Apatros Review Ep-0094: Counter Measures [1998] ("Crash Dive II")

AR-0094: Before I continue on with this video description, I need to stress that yes, I know that "countermeasures" is one friggin word, not two. But the makers of this film chose to split it into two words so don't blame me for that one. Grammar Nazis should stick with the alternate title of "Crash Dive II" [as it is known in Australia], even though that title isn't much better for reasons I'll get into later on in this description...

[Clearing throat] Anyhoo, this is one of those B-grade military action flicks made by Royal Oaks Entertainment that hit VHS back in the mid-1990s, this particular one directed by everybody's favourite professional hack with a sense of humour and a heart of gold, Fred Olen Ray. My favourite hack that doesn't come from Italy, to be precise.

Here Michael Dudikoff plays a former US Navy SEAL who swears off guns and assertive combat after his brother [a fellow SEAL and teammate] bites it during an op. However, this places him at odds with the brass he serves under, although circumstances conspires to give him a shot at professional and personal redemption by having him volunteer to visit a brand-new Russian nuclear submarine as a goodwill visit and to treat one of their sick crewmates, unaware that terrorists have taken over the sub and killed the original crew...

And before you start the anti-Putin jokes, he ain't involved in this so leave him out of it.

Dudikoff, along with a hot nurse who happens to be involved with US intelligence, now has to do a Casey Ryback [congrats if you understood that reference], and teach these Russkies a lesson for them spiking his bottle of vodka [that was not a joke - it actually happened in the movie!], all the while battling a nasty hangover...

Pretty much in the lower tier of Royal Oaks' catalogue but Ray does a competent job with the basics and this is a decent watch for masochists but a below-average movie for everybody else.

Issued in Australia [my home country] on both VHS and on those cheap Flashback Entertainment DVDs as "Crash Dive II", although the equally cheap 2010 reissue from RAAM Multimedia used the original title of "Counter Measures".

Those Grammar Nazis still yelling at me about the title should go buy their next soup from Yev Kessem...

My Grade: D+ [Disappointing]

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