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Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

Excellent but underrated film

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

***SPOILERS**** The film has the distinction of being the first movie made since Gulf War I that in fact takes place before it actually happened when the USA was on good terms with the Iraqi Saddam Hussein regime; Remember that famous video of US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfield shaking hand with Saddem after having the US deliver him the very WMD, Weapons of Mass Destruction,that it accused him of having, which in fact he didn't, that started Guf War II in 2003! In here we have former US Special Forces man Doug Matthews, Michael Dudifoff, going to what was then at peace with the US Iraq to get his brother out of one of Saddam's prison who's being held against his will by the Saddam-lookalike Iraqi Gen. Ali Dallal, Steve Inwood.It's been five years when Matthews slashed Dallal's face in trying to prevent him form wiping out a Kurdish Village in Northen Iraq. Now with Matthews' brother Ben, Tommy Hinkley, a diabetic switching planes at the Baghdad Airport Dallal has him arrested on trumped up charges in order to get at his brother Dugh for what he did to him. This sets up things for Doug to secretly travel to Iraq to rescue Ben and at the same time start up a relationship with Gen. Dallal's wife refugee worker Lila Haddin, Hanna Azoulay Hasfari. We soon learn that Lila only married Dallai to keep him from having Doug, whom she was in love with, killed if she didn't? That's some arrangement isn't it!****SPOILERS*** Only worth watching for the action scenes where Doug ends up doing far more damage to the Iraqi Army then what the entire US coalition did to it back in both the first & second Gulf Wars. We even have Doug do what the US was unable to do in destroying Iraq's elusive WMD's at the end of the movie along with Gen Dallal, who got a really hot send off, who's evil plans to murder Dough only ended backfiring on him. As for Doug together with Ben Lila and her 4 year old son Ali Jr they had no trouble at all checking out of Iraq with the Iraqi military and secret police totally hapless to stop them.

This was reportedly the first fictional film to deal with the Persian Gulf War. It even was shown in the theaters. Still , it's more of a straight to video product. This movie doesn't work either as an actioner or war drama. Too bad . It could have been fun movie in style of "Rambo 2"."The Human" shield finds Michael Dudikoff ("American ninja") heading to the Middle East when his brother is taken prisoner just as he's about to leave Iraq with his wife and daughter. The acting here is surprisingly decent and the movie looks really OK for a low budget production.Aside from the good location this movie is nothing more than a boring low-budget pile cliché. Veteran director Ted Post ("Magnum force") directs the movie very badly. It drags all the time. There is some action in this movie , but it lasts about ten minutes and certainly isn't impressive. The movie is so predictable and boring that you wonder why they even made it in the first place. This is a rescue movie with all the clichés in the world . Yes , even the love interest of main hero is connected to the villain. I've already seen that set up in a hundred other movies.It's boring right from its ridiculous beginning to its very poorly done end. I give it 1/10.

This is one of those rare movies I can watch over and over again without getting bored. It was a well written story and the acting was surprisingly good for a "low budget" film. Steve Inwood as general Dalal was amazing and anyone who has seen this movie can attest to that...he steals the show (Pardon the pun). I'm not of middle eastern descent, but the directors did a fine job of portraying the culture. From the music, settings, food, lifestyle and nature of the people---and anyone who thinks culture isn't important in a film, it is said that Godfather was so successful because it portrayed the Italian culture to a tee.Nonetheless, it was a good plot with decent sup-plots such as the romance between dudikoff and laila, his brother being kidnapped and the whole revenge factor.The movie also has some memorable lines such as: "Insults here can only be washed away in blood" "I like your scar because it reminds me of the man who gave it to you" "Things done in a hurry are done in the ways of Satan. While things done with patience are done in the way of god" "A son should always be by his father's side during his proudest moments" Dalal talking about his 4 year old kid as he's about to go kill dudikoff "Should I wait?" "Not unless your wife has a sense of humour" Dudikoff to cab driver after being dropped off at the Iraqi border "American...what is it you want? Hash? Coca Cola? A woman? And anyone who has seen this movie or is thinking of seeing it should pay particular attention towards the end of the movie when Dalal is being driven to the chemical plant. The car phone rings and he picks up this HUGE MUTHER****IN phone that must have been state of the art at the time but DAMN! The thing easily could have been 5 pounds.Also Hana Azoulay Hasfari was good as Laila. I say there should be a rule where if you're doing a film that revolves around a certain culture you should get actors from THAT culture to portray characters. It makes things more believable and credible. Even if they aren't known you'll be surprised at how good some "unknown actors" can be. The biggest flaw I can think of was Hollywood using Penelope Cruz to play a Greek girl in Captain Corelli's Mandolin. I love Penelope but that was a joke.

Michael Dudikoff stars as Doug Matthews a soldier who returns to Iraq to save his brother Ben (Tommy Hinkley) from a sadistic Saddam Hussein look alike who is using him as bait to get revenge on Doug in this mildly diverting Dudikoff actioner which starts off slow but provides a few good twists and is less racist then most. Steve Inwood is especially good here.