Harry Alan Towers goes back to Africa to film another low-budget thriller in HIGH EXPLOSIVE, an Angola-set story about a UN team whose job it is to disarm the many land mines littering the countryside. Unfortunately their mission is put into peril by the threat of an imminent rebel attack, and the family ends up fleeing for the Namibian border in order to escape.What this all boils down to is a fairly average chase movie, apparently filmed in South Africa. The whole UN/landmine/hospital set-up is quickly dispersed with in favour of endless footage of the characters driving, flying a plane, or generally trying to evade the rebels, who are trying their hardest to kill them. There's no more to it than that.The workmanlike direction is courtesy of Timothy Bond, a seasoned TV director, while the cast is headlined by an out-of-shape Patrick Bergin, barely recognisable from his ROBIN HOOD days. Desiree Nosbusch - star of the cult '80s German film TRANCE - plays his wife, while lingerie model Nina Muschallik is his daughter, expectedly parading around in a tight-fitting, low cut top. The supporting cast is composed entirely of authentic African actors. Sadly, the general shoddy, cheap feeling of the production means that it's a film that's hard to like, although kudos for Towers for continuing to knock such films out in his elder years.

At first, I thought it was the terrible acting by Patrig Bergin and Dan Petronijevic. But the fault goes to the combination of the two and an uninteresting script. Did we really need to hear the pre-flight check list that went on and on to the point where the female lead went "That's interesting, but are we going to take off?" The script seems to answer itself. Try not to pay attention to the terrible teen, who I had hoped was going be killed by a landmine when he raced off on the motorcycle. Instead, after hearing one sad story of a local boy his age mutters "how can I help?" Unfortunately for me and anyone else who watches this piece of trash, the teen doesn't blow his head off right there. The issues brought up by the film don't get the justice they deserve. This film is best left unseen.

The only tv movie (or movie) I know about Angolan's civil war - that is still going on after more than 30 years of horror - is a missed chance of getting a serious view about one of the most fascinating conflicts and countries worldwide. Having spent 5 months of my life working on relief in Angola, it is just frustrating seeing such a failure. But the redemption comes from showing a nearly realistic portrait of that situation, specially how the Unita guerrilla works. So... I recommend giving it a chance. I wonder where did they shoot this movie (it certainly looks similar to Angola, although not like Luanda's surrounding areas).

1st watched 5/19/2001 - 3 out of 10 (Dir-Timothy Bond): Weak production and acting in what could have been an interesting story. This is basically about experts in disarming mines working in Algeria where there are thousands of mines placed by rebel forces to help their cause in a long 30-year war that they have been having with the government. The problem is that this Canadian production really had no strong actors or actresses to pull this off and make it interesting. Half the way through I was ready for the movie to be over. If you would take this same setting with the same basic story with a good director, and actors who worked hard at their parts it could have been an interesting look into a country whose lifestyle is not explored often, but do we get this? No way dudes!! These "hoseheads" didn't do what they needed to make it work, eh...