What a waste of my time!!!

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

Not really a very good movie. It was apparently never intended for theatrical release, nor is it a made-for-cable film. So, keeping in mind that it is a direct-to-video release, it is still not very good. Mario Van Peebles is low-key, even when his character should be more expressive. Rae Dawn Chong looks nice but, but seems to be mailing it in. This may be the fault of the material rather than the actress, though. Zehra Leverman has the most extensive, and the most (relatively) interesting role, and actually does okay with it. I am unfamiliar with her, and she seems to have had a somewhat limited career. Sadly, the film's only real redeeming feature is one quick boob shot from Miss Chong, and several quite nice nude scenes from Ms. Leverman, which are worthwhile, if you are into that sort of thing.

This is on video under the title The Protector. The other reviewers are maybe a bit hard on this one, it's not bad for a TV flick, worth a few rental bucks if you like to see mob action (Ben Gazara is a pretty good aging mob boss), Randy Quaid is his usual self, Peebles is trying to be intense, and he's a good match for Stallone :-) . It's a step above the other recent mob movie Prisoner of Love, and the earlier one Montana. -Bob

I had to cut this movie some slack when I realized that it was a TV movie. Then I smartened up and thought they deserve what they get. This momentary lapse was perhaps caused by a vague bias towards Mario Van Pebbles. Its a bit of a shame he can't can't act any better. The movie is a cop-mob movie not an action movie. It has a couple of sex scenes which are fairly explicit, to distract you from the mediocre nature of the movie. While the makers didn't do a great job, they didn't screw anything up either. They played it safe.

Don't be suckered by the artwork on the box; although the movie announces it's an "action" movie, 99% of the movie is action-free. It's a boring honest-cop/corrupt-cop/mafia story, with no likable or interesting characters. Actually, a lot of movie rips off BASIC INSTINCT, though interestingly, the filmmakers mostly just rip-off the non-erotic scenes from that movie. There are some sex scenes here (one quite explicit), but they aren't erotic; in fact, they are frequently unintentionally funny. Film also suffers from bursts of rapid and incomprehensible editing, and a "twist" ending that you'll see a mile away. And a real bland title ("Protector" - though better, I guess than the original title "Valentine's Day", which remains in the closing credits.) In short, this movie is for nobody, unless you want to see Randy Quaid with a shaved head.