Continuing the Marvel Comic theme, next on the agenda was Nick Fury: Agent Of Shield. Again, I'd avoided up to this point due to it's meagre TV budget and the fact that it stars TV legend David Hasselhoff...not exactly one of the greatest leading men in the world.
It turns out The Hoff is the best thing about this mis-judged action-fest. His portrayal of Fury is strictly old-skool...and all the better for it. Grizzled, anti-authoritarian, wise-cracking, cigar chomping and a patriotic Goddamned hero...Hasselhoff is the charismatic core this mini-epic needs him to be. Like Captain America, the Nick Fury movie has a global threat in the vein of the 007 movies, and presents an interesting array of characters and vehicles that is the organisation of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Where it falls down is the execution. The effects are barely broadcast worthy half the time, the direction dull and the script is perhaps the most laughable Batman Begins scribe, David S Goyer, has ever penned. What nearly sinks the whole enterprise is the casting of Swiss actress Sandra Hess as the arch villain Viper. Words can not adequately describe the awfulness of her performance. It's like she's doing an impression of a 5 year old doing an impression of a maniacal, laughing Blofeld-like baddie...except it's completely off. Both wooden and hysterically over-the-top I'd previously thought were impossibilities in the same line delivery, but here Hess finds a way to make the impossibly terrible a reality. Not since I saw Battle Royale 2 have I seen an evil person so utterly mis-presented by the so-called art of acting.
The monster in the closet your kids are so frightened of...that's Hess. Fortunately...you can always count on The Hoff.
1 comment:
Seen this too. But, again, not for a long, long time. And, again, I remember not hating it. But I don't remember much else about it apart from The Hoff being pretty good. Still, give me Sam Jackson anyday.
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