Plato's Run (1997)

Ah, Gary Busey.  He's a moderately successful actor -- a household name, even -- but he has one problem.  He's always a bad guy.  Why?  Well, he just looks mean.  And not mean in a world-conquering, awe-inspring heavy sort of way; no, he usually plays the henchman or under-heavy because he looks mean in the kick-the-dog, rocksalt-the-trick-or-treaters, Nazi-bastard way.

You can see how that would wear on an actor; aside from playing Buddy Holly (back before he looked like himself), everything people remember him for is a bad guy.  "Hey, you betrayed the ship in Under Siege!"  "Hey, you got in Danny Glover's face in Predator 2!"  "Hey, you held a lighter to your arm to prove your devotion in Lethal Weapon!"  Admit it -- if you were Gary, wouldn't you seek out some good-guy roles, even if the movies weren't top-notch?

And so, a Gary-Busey-as-hero movie (movie review from "write my essay" service).

He plays Plato Smith, ex-military stud and CIA operative, now retired and trying to patch things up with his neglected 16-year-old daughter.  It doesn't help that his two best buddies are also ex-military, now good-natured mercenenaries:  Sam (Steven Bauer, and isn't it pathetic that I recognize him from Gleaming the Cube?) and Dominick (Jeff Speakman, in his late nineties doughy mode).

Out of money, Plato gets roped into one last job by a former lover, Marta, who's now working for the mysterious Mr. Senarkian (Roy Scheider).  The assignment: Rescue the son of Miami Cuban gun-runner Manuel Gomez, who has escaped from a Cuban jail and is stranded on the beach.  Plato and Sam get him out effortlessly (owing to the fact that, apparently, Cubans can't shoot for beans), but then they hit the snag:  The real son died in the escape, and this imposter is actually an assassin sent to rub out Gomez by Senarkian, a rival arms dealer.  The imposter kills Gomez and plants the gun in the unconscious Plato's hand.  So now Plato's on the run (thus the title).

Although the Internet Movie Database lists this as a direct-to-video release, something about the production just screams "Made for cable!"  Everything is clean and well-lit; there are plenty of explosions and helicopter shots; but the storyline shies away from any real personal pain and drama, and instead keeps things light and inconsequential.  Now, there are many light movies out there; most comedies are light, and a goodly portion of the standard action-adventure fare is fairly by-the-numbers.  But the one genre that doesn't do light very well is the suspense thriller, which is what Plato's Run is.  Like Supreme Sanction, reviewed a few months back, it founders in post-Cold War malaise, trying to find a heavy worth the effort.

But too much of it is paint-by-numbers.  See if you can guess the payoff to these obvious setups:

•         Plato has a daughter.  What are the odds she'll end up being the hostage/bait in the last act?

•         Said daughter also insists on calling Plato by name.  What are the odds that by the finale she'll start calling him "Dad"?

•         Marta is an old flame for whom Plato still has feelings.  What are the odds she's going to buy the farm?

•         There's a mine field to begin the movie, and a mine field in the middle.  What are the odds Plato and Sam will be caught in a mine field at the end?

•         Senarkian has a dog.  What are the odds that there'll be a scene in which he shows his love for his dog and his callous disregard for human life?

Aside from the obvious stuff, the rest of the plot is a mix of intelligence-insulters and non sequiturs.

At one point, Plato actually thinks that a light suit, silly hat, and glasses will serve as a disguise; when they don't, it's only by the happenstance of a camera crew with nothing better to do that interview Miamians (Miamiites?  the Miamish?) on the street that he gets away.

Later, Marta inexplicably gets the video that Senarkian has of the assassination taking place, which will clear Plato.  She actually shows up at Plato's hiding place, gets right down to painfully bad dialog like "I still love you, even though you're impossible," and promptly gets shot by the imposter, who's still on Plato's tail.  The imposter then reports to Senarkian that Plato shot Marta.  Huh?  Very little sense to be had in that sequence.

There are also subplots dealing with a Gomer local policeman, and Gomez's former bodyguards, both of which peter out and disappear halfway through.

The ending takes place in the requisite industrial warehousey place in the middle of nowhere; we get to welcome back Dominick, who had disappeared for an hour of the movie; apparently they just introduced him at the start so we'd recognize his face when he comes back to be the sharp-shooting cannon fodder.  (Whoops, did I give too much away?)

Despite all this, it could have been a passable movie if it weren't for Gary Busey.  Not that his acting is abysmal; it's certainly no worse than his co-stars.  But face it:  You expect him to be mean.  And when he isn't, he isn't remarkable enough in any other way to replace the meanness you expect.  Like most of the rest of this movie, he's Gary Busey Lite, and though it's less filling, it doesn't taste great.