THE BASE is from a period in Mark Dacascos's filmography regularly highlighted by decent stories, good production values, and limited action, and this one exemplifies all of these qualities. It's a mildly exciting action-thriller with some highlights in its script, and it manages to secure a high rating by avoiding many direct-to-video snafus and pitfalls. Nevertheless, it's a little dull and not quite the ideal Dacascos vehicle.The story: An Army Major (Dacascos) goes undercover to investigate a drug trafficking ring led by a dangerous Sergeant (Tim Abell).Much of the film's overall quality seems to be attributable to director Mark Lester, who to this day remains on the same downward slide from his heyday of directing COMMANDO but nevertheless injects invaluable energy into the picture - making the most of what would otherwise have been a much more run-of-the-mill outing with a low budget. The script has some basic shortcomings, including the thankless and clichéd role it renders Paula Trickey, but I was pleased with the surprising depth that Tim Abell's character is granted. Abell pulls it off fairly well, doing a good job of playing a manipulator and appearing absolutely authentic as a military man.Dacascos is on less even ground: he tends to play awkward villains to begin with, and does no better in playing a hero pretending to be a villain. Nevertheless, he's in good form when it comes to the action. I wish that there were more than three fistfights, a handful of shootouts, and a couple explosions, but by and large, this stuff is serviceable. Mark throws a lot of spinning kicks and at times appears to be channeling his rarely-utilized capoeira training. I particularly enjoyed the first brawl, wherein Dacascos takes on Darcas Macopson in a surprisingly dirty kendo duel. The finale between Mark and Tim Abell is yards better than anything they got up to in INSTINCT TO KILL.If there's one major flaw to the movie, it's that it does not take any chances. The filmmakers may have been trying to replicate the big-budget experience for the small screen, though they would arguably have been much better served producing a movie less homogenized and predictable, as is allowed by the DTV medium. Nevertheless, if you're a viewer who complains about the failings of B-movies, then the solid, conventional route this one takes will probably be considered a plus factor. Dacascos fans are encouraged to check it out.

Maj. John Murphy (Dacascos) is a U.S. Army Investigator, and his higher-ups have assigned him a new and highly dangerous mission: go undercover and see what's going on with Sgt. Gammon (Abell) and his small cadre of close personal followers. Gammon is suspected of drug-running, money-stealing, and perhaps even murder. Murphy is to track his every move, and report his findings to Lt. Kelly Andrews (Trickey). So Murphy shows up at THE BASE and, under the name of Cpl. Dalton, ingratiates himself into the group, and becomes one of the guys. But Gammon is very wily, and he may suspect something is afoot that could derail his evil operations. Murphy/Dalton is going to have to use every tactic he knows to defeat Gammon and his men - will he survive THE BASE? The Base has some good and worthwhile moments, and director Lester certainly knows how to stretch a low budget to get the maximum result from it. While the movie as a whole doesn't feel all that substantial, there are plenty of blow-ups, gun-shooting scenes, and some fights along the way to liven things up. There's even a tank/Jeep chase - how often do you see that? Plus, Dacascos is likable and clearly competent in the fight scenes. It makes sense that the fights are movie highlights when you see that the great James Lew was the fight coordinator (unfortunately, he doesn't appear in the film). Plus, this may be Tim Abell's best work to date. He really inhabits his character and is a solid baddie. And their hideout even has a pinball machine! Pretty sweet.By 1999, the classic era of DTV/action movies was over. Yet that didn't stop Lester from directing a sequel to The Base, The Base 2: Guilty As Charged (2000) the next year. Presumably, enough people rented The Base at their local video store to warrant this happening. It seems kind of hard to justify, but there it is. Even Dacascos was replaced by Antonio Sabato Jr. You don't even have to watch the two movies back-to-back - just within the same general timeframe - and you will notice many similarities, the most glaring of which is the scene where Dacascos/Sabato shows up at the base and gets into a brawl on the training ground. 'Sure, it depletes brain cells - let's do it again!' seems to be the overriding thought process there.So a lot of people get shot, stuff blows up, and people get beat up. Those are the highlights, and some stuff happens in between those scenes that you won't remember. The Base is far from bad, but it lacks that extra dimension to put it over the top into being solidly good all the way around.

This is by far my favorite action movie that never made it in theatres. I give it a two thumbs up! It is filled with non-stop action. There are many weapons. It has a very good story line and is very exciting. Very good acting too. The Base 2 recently was released and that was a very good movie also.

Why do film makers continue to portray the military so poorly. Regardless of their intent, they could at least make an attempt to be accurate with regard to uniforms, military procedure and terminology, and weapons.This movie was so silly I had to watch the whole thing just to see how really poor it could be. The people making this movie certainly had delusions of adequacy.