The Gratuitous B-Movie Column: The Silencer

Dudikoff December: Week 4

Hello, everyone, and welcome once again to the internets movie review column that has never participated in a wide ranging international conspiracy (or, really, any kind of conspiracy. Who has the time to be a part of shit like that?), The Gratuitous B-Movie Column, and I am your host Bryan Kristopowitz. In this issue, issue number five hundred and thirty-seven, Dudikoff December concludes with the low budget action flick The Silencer, which hit home video in late September 2000.

The Silencer

The Silencer, directed by Robert Lee, stars Michael Dudikoff as Quinn Simmons, a badass professional assassin for The Group, an international, ultra-right wing cabal that attempts to influence world affairs from the shadows. When we first meet Simmons, he’s taking out an FBI counter intelligence analyst named McGraw (Doug Abrahams) who was hot on the trail of the Group’s newest scheme, to assassinate a pesky U.S. Senator that plans on running for president one day (I guess the senator in question isn’t in the Group’s pocket, or has refused. The Group doesn’t like the guy at all). Simmons takes care of McGraw quickly and efficiently. Simmons is a professional that takes pride in his work and killing technique. Simmons is also disturbed by his job and the effect it has on his psyche. Simmons doesn’t seem to like working for The Group all that much, but he’s in no position to get away from the organization. Simmons is in one of those “once you’re in you can never leave” type situations. Simmons tries to make the best of it, but, in his heart, he just doesn’t want to do it anymore.

After killing McGraw, Simmons is charged with helping train new potential assassin Jason Black (Brennan Elliott), a brash young hoodlum that wants to kill people and make lots and lots of money. Simmons isn’t all that interested in doing that, either, but he gives Black a chance to show him what he can do. Now, at least at the beginning, Simmons doesn’t know that Jason Black is actually Jason Wells, an undercover FBI agent charged by FBI bigwig Neal Donavan (Terence Kelly) to infiltrate The Group and find out what the hell they’re up to. Donovan has a hard on for destroying the Group, and Wells wants to succeed at his task so he can clear his father’s name (his father was implicated in some shady shit back in the day) and, well, move up in his FBI career.

So Simmons trains Black in the assassination/killing arts, and Black accumulates as much information as he can and filters it back to Donovan. Simmons doesn’t trust Black at all and hates that Black is brash, young, and kind of stupid. Black doesn’t seem to understand that, in order to be a top notch professional assassin, you need to be quick and efficient. The faster you kill a man the better it will be for you in the long run. An injured target is a dangerous target. Simmons gives Black several manuals to read on how to be a proficient assassin and tries to show him what he needs to do in the field.

Now, while all of that is going on, Simmons tries to find a way out of the business. He would love to leave the assassination business and spend all of his time with his teacher girlfriend Jill (Gabrielle Miller), although Jill isn’t too keen on spending the rest of her life with Simmons as he refuses to explain who he is or give out any information about where he comes from or what he does for a living. Simmons would like to be honest with Jill, but he knows that if he lets her into his world that she will be in danger.

So some stuff happens, Simmons finishes Black’s assassin training, and The Group leader Rodeski (Peter LaCroix) puts both Simons and Black into the field to assassinate the senator. Black is super up for it, but Simmons tells him to quit, to walk away from The Group and the life before it consumes him. He still has time to do it, apparently. Black refuses. Black wants to go through with the assignment. So Simmons and Black get into position and make an effort to complete the assignment. They surround the senator and initiate their scheme to take him out. But before Black can pull the trigger, someone else shoots the senator dead. Who the hell did it? What the hell is going on here?

And it’s at this point that both Simmons and Black realize that they’ve been had, that they’ve been double crossed, and that they’re both in deep shit, especially Black. The media suddenly has all sorts of information about Black and now he’s a wanted man. Black attempts to contact Donovan and get out of the situation he finds himself in, but Donovan tells him that he can’t do anything, at least not at the moment. In the big scheme of things, it’s more important for Black to maintain his cover identity than anything else. The Group is still out there and still dangerous as hell. That’s still the focus.

So then some more stuff happens, Black is interrogated by the police, and Simmons decides to show up at the police station as Black’s “lawyer” in order to break him out. It’s the only way Black is going to have a chance at surviving this whole thing. And it’s at this point that we find out that Donovan isn’t exactly on the up and up. There’s something potentially even more sinister than The Group at play here.

The rest of the movie is Simmons and Black (Simmons knows by this point that Jason Black isn’t Jason Black and that he’s Jason Wells of the FBI) trying to outrun various entities trying to kill them. Will our heroes manage to survive this onslaught?

