...as THE PATRIOT, a former Navy SEAL, now turned biker, who is called upon by his old pals in the Navy to help stop evil underwater smugglers, who are stealing nuclear weapons and use them for bad purposes (as if there were any good purposes anyway).
Now, while most people don't know who the heck Gregg Henry is, some of you might remember him as the main bad guy villain from "PAYBACK", which coincidentally starred "the other Patriot", Mel Gibson (so that movie was unofficially "The Battle of the two Patriots"). In that movie, Henry was really doing what he does best, which was being a unsympathetic number one A-hole (he also played similar A-hole roles in "SLITHER", "BALLISTIC" and "BODY DOUBLE"). In this movie however, he's our main hero - the guy we're supposed to root for and identify with - and he actually succeeds by mere default, as all the other (male) characters in this movie are either sleazy scumbags, stupid criminals, military personnel, or simple retards. So, unless you're a woman, or rooting for Admiral Frazer (played by Leslie Nielsen in probably his *least* funny role ever - and also one of the smallest roles ever, only getting two short scenes), then Lieutenant Matt Ryder aka The Patriot is your guy.
The female lead, Sean, is played by Simone Griffeth, whom most of us probably only know from "DEATH RACE 2000" where she played Annie "Paine" Smith, and after that he career slowly but surely faded away, this movie being one of the final nails in the coffin, even though she actually did a good job here, playing a woman torn between two men - the other one being navy-guy Mitchell, played by the crazy-lookin' Jeff Conaway (from "TAXI" and "CELEBRITY REHAB"-fame), probably during his mid-80s substance abuse period, as he looks strung-out throughout the entire film.
Ryder and Sean go out to sea to hunt down the bad guys, with only the assistance of their helicopter-pilot pal Kenwood (Mike Gomez, "Cojones" from "HEARTBREAK RIDGE"), and loony buddy Howard (Michael J. Pollard of "BONNIE AND CLYDE"-fame), who is only in a handful of scenes, and randomly disappears before the great raid at the end, not to be seen or heard from again. I've no idea why he got 3rd billing in this movie, as his role was so short and completely redundant.
The bad guys are a mixed bag of nuts, not really led by anyone it seems (but we find out in the end who their "leader" supposedly is). The 2nd hand man is a bad-ass mo-fo played by Stack Pierce (who was a regular in other Frank Harris'-movies, and also got a nice part in "WEEKEND AT BERNIE'S II"), who has two simpleminded henchmen, Pink (played by Glenn Withrow, who's probably the least successful actor from "THE OUTSIDERS") and Bite (Larry Mintz aka 'Knobby' from "BURGLAR"). Also among the bad guys is a lunatic who goes by the name "Eight Ball" (played by Anthony Caldarella, who hasn't done anything memorable apart from this turkey), who mostly just stands around with his hands in his pockets, angrily staring at Ryder and making crude remarks for no apparent reason, until the end where they have a big showdown on the oil rig, where most of the action takes place.
Anyway, if you like this movie, you may also enjoy other Frank Harris-directed action-flicks, like "LOW BLOW" or "KILLPOINT", who along with this movie all are available in a DVD-box set called "10 MAXIMUM ACTION MOVIES", where I got it from.
I give it 5/10 because it was neither the worst b-movie I've seen, nor was it one of the best, but the action was decent, and the actors were interesting cast, so it was a good enough time-killer for me.
