DEATH SQUAD (2015) ½ *
Danny Glover sends Stephen Baldwin into the post-apocalyptic wasteland to get the goods on the new regime, ran by Rutger Hauer. When Hauer gets wind of this, he sends in a hit squad (led by Michael Madsen) to take Baldwin out. Baldwin is aided in his quest by a mutant (Neva Leoni), who may be a figment of his imagination. Naturally, Madsen fails and Hauer, who constantly bickers with his second in command (Daryl Hannah), has to go and do the job himself.
The fact that Daryl Hannah, Michael Madsen, Stephen Baldwin, Rutger Hauer, and Danny Glover are in a post-apocalyptic action movie should be enough to make you want to watch it. However, the cast is the only thing Death Squad has going for it. It’s slow-moving, darkly lit, and the editing and storytelling is nearly incoherent at times.
If you’re going to assemble a cast like this, at least give them more to do. Glover spends all of his screen time at a computer terminal while spouting a helluva lot of narration. Meanwhile Hauer and Hannah stand around and argue while wearing Nazi regalia. Baldwin has slightly more to do as he scuttles around the rubble, getting into scrapes and scavenging for material. Only Madsen is able to breathe life into his character. He gets a great introduction scene when he gets a blowjob in a scuzzy bathroom.
In fact, knowing that you have a cast like this and let them down with a shoddy script, schizophrenic editing, and useless action scenes makes it that much worse. They all deserve way better than this. To quote Gabriel Cash, “This whole thing just fucking sucks!”
AKA: 2047: Sights of Death. AKA: 2047: The Final War.