Infamousta brilliant actors, brilliant editing

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Ketrivie It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

bkoganbing Michael Dudikoff did not leave behind any of his martial arts skills in not doing an American Ninja film with The Human Shield. He's an ex- marine who is on a mission of mercy to rescue his brother who served in the Gulf War and married a nice Iraqi girl. Unfortunately he got left behind the lines and is now a prisoner. The brother is also a diabetic.Having watched the film I still have no idea what was going on other than brother Tommy Hinkley was used as bait to bring Dudikoff back. He actually had been there before when we liked Saddam Hussein and saw him as a bulwark against Iran. Iraqi General Steve Inwood has a personal score to settle with Dudikoff.The Human Shield is a strangely actionless film for an action adventure martial arts item except for the last 20 minutes or so.I like Michael Dudikoff, he does fit the action adventure mold quite well. But throughout his career he got inferior items like this one.His fans should like it though.

utgard14 The movie starts out with a flashback to when Michael Dudikoff scarred the face of a Saddam Hussein clone in Iraq. Dudikoff is knocked down and then, jarringly, the movie shifts to the present day where that same guy is taking Dudikoff's diabetic brother hostage in order to lure him back to Iraq. The way this is edited is very sloppy and just the first of many signs that this is a Z-grade production made by Cannon in the post-Golan Globus years where they rarely did anything good, even by accident. This is one of those movies where the premise sounds like a lot of fun to fans of cheesy action movies. Who wouldn't want to see Michael Dudikoff kick Saddam Hussein's ass? But unfortunately it just isn't fun. It's all deathly serious but at the same time cheap and predictable. The action is uninspired and there are no memorable lines or catchphrases. It's strictly dullsville.

Comeuppance Reviews It was 1985 when Doug Matthews (Dudikoff) first crossed paths with the diabolical Dallal (Inwood) while he was in the military working for the U.S. embassy. Matthews was stationed in northern Iraq, and the two men had a life-changing altercation. Fast-forward five years later, and Matthews is safe back home in America...but Dallal's goons have kidnapped his brother Ben (Hinkley). Receiving no support from his own government, it's not long before Matthews goes rogue and travels back to Baghdad to rescue his beloved brother. He gets his Kurdish friend Tanzil (Gavriel) to help him, as well as an old acquaintance, a doctor named Lila (Azoulay-Hasfari), but it's going to be difficult to face the ruthless Dallal and his supporters. With the clock running out on the life of the diabetic Ben, Doug Matthews is going to have to shield himself from the onslaught of bullets...HUMAN shield himself! Yeah, that's the ticket...The Human Shield was perfect for video stores in 1991 - it starts with Dudikoff riding an open-topped jeep in the desert with his awesome hair blowing freely in the breeze. Jeeps seem to be Dudikoff's vehicle of choice in this movie; he really uses them to maneuver around the machine gun fire and even rocket launchers aimed at him this time around. It's also perfect for video stores because before the movie starts, there are no trailers for other Cannon films, or any other movies, but there is an anti-drug PSA. You gotta love the 90's. It truly was a time when anti-drug PSA's were inescapable: you couldn't even watch Parker Lewis Can't Lose or any of your other favorite shows without crazed maniacs smashing fried eggs or children screaming "I learned it from watching youuuuuuuu!!!!!". You go pop in a VHS tape looking for some respite, and they're there too. No wonder no one does drugs anymore.But back to the topic at hand, the movie is filled with innumerable mustachioed extras. At any given point while watching The Human Shield, there are an average of five men in the background, whether they be soldiers, baddies, or just plain townspeople, with thick black mustaches. It was either the height of fashion in the middle east, or maybe it was a "no mustache, no paycheck" financial matter. Regardless, it truly is a catalogue of distinctive facial hair on your screen.If you enjoyed films such as Death Before Dishonor (1987) and Dudikoff's Chain of Command (1994), you'll surely also like The Human Shield, even if it does have some slow moments, as well as some awkward camera zooms. Those things shouldn't be enough to put you off. Dudikoff has to pretty much carry the movie on his shoulders, and while he is capable of doing that, another major name would have helped out the proceedings. Someone like Lee Majors the Second, Jay Roberts Jr. or Evan Lurie, to name but a few shining stars in the DTV firmament, could have helped Dudikoff bear his load. But the movie does include many of our favorite items: plenty of blow-ups and shooting, not one, but two screams of "Nooooooooo!!!!", and of course a baddie admonishing his underlings that there better be "No More Mistakes".It was also somewhat refreshing that Dudikoff's brother was kidnapped. It's not usually an adult male that is the target of the hero's rescue mission. It's usually a woman, a young girl, or a young boy. So that was an interesting difference. Also we got to be privy to the Pentagon gym. There's even a title card on-screen that tells us we're in the Pentagon gym. Never before have our eyes gotten to witness where Dick Cheney does his squat thrusts and where Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA) blasts his lats. Thank you Human Shield for this inside information.The Human Shield is classic early-90's Dudikoff fare.

MichaelM24 The first film to be made that references the Gulf War, THE HUMAN SHIELD finds Dudikoff heading to the Middle East when his brother is taken prisoner just as he's about to leave Iraq with his wife and daughter. Like any good brother, Dudikoff gets mad and decides to kick butt in his quest to free his little brother. Sneaking his way into the country, Dudikoff sets out to track down the diabolical dictator who headed the abduction and provide a good example of family values. Though I haven't seen the film in a while, I remember it moving pretty well and containing some decent action scenes, and I recall the climactic fight between big brother and big bad guy (in the big bad guy's stronghold, of course) to be pretty exciting.