Cast: Peter Weller, Robert Hays, Charles Martin Smith
Director: Charles Martin Smith
Producers: Maurice Singer and Raymond Wagner
Screenplay: Dennis Shryack and Michael Butler
Cinematography: David Connell (I)
Music: Peter Bernstein
U.S. Distributor: Cannon Pictures
Jake (Peter Weller) and Sam (Robert Hays) are ex-CIA buddies who find themselves on the opposite side of the law in an uprising on a small South Pacific Island. When Jake attempts to save Sam's life, both end up on the run from the island's dictator. Their flight takes them to Singapore, where they encounter Martin Sprue (Charles Martin Smith), a current CIA operative who "recruits" them to go back and band together a resistance group. The goal: dethrone the dictator.
Charles Martin Smith (whose best role still remains that from the 1987 film, The Untouchables) joins a long list of directors who have appeared in their own films. Current members of this club such as Kenneth Branagh and Danny DeVito need not worry. If this is an example of Smith's work, he won't be threatening their reputations.
Fifty/Fifty makes Sniper look like high art. This uninspired tripe has its two heros running around shooting everything that moves while dodging bullets left and right. There are the requisite car chases, fist-fights, shoot-outs, bomb blasts, and helicopter attacks. There's even a love interest thrown in for good measure, but who will she choose -- Jake or Sam? Frankly, who cares? Of course, the characters played by Hays and Weller are about as one-dimensional as they come. Even comic-book heros have more personality.
Admittedly, I'm not a big fan of mindless action films that run on auto-pilot, but occasionally, if done with flair, these can be fun. Fifty/Fifty is not done with anything remotely resembling style. Its a formula piece put together on a limited budget with a novice director and a bunch of actors who look like they'd rather be anywhere else. If you need more convincing about how inept this film is, consider that Robert Hays, whose only worthwhile role has been as the wimp in Airplane, plays a macho leading man who, when he's not blowing things up, spends most of his time quipping one-liners.
Of course, for those determined to find something positive in this film, it does have one or two nicely- filmed action scenes, and some of the lines spoken by the main characters are worth a chuckle or two. However, you'll probably laugh more at scenes that weren't intended to be funny. That is, if you stay in the theater long enough to get to those moments.
© 1993 James Berardinelli