Kind of sounds like a riff on the original The Mechanic starring big Chuck Bronson and Jan Michael Vincent, doesn’t it? Or, really, any movie that does the whole “master assassin teaches a new young killer how to be an assassin” thing. And, for the most part, that aspect of The Silencer works fairly well. Dudikoff and Elliott work well together as teacher and pupil, and the whole “the world is filled with various conspiracies” aspect of the plot gives their relationship a nasty, sad edge. When the big double cross thing happens, though, the movie’s feel actually changes, and The Silencer suddenly becomes less interesting. The movie doesn’t get bad or anything, but that tone shift isn’t really necessary. I get why Donovan is revealed to be a bad guy, but it isn’t a shocking reveal at all. You sort of expect it to happen. So why not not do that and end on a sour note, with the FBI undercover operation unravelling because The Group is everywhere and Simmons and Black fighting to stay alive, perhaps dying in the end because that’s just how nasty The Group is? That probably would have been more satisfying.

It also would have been interesting to see a good guy Donovan try to come up with another scheme after the Black scheme failed. That could have been somewhat inspiring to see, even though doing it again is probably fruitless. I mean, can any one man really defeat/dismantle something as insidious as The Group?

Of course, having Simmons die a sort of hero while not succeeding taking out The Group could have been too downbeat an ending. It’s probably best not to kill Simmons anyway. No potential sequel if the star of the movie is killed.

The action in The Silencer is fairly well done. There isn’t enough of it, but the stuff we do get is well staged and generally exciting. The action really amps up towards the end of the movie. There’s also a terrific car stunt towards the end of the movie that absolutely needs to be seen. When I say that one car goes flying that car goes goddamn flying. The assassin tradecraft on display isn’t anything new (if you’ve seen any movie about someone learning the assassination business you know what it takes to be an assassin in a movie) but Dudikoff manages to sell it and make it interesting. The locations used aren’t that visually arresting (it looks like an action movie made in Canada), but then that lack of visual explosiveness helps make the day in, day out of the assassination game rather mundane, which is what you want in a movie where being a professional assassin is just a job.

I do like the apartment that Simmons lives in. It’s so sterile looking inside that it’s hard to believe that anyone lives there, but someone does. And when you realize that, you start to wonder how anyone could live there. Yes, an assassin needs to be able to drop everything and move on and it’s a good idea not to have too much stuff to leave behind, but, man, assassins have to live and have hobbies and shit, don’t they? Snow globes can’t possibly be a hobby, can they?

Dudikoff does a great job as professional assassin Quinn Simmons. Dudikoff gives Simmons a dark, sad demeanor, which kind of riffs on his Joe Armstrong performance at the beginning of the first American Ninja movie, but Armstrong had a humanity that he tried to suppress because he didn’t want to get close to anyone. Simmons has a humanity that he wants to express but his job forces him to keep it under wraps as much as possible. Dudikoff does a good job in the action scenes he’s in, and, in the end, you totally buy him as a professional assassin. It would be interesting to see Dudikoff try this kind of character on again, either Simmons or someone like Simmons. Maybe make a TV show out of it? I’d watch that show.

Brennan Elliott does a decent job as Jason Wells/Jason Black. His physical transformation into Black is kind of weird, with new hair that looks like a wig/some sort of weave as opposed to “real” hair. He’s definitely more confident as Wells, though, something else I found weird. You’d think he’d be more confident as Black, at least when he’s portraying Black. He isn’t, though. Elliott has good chemistry with Dudikoff, and that helps make their teacher-student relationship that much more believable. Elliott, at least in this role, isn’t as good as Dudikoff action hero wise, but he does a good enough job to be watchable. That’s what’s most important.

Terence Kelly isn’t very interesting at the beginning of the movie as FBI bigwig Neal Donavan, but that all changes when it’s revealed that he’s a lying piece of shit. When Donavan starts talking to a portrait of J. Edgar Hoover, you’ll wonder why he wasn’t this batshit throughout the movie. I mean, the guy becomes damn near insane at the end. I still think, though, that the movie would have been more successful if Donovan was just a regular old good guy and wasn’t a double crossing asshole.

Gabrielle Miller is terrific as Jill Martin, the perpetually distraught girlfriend of Quinn Simmons. You can tell that she loves him deeply, that she wants to be with him, but because he’s so secretive about his life, job, etc., she can’t quite trust him. It makes you wonder if Jill was initially attracted to the badass darkness that surrounds Simmons and, after hanging around him for so long, realized that she needs to step away from him but can’t do it because she’s too involved. I don’t know if you’ll be surprised by how her story works itself out. I was both surprised and not surprised.

And Doug Abrahams as the first guy we see Simmons kill, FBI counter intelligence agent McGraw, is a hoot. He isn’t in the movie all that long, but his brief appearance will make you wish that director Lee and the producers had been able to make a sort of prequel to The Silencer focusing on McGraw’s discovery of The Group and just how bad the whole situation is. I bet that story would have rocked hard.

The Silencer isn’t a perfect low budget action flick. It doesn’t really succeed in the end, at least in terms of what I think it’s trying to achieve. But with a strong performance by star Dudikoff and some good action, The Silencer is a worthwhile watch for Dudikoff and low budget action movie fans. It certainly isn’t Dudikoff’s best movie, but it’s got enough good stuff in it to warrant a recommendation. I also want to say, again, that this story and the Quinn Simmons character would make for a great TV show. Streaming is the big thing now, so who has a few spare tens of millions of dollars to make a The Silencer TV show? Anyone?

See The Silencer. See it, see it, see it.

So what do we have here?

Dead bodies: 10+

Explosions: Multiple.

Nudity?: None.

Doobage: A phone call, paranoia, an old woman with a walker, bullets to the head and chest, emotional issues, boxing, a bad workout, a sterile apartment, a photo dossier, school, an apple, kissing, exploding shed, an obvious disguise, a diner meeting, a hotel meeting, a beating, knife study, a book on how to kill people, a sort of training/binder reading montage, sniper rifle hooey, some really poor sniper shooting, car surveillance, a handgun standoff, money, sniper preparation, a pro-environment speech, a set-up, smoke grenade hooey, a car chase with wild goddamn flip, wound fixing, conspiracy talk, talk of Argentina, document burning, off screen neck snap, a big hooha shootout, bullet to the back, some very slow looking kung fu, body through a glass window, and a snow globe.

Kim Richards?: None.

Gratuitous: Michael Dudikoff, Michael Dudikoff closing a dead man’s eyes, Michael Dudikoff wearing a bulletproof vest, Michael Dudikoff fucking around with a snow globe, Michael Dudikoff walking in on a high school history class, Michael Dudikoff showing that he’s pro-apple, Michael Dudikoff teaching a guy how to kill people, mustard on the face, Michael Dudikoff explaining how JFK really died, use of the word “mechanic” to describe paid assassins, a secret one-on-one meeting in a public aquarium, art made by Michael Dudikoff, Michael Dudikoff posing as a lawyer, a man talking to a portrait of J. Edgar Hoover, Michael Dudikoff wanting to go live in Argentina, and a snow globe.

Best lines: “Must have been a pro,” “Ever hear of The Group?,” “Why do you let him get to you?,” “Can anyone tell me who Thomas Jefferson is?,” “I’m tired of waiting for you, Quinn,” “You haven’t answered my question. Am I dealing with a professional or not?,” “You talked to Cleveland? You talked to Cleveland, right?,” “Nice shirt,” “Yeah, you’re a regular Miss Manners,” “You know how to use it?,” “Hey! I said no onions! Gimme that!,” “Well, make sure you wear a raincoat,” “Congratulations, you just killed Barney the florist,” “Hell, Silencer,” “Point of return, pal. Point of no return,” “So are you ready for your big debut?,” “I told you to walk away,” “I don’t know nothing about no senator,” “I need your secure line,” “You’re telling me Hoover offed Kennedy?,” “Oh, come on, Quinn, you make it sound like you’re a doctor or an accountant!,” “It’s not your day, is it?,” and “You’ve been neutralized, asshole.”

Rating: 7.5/10.0

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Things to Watch Out For

–Primal: This is the latest low budget venture from Nicolas Cage, and it’s apparently about a white jaguar that’s deliberately let loose on a big boat. Cage plays some sort of big game hunter that has to recapture the jaguar or kill it or some shit. There’s also a deadly assassin on board the ship, too. Sounds insane, doesn’t it? Famke Janssen is in this, as well as Michael Imperioli and Kevin Durand. Man, I need to start watching more of these low budget Nicolas Cage movies. I really think I’m missing out on something.

–The Curse of Buckout Road: I actually saw this low budget horror flick back in 2017 at The Buffalo Dreams Fantastic Film Festival when it was called simply Buckout Road. Based on some sort of “Upstate New York” urban legend, it’s a slick, well-made horror movie that also does this weird, kind of annoying “grindhouse” thing every so often (scratches on the screen). Danny Glover is in it, as are Colm Feore and, apparently, David Hayter, although I don’t remember seeing Hayter. Anyway, this is a damn good horror flick that is finally getting a worthwhile release. Definitely check it out.

–Red Handed: This low budget horror flick has Michael Biehn and Michael Madsen in it, so based on that fact alone this is, at least, something we all need to rent, just to see if it’s any good. It’s apparently about three brothers that go into the woods to spread their dead father’s ashes and end up having to figure out what the hell happened to one of their kids that goes missing. There’s mystery, intrigue, etc. because, really, what the hell is going on in this thing? Again, definitely worth a rental. Will the big hooha mystery at the heart of the story hold up?

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Well, I think that’ll be about it for now. Don’t forget to sign up with disqus if you want to comment on this article and any other 411 article. You know you want to, so just go do it.

B-movies rule. Always remember that.

The Silencer

Michael Dudikoff– Quinn Simmons
Brennan Elliott– Jason Wells/Jason Black
Terence Kelly– Neal Donovan
Gabrielle Miller– Jill Martin
Nicole Oliver– Holly Sharp
Peter LaCroix– Rodeski
Doug Abrahams– McGraw
Michael St. John Smith– Senator Clayton

(check out the rest of the cast here)

Directed by Robert Lee
Screenplay by John Curtis and Eric Poppen (uncredited)

Distributed by Vidmark Entertainment

Rated R for violence and brief language
Runtime– 92 minutes

Buy it here