~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SANDY SANDFORT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . H.E.A.T. seekers, Please note my new title for these reviews in the subject line. Consider it a filtering aid--pro or con. CODE NAME: FRAME-UP The Team is in Culebra ("snake"), Panama to capture a gunrunner, Salazar, who's supplying terrorists. They pretend to be hanging out on the beach (bikini alert) and the grab him as he is making a "private" cellular call to the terrorists. During the snatch, they find that he is carrying cocaine, so that's what he gets busted for. He will being going before Judge Diaz, who is not corrupt, so he's toast unless his brother can rig something. "Something" comes in the form of Celia Alvarez, a Salazar gun moll who bears a striking resemblance to our own Romana Machado. She comes to our hero, Mike, and tells him she wants to make a break from Salazar's gang. She gets Mike to her room to talk about it, and gives him a Mickey Finn. When Mike comes to, he's in bed with his gun in his hand and a dead guy (shot with Mike's gun) on the floor. They dead guy is judge Diaz. The cops burst in, Celia says, "he did it" and away goes Mike. After this point, the plot self-destructs and makes no sense at all. No matter; that's not why we're here. Before all this happen, however, there is a gratuitous montage of babes in bikinis, intercut with scenes of our heroes basking on the beach, practicing martial arts, frolicking in the water, playing with puppies, etc. (For those of you who are more interested in good-looking guys than gals, there were plenty of shots of shirtless male Team members, posing and flexing their muscles.) The upshot of the weird plot twists is that the Team loses its official backing and has to go in on its own to save Mike. To do this, they first break into the DEA's computer. The purpose of the intrusion is to put information *into* the database. They create files that say that Marcos and Cat are big-time drug dealers. With this, they are able to infiltrate Salazar's operation and ... well I'm not sure what the idea was, but it gives Marcos a chance to slick back his hair (all bad guys on Acapulco H.E.A.T. have slicked back hair), and dress in a cheesy pimp outfit. Cat gets to put on too much makeup and tart it up in a short, tight, red dress. Besides the computer break-in, there is only one other "hi-tech" plot device. Outside Salazar's villa, the Team uses a "long range mike" to pick up Mike's voice inside. The microphone was an incredibly cheap-looking hand-held parabolic mike. It was only about a foot in diameter, and they were using it *through the windshield* of their car. There was also a briefcase with a flash bomb inside, but that's not particularly hi-tech. Of course, there is a climactic shoot-em-up, but the only thing that gets blown up is the aforementioned flash Grenada briefcase. There was, however, some deliciously irresponsible firearms role modeling. When Ashley finds Mike, he's handcuffed. They have one of their typical romantic banters that ends with her saying, "Maybe I should just shoot you and blame it on Salazar." Mike responds with a smart-ass comment, at which point Ashley points her pistol at Mike, causing him to cringe away with his hands over his head. She than pulls the trigger and shots through the links connecting the two wrist sections of Mike's handcuffs. Ya' gotta love a woman like that. (Or else!) S a n d y ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~