Called to Duty

CalledToDuty

Director Ashley L. Gibson
Starring Joseph Baena, Susannah Jane, Cabrina Collesides, Brandi Mosko & Toni Ann Gisondi
Score 1/6

The United States is threatened by ballistic missile attacks from a secretive island nation and must strike before it’s too late. Their best pilots, an elite female team, are chosen to join Lt. Andrew “Bells” Harris on a dangerous preemptive strike.

Okay, I have been procrastinating a little with this review trying to figure out exactly what I was going to say about Called to Duty, which was released in the USA on the first of July. This isn’t the best of movies. For those of you who ever wondered what Top Gun  might have looked like without the involvement of the US Department of Defence I’m pretty sure it would have looked like Called to Duty and I’m pretty sure the reason why that support was withheld was because of the third act of the movie. I thought it was interesting that the filmmakers used RC Jets instead of stock footage (like I thought they did).
I will admit that I did like the soundtrack and there were some nice tracking shots of horse riding on “Country’s family farm. There was the occasional line of a dialogue that was a  gem and the actors cast as the ‘Wing Girls’ had enough chemistry that you would believe them as a millitary unit. But that  really wasn’t enough to save the movie for the most part Called to Duty was a clumsy mess that brought forth some uninspired performances and some gaps in logic from the part of filmmakers. For example Susannah Jane’s big dramatic moment as “Country” Riebach during the briefing final mission came off as being more hilarious then as being noble (though I suppose we should congratulate the filmmakers for loading Chekhov’s Gun for her), her moment made me think of Pauly Shore’s Bones Conway ‘I’m just a waterboy’ attitude from the movie In The Army Now and also left me wondering why her character didn’t end up on some sort of charge. I really didn’t think much of.Joseph Baena’s (who apparently was in his first action role) performance as  “Bells” Harris because there really wasn’t much to the role. Though it was a good idea to give Baena, who is Arnold Schwarzenegger’s son, a scene in the gym.
Even though I thought that Called to Duty didn’t earn its ending, I am curious about the direction the filmmaker’s will go with the story if they get the sequel they teased and to see if they learned something from making Called to Duty.



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