Shakedown (2002)

When you like your viruses shaken not stirred.

Director: Brian Katkin.

Starring: Fred Dryer (Wolfe), Erika Eleniak (Julie Hayes), Wolf Larsen (Alec 'Mac' Mckay), Ron Perlman (St. Joy, aka Christopher Bellows).

Ron Perlman as St. Joy

An average TV movie quality, totally formula story of religious fanatic who gets control of a biochemical virus (think the virus from the movie "The Rock"). Too bad for him that he also gets stuck in a bank building during an earthquake with bank robbers and the government agents trying to stop him (led by the impressively physiqued, mildly entertaining Wolf Larson, backed by Fred Dryer) along with the standard "in the wrong place at the wrong time" spunky female (the forever bland Erika Eleniak) and "lived as a wimp but died as a hero at the last minute" male (Brandon Karrer). Has the standard background story to give sympathy to the religious fanatic (wife and son killed in a police raid a few years previous).

Basically a decent rainy day movie.

Yes, you guessed it, Ron Perlman is the religious fanatic and he gives good "I'm not just the President of 'Psychos R Us,' I'm also a client."

Favorite line, spoken by Ron Perlman after he finds the vial of the virus hidden in Erika Eleniak's cleavage:
"A woman and her mystery."

Availability: VHS and DVD. Suggest: Amazon.com. I have bought from Amazon, new and used items, for years and have had no problems. Please make sure to check that the VHS/DVD is compatible with your country/region.

Worth a rent or buy used (if you must have it for your Ron Perlman movie collection).

The Region 1 DVD has a very interesting audio commentary (I think those with film maker aspirations may especially find it illuminating) with director Brian Katkin and composer Christopher Farrell and this is what they had to say about working with Ron Perlman:

BK = "This is Ron Perlman. (RP's first scene/movie's opening sequence) He's an amazing actor, great guy. I was very lucky to get him in the cast, a lot of fun to work with."

BK = "I was blessed with a great cast. A lot of people I fought hard to get. Ron Perlman was tremendous to work with."

BK = "Ron Perlman stole this scene. (the "Are you awake sinner?"/hostage execution scene) Consumate actor. I think Ron was a little more used to working on bigger budgets and longer shooting schedules than the running gun of this. He's a very irreverent guy, a New Yorker like myself, so he's very very ascerbic."

CF = "What was he like, 'Do you need another take' or 'Let's move on'?"

BK = "He basically, he was, while he was a professional he did not make any bones about working under these conditions that's for sure."

CF = "He knew what he was dealing with."

BK = "Well, the beauty of him is that, you know, he'll slam everybody, he's sort of like the Howard Stern in terms of he'll slam the world but he'll also slam himself and he'll keep you laughing."

CF = "Equal opportunity."

BK = "Right, which was great, and I love that, I love that kind of sarcasm, and we certainly traded barbs, both fun and not so fun, but the thing I've got to say is; any time when I went to him, or any of my actors, there were plenty of times when I said 'Ok look: this scene as written blows. Let's rewrite it, let's rework it, let's try and get something a little more heartfelt, a little more honest,' and we'd sit there and improvise together, and he was right there."

CF = "Well, in the end, I mean the performance is right there on the screen."

BK = "Absolutely. You know, he delivered, although I punished him when we made this scene. I made him do it over and over and over and over and over and over to punish him because the day before he was a pain in my ass. (laughter) But I love him. He's eminently watchable."

By Tressa Lee Breen.

VIDEO

VHS - NTSC (Close-captioned)
Amazon.com

VHS - NTSC (Spanish subtitles)
Amazon.com

VHS - German
Amazon.de

VHS - NTSC (Import)
Amazon.ca

(There is no image available for the video)


DVD

DVD - Region 1 (Close-captioned)
Amazon.com

DVD - Region 0, PAL
Amazon.co.uk

DVD - Region 1, Widescreen (Spanish subtitles)
Amazon.ca

DVD - Region 2
Play.com

For the Perlman Pages section on "Shakedown" click here