According
to civic legend, Lincoln had an emergency escape tunnel dug beneath the White
House, stretching all the way to Chester Duncan’s farm in Port City, North Carolina.
Even the locals admit it seems strange our 16th president would take
refuge in the Tar Heel State, but apparently that tunnel is for real and a band
of false flag bad guys intends to make use of it in Thomas J. Churchill’s Check Point (trailer here), which releases
today on DVD and VOD.
Port
City looks like a pleasant small town. Sheriff Thomas Hancock knows everyone
and the decommissioned Navy battleship in the harbor is a nice tourist attraction.
Unfortunately, the bad guys intend to commandeer it too. They are what you
might call a mixed lot. Some are legit terrorists, like the evil Cyris, whereas
others are supposed patriots determined to stage a coup d’état out of disgust
at rampant government corruption. They have been stoking national anxiety by
abducting and beheading soldiers in the manner of Daesh snuff videos, but local
homeless veteran Roy Boyle discovers the executions are taking place right here
in Port City.
Check Point features a
terrific cast of cult movie stars, including Fred Williamson, William Forsythe,
Michelle Lee, Kane Hodder (the best-known Jason Voorhees from the Friday the 13th franchise), your
freshly crowned WWE Universal Champion (and Celebrity
Apprentice alumnus), Bill Goldberg, and old school martial arts villain (Game of Death, etc.) Mel Novak making a
cameo appearance as the town’s Reverend. It is also refreshingly patriotic and
sympathetic to the challenges faced by veterans experiencing PTSD.
Unfortunately,
that cool cast has to stand around making small talk for the first sixty
minutes while waiting for the narrative to start. Granted, people are
neighborly down south, but this is an unusually chatty film. Frustratingly, you
can also see where corners were cut due to budget constraints. This is
particularly true when the battle is finally joined and a platoon of soldiers
supposedly comes piling out of a small civilian helicopter, as if they were all
crammed in there, clown car-style.
Still,
as farmer Duncan, Williamson brings plenty of attitude and sense of fun to the
film, like the old pro he is. Lee and model Mindy Robinson share a nice fight
scene, while Goldberg is definitely a credible action hero. Just as you might
expect, Hodder’s Cyris makes an entertaining non-horror villain, but he frankly
doesn’t get enough screen time.
