factions fighting for money and power.
Danger Zone is a supremely silly action programmer notable for the pairing of wildcard actors Billy Zane and Robert Downey Jr. Both men are skilled thespians who aren’t afraid to chew the scenery when the opportunity arises. The scenes featuring the pair are the best moments in this otherwise mediocre Africa-based action flick. The movie makes a comment on US exploitation of the Contenient, using it as a toxic waste dump, although that message is buried underneath a veneer of gung-ho shoot-em-up sequences.
The production values are high for this type of movie, and the budget is on the screen. This is especially apparent during the climatic finale that takes place aboard and on top of a moving locomotive. Billy Zane is an actor I’ve enjoyed watching perform over the last 30 years. His character in Dead Calm still lives in my memory as one of the most charismatic creeps to ever grace the screen. Danger Zone has the polish of a product destined for theatrical distribution, but somewhere along the production line things went slightly astray, and the end result is a film that isn’t quite on the level of a big-time studio release, but it’s also not a typical straight-to-video b-movie.
Directed by: Allan Eastman
Written by: Jeff Albert, Samuel Benedict, Danny Lerner
Starring: Billy Zane, Robert Downey Jr., Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa