Bullet Points: Epicenter (2000)

Much like Cannon Films before it, PM Entertainment had a stable of stars that they would feature multiple times over the years. If I had to pick a single poster boy for PM Entertainment it would probably be Gary Daniels… who worked his way up the ranks of PM Entertainment in the 1990s.

So it was no surprise when PM tapped Daniels to star in their action/disaster flick Epicenter, along side two other PM Entertainment veterans, Jeff Fahey and Traci Lords…

• Constantine: Nick Constantine (Gary Daniels, Recoil) may look like a mild-mannered employee of Global Technology, but the recent death of his wife has changed him. Nick Constantine holds Global Technology responsible for the death of his wife and he is about to get even in a major way. Nick has agreed to steal a top secret computer program/microchip for some Russian mobsters and he does so with the help of a smoke bomb and a Discman. The smoke bomb forces the buidling to evacuate and it was so effective I think some members of the crew shooting the movie also evacuated the set, most notably the continuity person… because with everyone outside, Nick uses the distraction to do his dirty work… and sometimes Nick has his sport coat on and sometimes Nick’s sport coat is hanging off the back of his chair. Sport coat or not, Nick accomplishes his mission… now it is time to deliver to the Russians.

• Undercover Mother: The FBI is well aware that the Russians were up to some shady shit so they have an undercover agent insider their organization in the form of Roxy the computer specialist (Traci Lords, Ice). Roxy is actually FBI Agent Amanda Foster. In addition to her undercover duties, Amanda has her hands full with her teenage daughter Robyn, who is getting fed up with taking a back seat to her mom’s job. Roxy/Amanda is at the strip club office when Nick shows up to conduct his business with Tanya and Ivan Semenov, who are representing their boss Dimitri. But Nick Constantine proves he has some serious negotiating skills, as he provides the computer program that will allow the possessor to be able to track stealth planes… but he doesn’t provide the chip needed to unencrypt the program and he won’t until he gets his full $15 million dollar payoff… this is when Roxy reveals she’s really Amanda Foster with the FBI and all hell is about to break loose.

• Rice-a-Roni: Nick makes a run for it, but Amanda is hot on his trail… she tries to arrest him as he is driving away and ends up riding shotgun as Nick is pursued by Ivan Semenov on the streets of San Francisco which means a cable car was incorporated in the usual PM Entertainment vehicular mayhem. Despite all the chaos Amanda is still able to bring Nick in… but she is none too happy when after all the work she put into the case to learn that the higher ups, specifically FBI Agent Moore (Jeff Fahey, The Sweeper), are taking over and want Nick transferred to the Federal Building in Los Angeles. Amanda is able to convince her boss to allow her to accompany Nick to LA.

• I Was Told This Was An Earthquake Movie: When Amanda and Nick arrive in Los Angeles, they hear from Agent Moore that there’s been a change in plans and instead of the Federal Building they should meet him at a restaurant… this seems a bit peculiar to Amanda but it all makes sense when Agent Moore reveals he is dirty and working with the Russians. Bullets start flying but moments later the earth starts shaking! It is total pandemonium in Los Angeles with buildings swaying, bricks falling from the sky, fires everywhere and now Nick and Amanda find themselves forced to work together against dirty agent Moore and the Russian mob, all while navigating the rubble and destruction of Southern California…. destruction that Amanda’s daughter finds herself in too, since Robyn took off to visit her father after Amanda let her down yet again. This raises the stakes and makes Amanda’s situation both professional and personal.

2000’s Epicenter is far from Gary Daniels’ best PM Entertainment work and the same could probably be said about Traci Lords. It felt a lot like a made for TV movie, with the exception of Tanya Semenov’s sex scene which had a buttload of gratuitous nudity. Epicenter would pair nicely with another slightly below average PM Entertainment disaster flick I covered, Escape from Alaska aka Avalanche.

These Bonus Bullet Points are guaranteed to pair nicely with the rest of this review…

• Recycled Footage: PM Entertainment has been known to use some recycled footage in their movies and their television series L.A. Heat. The recycled footage is usually from their own library, but in the case of Epicenter, PM recycled some elevator shaft footage from Speed.
• Five Questions: When Nick Constantine shows up for work at the beginning of the movie, he has a Discman in his brief case, which is not a common occurrence. The security guard questions why Nick has brought a Discman with him? Nick tells him he brought it to listen to the Neil Diamond CD he just picked up. Which leads to the natural follow up question of, does the CD feature “America”? My question is, who the hell is Bill Diamond? Because that is clearly the name on the CD when the security guard checks, not Neil Diamond. If they couldn’t legally show a Neil Diamond CD, then why even say it was a Neil Diamond CD to begin with? Why not just make up an artist, like one named Bill Diamond?
• Rap It Up: The end credits of Epicenter feature the “Epicenter Rap” and it is a hip hop gift from the movie gods for those who decide to stick it out to the very end. The opening verse of the rap is… “Stealing microchips was not my thang, but neither was my baby lying dead in vain”.