User Reviews

I watched this film in the vain hope it was an adaptation of a video game whose plot I remembered being quite interesting. (I couldn't remember it at the time but now know it was 2010's 'Singularity.') Sadly, I was disappointed. (On more than one level.)

The plot sees Eric Roberts hiring a team of mercenaries to retrieve a long since discontinued Russian cold-war experiment which is buried in a remote bunker. With a fairly decent premise for the ultimate nature of the experiment, six different story locations, the presence of Game of Thrones' brilliant James Cosmo (Jeor Mormont) and no less than five plot 'twists', reveals and 'turnabouts' you'd be forgiven for thinking the film was, at the very least, good-ish, but you'd be wrong.

The problems begin with the script and the way it's delivered; "Do you mind if I smoke in your house" says a merc to his boss while he's already sat smoking. (Not funny, not necessary, not delivered well and does nothing for the scene.) Or some tasteless racist comments from one character that are also not funny or necessary. (His opponent was going to kill him anyway, he didn't need a contrived reason.) There are so many places where the lines, or their delivery, just fall flat or detract from the pace or tension.

On that note, it is sad to see the formerly brilliant Eric Roberts totally phoning his lines in. (When an actor has over FORTY films due for release in 2016 alone, that's not a good thing and it really shows.)

Next, there are the asinine plot decisions, such as a merc in desperate need of lots of artillery who finds a room full of AK47s and takes one. Just one. And no extra ammo; or the totally inexplicable appearance of the boss, near the end of the film, who really should have just gone there with the mercenaries. And the mercenaries? This crack team seem to know nothing about each other or their true motives and I couldn't imagine them working together by the end of the film.

Then there are the effects. Apparently, 1960's Russia were using 1990's white computer monitors for their excellent quality closed circuit cameras. I can forgive using the same couple of tunnels from dozens of angles, with different lighting each time, to simulate the effect of a maze-like bunker but adding some changing corridor furniture or wall decals would have made it more believable and less boring. As to the cheap and ludicrously obvious chroma key for cavernous rooms and absolutely dire and badly scaled CGI/image cloning for the battalion is totally unforgivable in this day and age, when better end results can be seen on you tube with free software.

Ultimately, this film is not so bad that it isn't watchable, (it's even occasionally enjoyable (especially the very well choreographed hand-to-hand fight sequence) but the let-downs outnumber the tolerable parts a little too much for my liking. It's curious to note that, despite my going into this thinking it might be based on a well-loved game, it turned out not to be, but it looked suspiciously like a film from the king of god-awful video game to movie conversions, Uwe Boll. That should say it all, really.

The film lets you know a top secret Russian Cold War project was abandoned in 1973 and everyone associated with it were killed except for 3 scientist who escaped and are still being hunted.

The mystery of identity of the project takes about an hour or so before they reveal it, and at that point the ending drags out about twice as long as it should. However, before that the film runs a number of subplots and gets us confused as to what is going on. This made the film a chore to watch. I am going to summarize the first 23-27 minutes which some might consider a spoiler: John Henderson (Eric Roberst) is part of an arms company. He wants Project 12. (I will omit how he knows about it.) He has hired men to get the remaining scientists as he needs 3 items: The code, the key, and the co-ordinates. They need to get them before the Russians get them. The opening bus scene is repeated 23 minutes later, so you can just ignore it. There is a double agent in the group, but that is not the worst of it.

It is an Eric Roberts film, so don't expect a gem. It is a mixed genre, one that has been done before. Timothy Gibbs gives us a George Clooney type of performance , that was pretty much wasted. The hand to hand/knife scene at the end was a joke of poor camera work and bad choreography. Natasha Alam provides the token eye candy. They missed out having a hot Asian chick.

Guide: F-bomb. No sex or nudity.

PROJECT 12: THE BUNKER is another indie sci-fi/thriller with zero redeeming qualities. The only difference about it is that it was shot in Spain, although it's no different to a bad indie from any other country. Some shady Russian characters conduct top-secret experiments and then attempt to cover them up by killing everyone involved. The rest involves cheap action scenes and characters running about in the dark. Eric Roberts and James Cosmo both play in support and should no better than appearing in such a hopeless production.

A group of mercenaries run afoul of an army of genetically enhanced Russian super soldiers in a top secret underground bunker.

Director Jaime Falero keeps the enjoyable story moving along at a constant pace, maintains a generally serious tone throughout, brings an admirably straightforward pulpy sensibility to the cool premise, and stages a few exciting action set pieces with skill and flair. Moreover, it's acted with zest by a game cast: Eric Roberts as the shifty Henderson, James Cosmo as wise old scientist Brian Balanowsky, Joaquin Sanchez as the fearsome Tabeel, Natasha Alam as the foxy Irina, Timothy Gibbs as the lethal Bruno, and Tony Corvillo as the tough Alan. Both Juanmi Marquez's sharp widescreen cinematography and the pulsating score by Ivan Palomares are up to snuff. An on the money movie.