Omega Syndrome

• Directed by Joseph Manduke
• January 23, 1987 (US)

When a former soldier’s daughter is kidnapped by a gang of white supremacists, he and an old comrade go to rescue her.

For a movie involving white supremacists killing people, Omega Syndrome occasionally gets a bit stereotypical in its portrayal of certain groups or dialogue that those characters use. I was not expecting a deep or thoughtful film but rather a dumb actioner. Even a dumb actioner should avoid having their minority characters sounding like borderline racist caricatures.

Ken Wahl had his moments as an actor but was more serviceable than great in retrospect. He stars here as our hero Jack Corbett who is in a race to find his daughter Jessie (Nicole Eggert) from a white supremacist terrorist group called Omega. He is aided in his quest by balding Army buddy Phil Horton (George DiCenzo). Rounding out the good guy cast is B and Z movie veteran Doug Not Troy McClure as police Detective Milnor whose attitude borders on ‘you darn kids’ whenever he needs to scold the pair for their unsanctioned efforts. McClure gets a bad rap as an actor and sometimes that’s deserved. His strength lay in improving the scripts of cheesy B movies. In wannabee action thrillers not so much.

The dialogue and the acting are often atrocious. It is everything bad you remember about the scripts of low budget or direct-to-video movies from the period. Lines almost make sense but at the same time do not quite fit with what is going on. Something is just off. Performances can be wooden by even (eventually) seasoned performers who show up. Xander Berkley shows up as Yo-Yo and noted character actor and Star Trek veteran Colm Meaney has a part as Irish bomb maker Sean.

Our hero Jack is an alcoholic writer with a dead wife. Her father has custody of Jessie, but Jack gets visitation from time to time. It’s practically the basis for it Over the Top though without the father-son bonding as they travel to an arm-wrestling competition.

The cinematography of Omega Syndrome is reminiscent of a TV show from the 80s. Sometimes camera zooms are just enlarging a still image. Watching this movie, I can’t help but think of all the poorly made films that turned into something good in completely unintended ways. This is one of those movies that had that kind of potential. With a few more unskilled hands trying to make something good I think it could have ranked right up there with a likes of Miami Connection or Samurai Cop. Sadly for this film (and the unfortunate viewer) just enough skill present that the intended vision gets through.

This is very leisurely paced. Despite guns and explosions, it never gets crazy. Maybe because no character or actor seems to care about squat other than Colm Meaney. His character is very serious about those bombs and about not being part of a white supremacist movement. He says that with an earnestness demonstrating in this early role why he is still working today. Meaney being one of the great characters actors out there puts real effort into his performance. Director Joseph Manduke certainly did not care about action or tension or excitement.

Is this a fun adventure film or a serious action movie? Joseph Manduke could not decide. Occasionally there are jokes and occasionally there is tough talk. Worst part is I have no idea what the white supremacist plot is other than to kill interracial couples or just in general non-white people. They have a bomb maker, but what are they planning on bombing? To be fair I did tune out a little bit because I was getting bored but if it was mentioned those mentions were few.

The music for this is just awful. It just does not work for the movie. Something is just so wrong about it. Maybe because it’s just so thin and almost like incidental music rather than music to aid the moment. It’s just there to prevent silence.

With boring acting and boring action and a boring execution of the plot, Omega Syndrome is boring. Never gets to be an accidentally good film despite having all the ingredients to be one. I can’t even recommend this to view the viewers of bad movies. I really wish I could get the 90 minutes that it took back. Save yourself some pain and PTSD and don’t watch.