Former CIA rocket scientist turned antique weapons expert Maurice Hunter & his daughter Nadia have uncovered the resting place of the Tesla Death Ray device, reputed to use human brain waves to unleash enough power to destroy a small country. After dealing with a group of treacherous guides, they book passage on a private jet filled with C-grade celebrities heading to Canada. But on the way, the plane is intercepted by a larger jet with terrorists attempting to steal the Tesla weapon, aided by Julian Beck, an arms dealer who is on the chartered flight. The passengers fight back, taking down Beck & his goons while the other jet is accidentally destroyed by a mishandled bomb. Damaged in the confrontation, the passenger jet is forced to crash land in the Rocky Mountains. The surviving passengers split up – one group staying inside the fuselage for help to arrive, led by Maurice, while the other half head out to trek to civilisation. Maurice gets Nadia to head out on her own in order to reach the meeting point where a pair of CIA agents are waiting for them. Beck, meanwhile, has survived & secretly heads out to track Nadia down & steal the weapon. As night falls on the crash site, a large bear is seen near the site, hungry for human meat.
I have never seen a director as arrogant, dishonest & incompetent as Jim Wynorski. This C-grade hack from the Roger Corman stable has made more than dozens of cheap B-films, none of which managed to get more than a certain low score on the IMDb. There is a reason for this – Wynorski doesn't have any idea on how to make a good film. Don't get me wrong – Wynorski did make a couple of semi-watchable genre films in the past (the 1980s sci-fi slasher Chopping Mall & the 1997 cheapie Storm Trooper were passable enough) – but most of the time he fails to even get the basic things right. Trouble is, his films look well-polished on a technical level but that is where his limited skill ends. The problem with Wynorski's directing is that to disguise the ultra-low budgets he works with, he steals footage from other, bigger-budgeted films in order to make his films look better. At first glance it looks okay but when you realise that most of the big action & effects set-pieces are actually from recycled footage stolen from other films, that sinking feeling in your stomach returns with a vengeance.
With Crash Point Zero, Wynorski & his usual hatchet-scribe Steve Latshaw (a guy who cannot write a decent script to save his life & who probably stole elements of this script from other sources judging by the slightly better quality of the script for this one since I have seen Latshaw's other scripts & they are utterly pathetic) make a mediocre thriller filled with footage from Cliffhanger & other films that I cannot identify but am certain have been plundered by this insidious duo. The story is cobbled together from various low-grade ideas but given a certain cynicism that makes the whole thing look like a bad joke. Why are a bunch of American reality show stars, novelists & other C-grade celebrities doing together on a plane from Siberia? If the Tesla device can be tracked by a Geiger counter & is releasing massive amounts of radiation, then why are people still standing alive after spending a lot of time with the weapon in close proximity? And how does the CIA manage to keep track on the weapon's whereabouts by trawling Internet conspiracy theory websites? There are also the little things, like the simple fact that any Counterstrike fan will recognise that the machine pistols the terrorists use are actually Steyr SPP semi-automatic pistols (a copy of the Counterstrike weapon, the Steyr TMP – you know, the machine pistol with the silencer) & are NOT automatic, despite being fired by the baddies with automatic gunfire dubbed over on the soundtrack. Some of the stunts are so obviously fake that you'll be groaning in disbelief.
The acting is slightly harder to take pot-shots at since everybody gives the production just the right tone of sarcasm & cynicism to make the grade. Treat Williams, a stand-up comedian who has plenty of experience in cheap action B-fodder such as this, gives a mediocre performance, giving the impression he'd rather be anywhere else & his constant smart-alec remarks in the film really do him no favours.
I have never seen a director as arrogant, dishonest & incompetent as Jim Wynorski. This C-grade hack from the Roger Corman stable has made more than dozens of cheap B-films, none of which managed to get more than a certain low score on the IMDb. There is a reason for this – Wynorski doesn't have any idea on how to make a good film. Don't get me wrong – Wynorski did make a couple of semi-watchable genre films in the past (the 1980s sci-fi slasher Chopping Mall & the 1997 cheapie Storm Trooper were passable enough) – but most of the time he fails to even get the basic things right. Trouble is, his films look well-polished on a technical level but that is where his limited skill ends. The problem with Wynorski's directing is that to disguise the ultra-low budgets he works with, he steals footage from other, bigger-budgeted films in order to make his films look better. At first glance it looks okay but when you realise that most of the big action & effects set-pieces are actually from recycled footage stolen from other films, that sinking feeling in your stomach returns with a vengeance.
With Crash Point Zero, Wynorski & his usual hatchet-scribe Steve Latshaw (a guy who cannot write a decent script to save his life & who probably stole elements of this script from other sources judging by the slightly better quality of the script for this one since I have seen Latshaw's other scripts & they are utterly pathetic) make a mediocre thriller filled with footage from Cliffhanger & other films that I cannot identify but am certain have been plundered by this insidious duo. The story is cobbled together from various low-grade ideas but given a certain cynicism that makes the whole thing look like a bad joke. Why are a bunch of American reality show stars, novelists & other C-grade celebrities doing together on a plane from Siberia? If the Tesla device can be tracked by a Geiger counter & is releasing massive amounts of radiation, then why are people still standing alive after spending a lot of time with the weapon in close proximity? And how does the CIA manage to keep track on the weapon's whereabouts by trawling Internet conspiracy theory websites? There are also the little things, like the simple fact that any Counterstrike fan will recognise that the machine pistols the terrorists use are actually Steyr SPP semi-automatic pistols (a copy of the Counterstrike weapon, the Steyr TMP – you know, the machine pistol with the silencer) & are NOT automatic, despite being fired by the baddies with automatic gunfire dubbed over on the soundtrack. Some of the stunts are so obviously fake that you'll be groaning in disbelief.
The acting is slightly harder to take pot-shots at since everybody gives the production just the right tone of sarcasm & cynicism to make the grade. Treat Williams, a stand-up comedian who has plenty of experience in cheap action B-fodder such as this, gives a mediocre performance, giving the impression he'd rather be anywhere else & his constant smart-alec remarks in the film really do him no favours.