Burn Notice: The Fall of Sam Axe

As a long-time Bruce fan (I first saw Evil Dead in the early 90's, not realizing the man already had a cult fan base), I enjoyed every scene Bruce was in, and since he was in virtually every scene in the film, obviously I enjoyed most of the film. The doctor guy was annoying, the love interest was whiny but an OK foil, the teen girl was hot but evidently found the scenery too tempting to resist gobbling up in big bites. The villains were competently played but telegraphed oily evil immediately, losing all sense of suspense there.

It was predictable and a bit preachy, and the mention of the SOA was bordering on heavy-handed, but Bruce charms and smirks his way through it and makes an otherwise forgettable bit of tripe an actual pleasure to watch. It is significant, however, that no one but him could have.

Of course, one doesn't watch Bruce Campbell for the outstanding special effects (Alien Apocalypse, anyone?), the great supporting cast (The Man with the Screaming Brain?), or the realistic, down-to-earth plots (any Evil Dead you care to name), one watches for Bruce. By that standard, this movie does fine.

... and if you are not one, you should be.

Look, Campbell was pushing 60 when he did this and his performance is so smooth that he qualifies for the title KING OF COOL with the likes of Steve McQueen and John Travolta.

The whole thing has a tongue in cheek feel, but that is hardly a bad thing since most of the headlines these days have a foot in your *&&%% feel.

The dialogue is sharp, the scenery is interesting, the women (all two of them) are pretty, and there is a beginning a middle and even an end to the story.

What more could anyone ask for?

Burn Notice: The Fall of Sam Axe is a journey into the past of the series' most enigmatic character as only Bruce Campbell can play him.

Set in 2005, the movie follows Sam's last mission as a Navy Seal before he wound up retired in Miami. A moment of indiscretion gets Sam sent into the South American jungles to deal with a terrorist group causing havoc. But, things aren't what they seem.

So far, the biggest complaints about this movie are that some of the uniforms are inaccurate, which means they must be doing everything else right. As made for TV movies go, this was very good. Even thought it felt more like one of Bruce's B-movie romps than an actual extension of Burn Notice, that only helps bring home the fun of the movie. Bruce gets many a great line, and a few nods to both his past and his fans.

The other characters ranged from well-acted to a kind of meh performance, and the overall direction by Jeffrey Donovan was well done. Fans of both Bruce and Burn Notice will enjoy this picture and come away feeling satisfied. Was this necessary? Maybe not. Was it worth it? Hell yes.

For whatever reason I never knew this even existed and just watched it this night (6-26-13).

The movie itself was nothing to write home about but was nice to see Sam being Sam.

With Burn Notice ending after this season I am actually glad I didn't know about this till now as it was the beginning to the end of a TV show I greatly enjoyed.

For such a hodgepodge character set I was always amazed that they made it work. Campbell's character was a big part of its success and quite possibly its glue.

If you are a fan of the show it is worth watching.

The long anticipated prequel to the Burn Notice series answered many of our nagging questions about the series and Sam Axe in particular; but, posed even more. Matt Nix (the writer) and Bruce Campbell (the actor) played the Sam Axe character true to the form we would expect of a former Navy SEAL, if anything even more so. Affable, caring, not taking himself too seriously -- but with a high sense of loyalty and duty as well as street savvy. For the most part, a "squared away" SEAL - except that most of those guys that I'm acquainted with are quite a bit more serious, and anything but easy going.

Unfortunately, not all the show's characters fared the same. Don't get me wrong, none were poor actors; just that, some were weaker than others. And, most were appropriate for the genre and situation; but, just as in the series, some were written unbelievably stupid, or uni-dimensional or repetitive. Matt does seem to have a bit of a penchant for writing controlling shrews as lead female characters.

The director, Jeffery Donovan (Michael in the series), and writer are apparently much more acquainted with crooks, thugs and terrorists than they are with anything military. Guns, bombs and thugs are portrayed with amazing accuracy but anything military (especially Navy) seems to end at the mere term: "Navy SEAL." Supposedly Mr. Nix relies heavily on spy consultants but no one associated with the show appears to have even served in the military. No attempt seems to have been made to even approximate the correct insignias, uniforms, badges or military law (J.A.G) processes.

None-the-less, the series isn't about the military, TV budgets aren't the same as movies, Jeffery is a beginning director, and Matt... well he's Matt, one of a kind. The character-driven story was so compelling that, if you didn't look too deeply, or become annoyed with the characterizations, it was two hours well spent. Followers of the series will not be disappointed and will be well served with the new explanations, the new questions to answer, the expansion on a well-liked character, AND a great filler to a terribly long season hiatus.