User Reviews

This was touted as a sequel to Crash Dive, which was a very good film in the low budget category. I assumed this movie would be good also, but boy was I wrong. First, this movie has nothing to do with Crash Dive other than they both take place on submarines. Secondly, the plot can be slow, tedious, and in some cases, totally preposterous.

This movie will not hold most people's attention. (I remember reading a book during the slow, boring scenes.) There will be scenes that are supposed to be used for dramatic effect that will make the viewer laugh out loud. The corkscrew scene is definitely one. After I got over my initial shock that anyone would slip this in and not know people would not only disbelieve it but laugh at the sheer silliness of it, I was able to find humor in it.

If you want to see MD in a good sub flick, watch Crash Dive and leave this lame film on the shelf.

Jake Fuller, a decorated former Navy SEAL who lost his brother on a mission seven years before & has since refused to use a weapon, instead becoming a medical officer, is sent on a goodwill mission onboard a Russian nuclear submarine, the Odessa. But the Odessa has been hijacked by terrorists planning to create a new Soviet Union by launching the Hailstorm – an experimental nuclear cluster bomb that is highly unstable – onto Russian cities so that the Russian military will reclaim the former Soviet states in retaliation. Fuller is drugged & locked into a room while the terrorists make their way to Syria. But Fuller quickly recovers, aided by his nurse Swain, who has a secret mission of her own, planning to counterattack & kill the terrorists.

It is interesting what happens in the real world while reviewing a film. The premise of Counter Measures – terrorists plan to force the Russian military into taking over former satellite states in retaliation for a perceived threat – has become somewhat accurate to an alarming degree. But thankfully no nuclear bombs have been used. The film was released in 1998 – a good decade & a half before what happened in Eastern Ukraine, where rebels determined to prevent the Ukraine joining the EU embarked on a terrorist campaign in order to 'liberate' their towns by illegal means. This little war, bolstered by the Russian annexation of Crimea (an expected move since the region has Russian warships stationed there), became infamous when the rebels, using a Russian-made & supplied surface to air missile, shot down a civilian jetliner over their skies, killing all on board. Russian complicity in this mess is obvious.

Anyway, back to the film, Counter Measures (known in some places as Crash Dive 2) is a card-carrying member of the Royal Oaks studio & is directed by the veteran director Fred Olen Ray (who uses a pseudonym here for some reason). As far as action films go, the film is a bit of a disappointment due to the rather poor writing skills of Steve Latshaw, one of Jim Wynorski's hatchetmen writers & somebody who clearly doesn't do any fact-checking when it comes to writing his scripts. Everywhere you look, there are mistakes – the Navy SEALs don't use Kalashnikov assault rifles as part of their kit; the Russian Navy won't deploy a submarine with a weapon that hasn't been properly tested on board in case of disaster; & the US Navy's officers won't go out of their way to confront somebody who has been a decorated SEAL, even if he is indeed a 'conscientious objector'. And one thing I thought was kind of silly was the idea of Russian terrorists using a Nazi-made nerve agent to kill their victims – wouldn't it be better to use Russian-made nerve gas instead in order to disguise the hijacking? With Latshaw's writing skills factored in, Counter Measures is not terribly innovative in any way & the action scenes sometimes go to absurd lengths – key part being the scene where Dudikoff takes on a pistol-armed terrorist (played by Jason Voorhees himself – Kane Hodder), only to shoot himself in the leg, as well as Alexander Keith's semi-pathetic attempts to fight her assailants despite being shot twice & badly beaten. The story's twists are so predictable that you'll see them coming a kilometre away in advance & the final climax is a little on the implausible side.

If I had to make a recommendation, it would be to try to find the cheapest copy of Counter Measures around, watch it then turn the DVD into a novelty coaster if you're not satisfied with it. I sure did – and at $2 a disc, it didn't break the bank.

More madness from the mind of Fred Olen Ray! Can anyone confirm he and Jim Wynorski are two different people? Has anyone ever seen them together in the same place at the same time? Anyway, in this underwater escapade that is highly reminiscent of Under Siege(1992) ... When Navy medic Captain Jake Fuller's brother is murdered by Russian spies, Jake goes underwater to investigate. Even though Jake is a pacifist and doesn't want to fight, evil Russians take over the supersub Odessa and plan to blow up/take over the world. Only he and Lt. Swain (Wendy Schumacher of skinemax softcore fame, here strangely credited as "Alexander Keith") can save the day, so they both board the sub. The Russians and their special gas that makes people vomit yellowish green liquid are no match for these two. Will Fuller and Swain be able to stop "Operation Hailstorm" and prevent a new cold war? Remember the Wynorski vehicles Desert Thunder (1999) and Stealth Fighter (1999)? Just change the fact that those had to do with planes, and switch that to a submarine, and there you have it. It even has the trademark stock footage we've come to know and love. The Dolph Lundgren classic Agent Red (2000) is basically a remake of Counter Measures and uses some of the same footage. But where did Counter Measures get their stock footage? The world may never know.

One of the funny things about Counter Measures is that it is solely cast with celebrity lookalikes. Besides Dudikoff and Schumacher, the rest of the cast resemble Tim Roth, Michael Imperioli, Bob Newhart and Christopher Titus, who, strangely enough, was actually in Crash Dive (1997), the movie to which Counter Measures is a sequel. But the lookalike in Counter Measures plays a different character than the one Titus did in Crash Dive, so it must be a weird coincidence.

Also in the weird department, on the back of the VHS box (released in the U.S. on Avalanche), Michael Dudikoff's character is said to be "Zach Silver". Seeing as his name is Jake Fuller in the film, where did this name come from? Apparently someone just made it up. Did they not watch the movie? You don't see that type of error often.

Dudikoff turns on the charm when he could easily go on autopilot and let his cool hair do all the work. Instead, he brings some funny body language and interesting mannerisms to his character of Jake Fuller (NOT Zach Silver). He is as animated here as he was in the awesome TV show "Cobra" where he played Robert "Scandal" Jackson.

On the negative side, there is some jumpy editing, as well as some jumbled plotting and cheap-looking sets, but all that is to be expected and the presence of Dudikoff (and the rest of the cast, whoever they may look like) smooths it all over. you will probably be entertained by Counter Measures.

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