ELITE FORCE – B.R.I. (2023)
3 stars
Reel 2 Reel Films. Digital. Out Now
The film opens with flashy graphic overlays which identifies subjects – who will be our players. They are all a certain type: ex military, with numerous kills to their names. They are all homeless, abandoned by those they worked for. In Scotland we have Jesse (Jadey Duffield), ex-SAS. Kawa Ali (Danny Darren) ex-Peshmerga. Trained by Russians and acquired in Iraq. Luco (Rodrigo Rodriguez) in Brazil. Ex member of the Rebel alliance (no, not that one). And finally Fei (David Chung) in China. Ex Peoples Liberation Army. They all find themselves nabbed off the streets and delivered to the hidden laboratory in London of one Dr Marco (Crispian Delfrage).
He is injecting them with some kind of serum. Flashbacks establish what it is – BRI (Body Recovery Immunization). Using a complex system he can create the greatest combat soldiers and the fluid means their bodies recover almost immediately, plus they will have exceptional strength. The doc finds himself and his family threatened by his greedy partner Jasper (Mark Strange) unless he completes the tech needed – as he sees massive profit in selling to the highest bidders. Hence Marco has gone underground.
He persuades the quartet, who he has effectively kidnapped, to get training – as he has plans for them – to take revenge on the bad guys who have destroyed his world. He wants them to fight missions against the corrupt government agents who hide by a secret code name Hush. What follows is a bunch of fight scenes strung together with a minimal plot.
It’s all a rather silly action thriller with a science fiction flavour. The plotline jumps around quite a bit and it’s not always entirely clear what is going on. The numerous fight scenes are fairly standard for this kind of fare – lots of grunting and kicking and punching plus gunplay with various weapons. We also get several training montages to pad out the run time. The acting is variable, as is often the case in these lower budget outings, with several of them acting tough, though not terribly convincingly. At one point there is a laughable, almost sexy scene. Almost being the operative word.
Stars Duffield and Darren co-wrote the script with director Roman Elpidio. For undemanding fans of this type of genre production. The ending implies the unlikely hope of a series of films.
Steve Kirkham
