Customer Reviews

Breakaway

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a good movie, yet it does have a lot of DIE HARD type stuff in it. In the movie Dean Cain has to stop Eric Roberts from robbing a mall, but he's doing it to save his son. It has some good action sequences and a good ending. There really isn't much wrong with this movie. Watch it.

Though I gave only two stars, this made-for-TV film is not as bad as you expect from that rating. It gives always something to watch, but ... just look at this story, OK? A Chicago cop Lt. Morgan (Dean Cane) finds himself trapped in a shopping center where a group of theives try to steal the money. And his wife (Erika Eleniak, a girl jumping out from a giant cake in "Under Siege") is also trapped there; and the time is Christmas. Does that sound familiar? The situation is directly from one famous Bruce Willis action classic, and moreover, Morgan tries to get in touch with another cop outside the place to tell what is going on, by cell phone this time, not radio.

The hackneyed plot, however, is not to blame; actually, the film is mildly engaging. But the lack of new touch (and money perhap) in action scenes is felt too obviuosly. There is some original things about the film -- a hired Santa with a small bottle hidden in sleeve is one of them -- but they just pass by without being impressive nor effective.

The actors are not bad. Dean Cane plays a guy to whom we can easily relate, but more surprising is Eric Roberts (Julia's brother, well, just in case you forget), who should be given much better materials than here. His 'villain' betrays our expectation, showing more humane side than Allan Rickman's often thatrical mannerism. After all, he is an Oscar-nominee, and is really a good actor. It's just people forgot about that. A shame.

Not bad as you may imagine, and above average as made-for-TV film, "Breakaway" is good for a rainy day afternoon. Excuse me for giving rather unkind review, though, because I expect more from these two actors, who could do better.

If you have been dying to see a ritzy mall decimated, blown up, shattered, broken, etc., then BREAKAWAY (where in the world did the title come from?) is your cup of egg nog. A lot of noisy, really noisy, action scenes fill the screen, and being in a mall, just think of the things you get to blow up or shatter: store windows, tvs, mannequins, mirrors, etc., etc. And it's even better because it's on Christmas Eve in Chicago. A man whose son is dying of leukemia wants to steal about 10 million dollars so he can get his son the 250,000 operation. What does this kindly father plan to do with the left over money? Open a clinic? The movie is implausible as all heck, but it's done with such fervor and kinetic energy, you find yourself getting caught up in it, knowing how implausible it is. Dean Cain seems to be having a good time in his Bruce Willis impersonation and Erika Eleniak is lovely to look at and is certainly improving as an actress. Eric Roberts fills the thief's shoes nicely, but one has to ask if he will ever make a "real" movie ever again; he seems to get stuck in these made for tv or straight to video thrillers. Another annoying aspect of the film is that being a tv movie, we get the commercial breaks, and the time between these segues is unusually long, even for a DVD.
I enjoyed my 90 minutes with this movie: it has a lot of action and Cain and Eleniak are sympathetic, but the drunken Santa was a misfire, and the ending was a little too extended, aside from the fact that it tried to make us feel sorry for Eric Roberts, despite the fact that several people got killed because of his actions and we won't even mention the destruction of property. But, heck, have a good time with it; you'll forget all about it the next morning.

While I must admit that I love Dean Cain and miss Lois and Clark desprately, this movie was a bit unoriginal. Think about it:
1)"Rouge-ish" cop
2)wife is a hostage
3)crooks after millions of dollars in a high tech safe
4)Christmas time
5)"rouge-ish" cop runs around, avoiding bad guys but picking them off, single handedly

Tell me that doesn't scream John McClain.

Dean Cain is great in this action flick. He is a Police officer who suspended can let go of his job to stop the bad guys. When his wife is threaten he show that you can mess with his family.
This is definitely a film not to miss .

Yes ladies and gentlemen- today I was tortured with TWO low budget flicks. Not to mention another low budget movie I saw the other night, so that makes three of them in a row.

Pray was the name of the low budget film I watched the other night and it was the only decent one of the bunch. Take in the fact I made a pointless two hour car ride to a store that was supposed to be open on Mondays but instead was surprisingly closed, and yup, today felt incredibly pointless to me.

Breakaway just stinks, plain and simple. Another typical generic storyline about thieves stealing money. This is one of two problems I was able to spot right away. Such a storyline has been done a million times by now, and it's just become completely pointless. Who cares if they're able to breakaway with the money or not? I certainly don't care.

Heck, let the bad guys take off with the money and everyone live happily ever after. Build a storyline around a set of people starting off as the bad guys, then using the money they steal to do something good in the world by the conclusion of the movie.

The other problem with the movie is that it's not even fun to watch. It's not even fun to laugh at. It tries to be serious, but the acting is definitely weak all around. Not weak in a laughable way either- more like in a very BORING way.

This movie definitely reminds me of Die Hard, but much worse because it's just a knockoff of something done much better years ago. Don't waste your breath with this movie. Don't even waste your breath just thinking about it, in fact.

Very entertaining action-packed movie! Excellent acting and a believable story. Great for any age group.

This is a decent made for TV action movie. It takes lessons from Willis and Schwarzenegger on how to shoot enormous rounds of bullets, make lots of explosions, and kill bad guys in a number of ways. Dean Cain as the off duty suspended cop and Eric Roberts as the level headed leader of the heist team. The robbers are after a large amount of money transferred to the bank from the mall on Christmas Eve. All the actors are reasonably good at their roles. The acting is above par for most B actioners and the story is plausible and the characters lines are done well enough you don't feel abused with giving it the time to watch. For a price below ten dollars it will make a nice inexpensive gift for most men. The DVD is fair quality but does not include extras.

In this movie (produced for cable network TBS, when it was still a superstation), Dean Cain stars as a Chicago cop who accidentally
kills a Chinese businessman, and gets suspended. But, however,
a team of robbers who are trying to rob money from a mall, puts
Cain back into the game, taking his wife (Erika Eleniak), another
mom and her two kids hostage, before Christmas nears. Has a few
lessons in between, but not so good as we thought it would be.

You film buffs should know:

There is a poster for "The One" (Sony, who distributed this,
owns the producer of that film).