After an undercover mission in Bucharest to disclose an international gang of weapon dealers, the agent Sonni Griffith is assigned to protect the Romanian Nadia Kaminski, the widow of an accountant of the Romanian Mafia. However, the CIA safe house is broken in by the criminals, and Sonni realizes that the information was leaked from inside the Agency. Alone, trusting only in his friend Michael Shepard, Sonni fights to survive and protect Nadia.
The Detonator begins with a voiceover by an actor who vaguely sounds like lead actor Wesley Snipes. So immediately, it becomes clear that Snipes isn’t doing the ADR. This is typically the case with his b-movie brethren, specifically Steven Seagal. I read that Seagal refuses to do the additional work without an additional fee, so producers are forced to hire a voice actor with a similar tone and infliction. This may have saved the production a few dollars, and Seagal may have felt like he won, but this lack of care mortally wounds his final product. Since The Detonator shows its hand early, it takes work to stay with the film. This isn’t on the level of Snipes’ Art of War (2000); it’s not even on the level of the direct-to-DVD follow-up Art of War II (2007). This is disappointing considering that elements of The Detonator do work.
IRS troubles caused the thespian to have to take on projects that he would have flat-out rejected just a few years prior. The actor’s eclectic filmography is littered with projects that have explored his dramatic, comedic, and action-hero personas. But in the naughts, the majority of Wesley Snipes’ cinematic output was action movies shot in Eastern European locations with obvious budgetary limitations. That’s not to say Director Po-Chih Leong isn’t a talented filmmaker or that he isn’t apt at staging action sequences. It’s quite the opposite. Leong’s 1998 vampire flick Immortality is proof of a command of visual language and creating an atmosphere.
The Detonator ranks on the middle rungs of Snipes’ post-Blade:Trinity film ladder. It’s definitely more watchable than the dreary The Marksman, but not as fun as the previously mentioned Art of War II or The Contractor. Nicolas Cage and Wesley Snipes are way too talented to have been relegated to the bowels of cinema for long stages late in their careers. It’s a shame that they never collaborated on one of these low-brow projects. That’s a pairing I would welcome even in a mediocre programmer like The Detonator.
Directed by: Po-Chih Leong
Written by: Martin Wheeler
Starring: Wesley Snipes, William Hope, Tim Dutton, Silvia Colloca
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