OPERATION DELTA FORCE 2: MAYDAY

1997 / Director. Yossi Wein.
Review by Glenn Cochrane.

The franchise ball is rolling and while I'm watching one OPERATION DELTA FORCE movie I may as well watch 'em all. MAYDAY is the second in the "Operation" series (5th overall Delta Force) and features an entirely new Delta Force team (these guys carry through to the next few instalments). I find it difficult to criticise films like this because they're exactly what you would expect them to be. No matter how bad they are, so long as the action is a-plenty there's not much more you can take from them. In this case I actually think it's a better movie than the previous, despite its lack of star power. To it's credit MAYDAY separates itself from the last movie and offers an entirely new scenario, almost polar opposite to the previous. Most of the movie takes place at sea with the Delta Force called into action when a criminal mastermind hijacks both a cruise ship and a Russian submarine. The overall convention of the movie is generic, as expected, but the overall concept is something different. The action is good enough to hold my attention and clearly most of their budget was blown on pyro. The explosions in the first five minutes alone are enough for ten DIE HARD movies. Unfortunately the same expense wasn't afforded to the set design of the Pentagon interiors. Hilariously the echoed sounds of footsteps can be heard on the faux floors of the stage and I'm sure the walls wobbled at one point. The fact that such things bring amusement to me allows me to forgive... oh and the Russian sub captain is groomed to look just like Sean Connery in HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER. For a television movie MAYDAY delivers. You definitely need a grain of salt to take with this one but if you're looking for a no-brainer action flick... it'll do!

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