Dark
Commandos
(2001)
fan movie series
Directed by:
Tom Sanders
Plot Summary:
The Dark Commandos ("DC") are a team of vampires working as
an elite covert assassination and special ops unit for the United States
government. Naturally this is a highly secret group. Their identities and
very existence are known only to a handful of top brass, and their orders
come directly from the Oval Office. The group has been active for more
than half a century, since their original member -- a then five hundred
year old vampire -- was captured from the Nazis, who had first pursued the
myth of his existence and finally found him buried in Europe. America's
plans for this creature of the night were not unlike Hitler's scheme: to
raise an "Undead Brigade" -- a nearly invincible team of soldiers
possessing devastating supernatural powers.
(from darkcommandos.com)
Cast:
Justin Neal Thompson …. Non Gage
Christopher Boicelli …. Ed Torin
Bradley Upton …. Dreyfuss
Amber Phillips …. Sue Janic
Jason Cole …. Dwight
Starr Jones …. Caroline
Nikki Parker …. Liz
Warren Davis …. Bobby
Jeff LeBeau …. President Martin Fuller
Ken Salley …. Vice President Christopher Sheehan
Lance Jeffries …. Deputy CIA Director Fisher Prescott
Guest Starring — Episode 5
Michael J. McPhillips as "Father Paul"
Review:
Dark
Commandos is an “Internet-only” movie which means that it is (a)
cheap, (b) has no well-known stars, (c) poor special effects and (d) is
curiously watchable.
Okay, so most
“Internet-only” movies aren’t exactly watchable, but I found sitting
through Dark Commandos to be less of an ordeal than is the case
with similar zero-budget movies.
Dark Commandos
is an ambitious effort about an undercover “black ops” squad of vampires
under the direct command of the President of the United States. No, not
the IRS, but guys going round blowing stuff up, rescuing the Vice
President’s daughter from demented kidnappers and so forth. (We know this
is all fantasy of course since the American Vice President is a black.)
There are no “real”
sets: all the backgrounds are computer-generated, a bit like
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow and
Revenge of the Sith. Except those were
good and here they look like computer game graphics from the 486 CPU era:
all clunky, pixellated and obviously fake.
Still, I was kind
of interested to know what happens next (I only watched seven of the five
minute episodes) and why the Vice President would make ancient jabs about
“semen-stained” dresses. That’s all so, well, 1990s and seems rather petty
compared to “lying about Weapons of Mass Destruction so that we can invade
a country for its oil”.
Check out Dark
Commandos at their website at
www.darkcommandos.com. Just don’t expect any big budget-type
production values or anything profound (why do indie film-makers nowadays
try to imitate mainstream Hollywood instead of making their own
statements?) and you won’t be too sorry about the time you spent
downloading it.
