Both films are low-budget science fiction, with the only difference being that the first is about an alien invasion, and the second is a thriller in a confined space.
Both of them are made according to clichés. In the first case, a group of young people find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time, or rather (no more, no less) in the midst of the landing of enemy spaceships. In the second, a group of middle-aged people from the secret services are trying to investigate the death of a group of their colleagues in a top-secret facility.
In the first option, everyone is driven by the desire to sleep with each other in a country house. And in the second - the need to wander for a long time with machine guns along the dark corridors of the building, building up suspense. The names of both films were chosen almost at random by the creators; the poster of the second film is almost misinformation. In both films Wasley Snipes, in principle, we can replace him with any other actor.
Both films simultaneously catch the stars from the sky, while possessing some cinematic ambitions. And here it is necessary to note an important distinguishing feature: with a small budget and a large number of banalities and well-trodden paths, these films are almost not annoying and they are generally “watchable”. They are like a budget version of some science fiction film or several films at once, but the version is not so mediocre that the viewer turns away from it.
"The Recall" (a.k.a. "Recall", "Return", "Total Recall: Kidnapping")
"The Recall" in the presence of blunders and, as usual, not the most logical actions of the heroes, who are either overly emotional or, on the contrary, inhibited, it has an atmosphere. The shots of the intervention of alien ships in the dark sky are very well done, and in general the graphics are not disgusting. It is made calmly, cheaply, but cheerfully, well integrated into the picture and space. There are many questions about the ending, I won’t reveal the whole story to avoid spoilers, but there are often more questions about expensive Hollywood films of this genre.
There are not many locations in the film, but it is clear that money was not wasted. On our topic, unfortunately, there is nothing special to say - there are no hand-to-hand scenes, shootouts with aliens are small, but Snipes has a rather large and colorful role, which is what they played on. He has enough acting skills to show his young colleagues how to attract viewers to the screen, although no one has canceled the payment of taxes. In some places, old Wesley overacts, as the humorist Roman Kartsev said, he “salts his face a little.” The ex-Blade has this manner: he speaks his lines too forcefully, but this, in my opinion, is a common black theme. Snipes plays in the film a hunter of little green men, with whom he has a personal score (and it’s not alcohol). He sets traps for them in the deep thicket of the forest, accompanying all this with a malicious idiotic laugh and rolling out his already rather large eyes.
Don't have high expectations, the film can easily leave you indifferent, but Snipes fans should be happy about his gradual return to cinema at least on this level.
"Armed Response"
С "Armed response" the situation is a little better. A special budget was not required here at all - they rented a school, a hospital or a prison, and they filmed in it. The casting of the film is more decent: besides Snipes there is An Hatch, wrestler Colby Lopez (Aka Seth Rollins) and Dave Annable. And the director of the film is none other than John Stockwell, who filmed "Bloody revenge" с Gina Carano и Cam Gigandet и the first part of the remake "Kickboxer" с Alain Moussi in the role of Kurt Sloan.
The essence of the film is this: in a top-secret facility called “Temple,” a group of military men who guarded and maintained this facility mysteriously dies. The whole complexity of the situation is that the “Temple” is a huge new generation lie detector, protected from hacking and penetration, which is used as an interrogation room for all sorts of criminals and terrorists.
Snipes plays the curator of this entire secret program, who recruits a team to infiltrate the Temple and find out what happened there. To do this, he needs the person who developed this “Temple” - Gabriel (Dave Annable). Gabriel was once part of the system, but was then thrown out of it as a result of a family tragedy. Unfortunately, the character is rather sluggishly written and there are no details about his backstory. The only thing that saves the hero is that Annable plays well, but the volume is so damn lacking. The same can be said about other characters. They play at a decent level, but all children are without family or tribe. The final plot twist reveals some cards, but, alas, not all.
The film itself does its best to intrigue and keep us in suspense. It must be admitted that his strength is small and he has almost nothing to attract a modern viewer. But the paradox is that he generally succeeds. Yes, in the first half of the film, people with machine guns and flashlights will walk for a long time and search rooms and ventilation compartments, and then they will poke at the computer keys, with rounded eyes saying: this cannot be, there must be a gap, because this is the “Temple”, and “Temple” is not bullshit. But then the film takes a mystical turn and thereby moves from one genre scheme to another. However, you can watch it. I did this late at night, so I turned it off about halfway through, and when I had time to finish watching it, I sincerely decided to do it, and not to do it because I needed to write this review. This clearly speaks in favor of the film. The picture has a rhythm, the actors work well in the frame, nothing causes irritation, the ingredients are in moderation.
There is only one hand-to-hand fight in the film, well, maybe one and a half. There is no point in dwelling on them, no one shows anything interesting in them, although it is curious that Annable takes a more active position in the battles, and not Snipes.
Again, both subjects of this review are very inexpensive and not particularly original niche films, which are entirely up to you to watch or not watch.
Thanks for the movie review! In fact, you'll have to watch it over a cup of tea or a bottle of beer. I've always liked Snipes as an actor. And if he has something to play, he copes with the task quite well.