The Detonator (Video 2006)

Sonni Griffith, a top US Secret Agent must protect a witness as he crosses Europe.

Director:

Po-Chih Leong

Writer:

Martin Wheeler

Stars:

Wesley Snipes, William Hope, Tim Dutton

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Wesley Snipes	...	Sonni Griffith
William Hope	...	Michael Shepard
Tim Dutton	...	Jozef Bostanescu
Silvia Colloca	...	Nadia Cominski
Matthew Leitch	...	Dimitru Ilinca
Bogdan Uritescu	...	Pavel
Warren Derosa	...	Mitchel
Michael Brandon	...	Flint
Vincenzo Nicoli	...	Yuri Mishatov
Stuart Milligan	...	Greenfield
Evangelos Grecos	...	Kravchenko
Mihnea Paun	...	Alex
Florian Ghimpu	...	Nita
Valentin Teodosiu	...	Czeslaw
Tania Popa	...	Ana

Storyline

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.

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Plot Keywords:

Interracial Romance | Blood Spatter | Showdown | Suspense | Gunfight | 

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Taglines:

Betrayal is part of the game,

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Genres:

Action | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence, language and some nudity

Details

Country:

USA Romania

Language:

English

Release Date:

25 April 2006 (USA)

Also Known As:

John Doe

Filming Locations:

Bucharest, Romania

Box Office

Budget:

$15,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Andrew Stevens Entertainment, Castel Film Romania, Donald Kushner Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

91 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The day and month of Wesley Snipes character's birthdate of July 31, as seen in his secret file, is accurate, although its year of 1969 makes him seven years younger than Snipes, who was born in 1962.

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Goofs

In the boom shot when the Hummer approaches the Ukraine border, 2 sets of wooden (called "apple") boxes and shot bags can be see placed in front of the wheels to stop the vehicle on a specific mark, which it hits and rocks a bit. In the next shot, they are gone.

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Connections

Features 7 Seconds (2005)
flashbacks

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Soundtracks

"Everyday"
Composed by Mike Griffin
Published by Mike Griffin Music

User Reviews

Close Your Eyes

I rented this movie last week and after watching Snipes' 7 Seconds movie, this one was definitely a significant improvement.

One of the things that bothered me was there were numerous areas where I could not understand what was being said and I even hit the remote to go back again and again and still remained stumped. There was no English closed-captions/subtitles option on the DVD, so I was stuck with moving on. One comment from numerous Asians I know whom have come to live in the USA and have learned to speak our language is, "I try to watch African-American movies, but can't understand what they are saying." I had a few areas of trouble with understanding some English spoken in Van Damme's movie Second in Command and that DVD didn't offer English subtitles/closed captions option either.

The second main thing that bothered me was with the sound affects. If you close your eyes and listen to the gunfire and explosions ... they all sounded the same, like someone banging a bat against a piece of thick glass. I appreciated the sound in one scene near a swimming pool and could hear the pool's water, but then poof the sound of this just disappeared ... but was nicely replaced with the sound of a light breeze through the trees. At least in this movie the irritating same old clapping boom boom sound was absent for the background action scenes. But, do all car engines racing around in streets and different guns being fired and numerous explosions have the same sounds? This movie like 7 Seconds contains pretty much the same visual candies and the car chases really could get lessened and shortened. They reek of filler padding to add length to what would probably be a TV length show if cut out. We have come to expect action films to have loads of visual candy, but the combination of lackluster sound affects and padding took this movie down more notches than it deserved. The visuals were good, but my ears were insultingly assaulted. LOUD can go only so far before I'm mentally handicapped.

Once again, the script was very good and so was the acting. There was not as much of Snipes' bopping heads as other movies. Snipes has a tough guy image that perhaps he should shed and consider calmer/quieter scripts. This movie would have done better if it had less padding and a better sound crew (plus add subtitles!). I wasn't disappointed in watching this movie and would recommend it for at least a one time viewing. I wouldn't buy the DVD.