There’s a sequence in Tactical Force, the latest direct-to-DVD action flick from Nasser Group and Vivendi Entertainment, when SWAT team member Hunt (Michael Jai White) runs into the SWAT truck under heavy fire and produces a grenade launcher. This happens at the precise moment that something like a grenade launcher would be useful, the equivalent of the cavalry showing up in the nick of time in an old Western serial or when the Millennium Falcon shows up in the Death Star canyon. Problem is, the truck has already been searched twice for weapons – once by the bad guys and once by Captain Tate, our hero played by Steve Austin, a man who would have been a dependable action movie star had his pro wrestling career not gotten in the way by delaying the beginning of his movie career until his forties. The fact that two thorough searches didn’t discover a three foot grenade launcher in a truck doesn’t make any sense, like a lot of other events in Tactical Force.
Yes, I know Tactical Force is a direct-to-DVD action movie, and that usually indicates the movie is going to be low budget and terrible – after all, many action movies that actually make it into theaters are pretty terrible, too. But that doesn’t mean that movies like Tactical Force get a pass, especially since the paperwork I got with the DVD indicates that when it is released on August 9 the DVD will be sold for $19.97 (DVD) and $29.95 (Blu-ray), which is more than most Hollywood new releases retail for.
Anyway, before I go on I need to give you some background: Tactical Force is about a shoot first, ask questions later Los Angeles SWAT team led by Captain Tate which, after handling a supermarket hostage situation rather poorly, is forced to undergo retraining. However, unbeknownst to the team while it is training upstairs, a conflict between two rival gangs (using the term loosely – at first there’s only two people on each side) – the Italians and the Russians – breaks out in the warehouse on the floor right below. In the movie’s only really clever twist, the gangs quickly realize that the SWAT team isn’t using real bullets and decide to team up to get rid of them.