Solemplex To me, this movie is perfection.

Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

TBJCSKCNRRQTreviews Colombia. A hospital needs protecting. The final mission before he retires to Miami. After it goes wrong, Sam(Campbell, and it is *his* show for sure: charming, goofy, serious when called for) faces an informal inquiry. What happened back there? With framing device securely in place, explaining the narration, we can begin.Sanchez' charity aid worker is too similar to her infamous Niki, though the snark fits the tone of the franchise. She does end up less frustrating than that. Maybe it's that I've seen both her and Paolo in roles where I don't hate them. Xerxes! Even when they give him nothing to do, he's awesome. And she's solid in A Perfect Getaway, an enjoyable if flawed film. A role not everyone could have handled. A doctor, an angry teen girl, and a few individuals who shouldn't be trusted - good guys and bad alike are compelling. We get nice, big fireball explosions, gunplay, stunt work and more. Guerrilla warfare, strategy in the face of uneven odds, this fits right in. You can go into this blind, though there are great nods for the fans.There is some bloody violence and disturbing content in this. The DVD comes with several extras. Its full hour and a half commentary track is informational and funny, featuring the star, the director and the show creator. There's 26 minutes of a great Comic Con panel. The Fall of Jeffrey Donovan is an 11 and a half minute joke documentary, as the talent supposedly cracks under the pressure – it's hilarious and easily the single best thing to come out of the production of the picture. The 1 and a half minute deleted scene is fine. I recommend this to anyone who enjoys spy action thrillers, and/or the work of the deeply enjoyable, the one, the only, the Bruce. 7/10

dugsdale First, if you haven't seen this yet and want to, read no further--go watch instead, because you deserve to see TFOSA unimpaired by my dour outlook on it. Maybe it's unfair to take this vehicle MORE seriously than it takes itself, but I found it an overlong exercise in missed opportunities, implausible plotting, jarring inauthenticity in the military aspects, and performances that were sometimes a little too superficial (usually the show strikes a good balance between light banter and lethal circumstances, but here not so much). Strong performances by seasoned pros are what keep BN from skating into complete unbelievability (with my thanks and much credit to Sharon Gless, Coby Bell, and Gabrielle Anwar for that). Here, the two standout performances for me were Chandra West and Ilza Rosario, particularly the latter, whose publicity stills on IMDb hint at an entirely different career trajectory than the 'young Joan of Arc' persona she portrays convincingly in TFOSA (and kudos to the production team for casting her). If the rest of the company's performances had been up to the level of these two, and if the writing had been a little less careless about authenticity and believability, this might have been something. As it is, you need a big dose of "suspension of disbelief" to get through it.

NDHFilms The Fall of Sam Axe was quite disappointing. In its best episodes, Burn Notice is tightly written, entertaining, and has a chemistry between the actors. Little of that was present in this two-hour prequel. The story goes two years before the Burn Notice timeline, but what surprised me was how little it added to the overall narrative. The movie follows Sam Axe, a supporting character in the show who supplies many of the laughs. As played by b-movie icon Bruce Campbell, he's a laid-back Lothario who knows a thing or two about combat. Here, we see Sam before a military tribunal, explaining what went wrong in his final Navy SEALS mission. The mission into Colombia involves all the usual intrigue of corrupt military officials and freedom fighters that herd goats. As Sam defies orders to save the rebels, he's joined by two doctors, played by Kiele Sanches and RonReaco Lee. Both are chronic whiners throughout the movie and offer no real substance to the plot. In fact, the only passionate performance comes from Ilza Rosario, playing the young rebel Beatriz in a debut role. Bruce Campbell has always been one of the great pleasures to watching Burn Notice. Here, as usual, he plays on the cult films of his past, at one point hurling a chainsaw in a nod to the Evil Dead trilogy. His appeal on the show was his devilish charm, a guy who doesn't mind name-dropping his connections. Ultimately, though, he's a Miami retiree with a good heart, and by setting this film before that, much of this is lost. Seeing him as an overweight soldier just feels off, and I wanted the Sam Axe we're familiar with. The movie was directed by Jeffery Donovan, who plays the protagonist Michael Westen on the show proper. This makes his feature-film directing debut, and in the end the debut is weak. It feels too much like an episode stretched out over two hours, with no added urgency to justify the extra running time. The high mountains of Colombia (or an adequate fake) are cloudy and gray, a far cry from the colorful, populated streets of Miami. But even Donovan doesn't deserve all the blame: series creator Matt Nix wrote the screenplay and co-wrote the story. His pilot for the show won awards, deservedly so, for creating a fast-paced and fun atmosphere for his spies and rogue agents to play in. All of that is lacking here.The best scene comes early on with a cameo by Donovan. His character Westen was still the CIA's top agent at this point, and the camaraderie between the him and Axe was sorely missed as the film progressed. Burn Notice is most at home with its leads and pushing them into ever-tighter corners, so The Fall of Sam Axe lacks all the advantages while making poor use of the show's breakout character. Bruce Campbell is an eminent crowd-pleaser, but the movie here is certainly not.

chrichtonsworld People can moan and shout all they want. Bruce Campbell has charisma. He doesn't have to do anything and he still is likable on the screen. Aside from the simple storyline. Bruce Campbell shows what makes Same Axe such a great character. With all his flaws he is a person you can rely on. No wonder that Michael Weston trusts him. While there aren't many references to the show Burn Notice itself. It does give the fans where they have been craving for from the start. To have a Sam Axe storyline not involving Mike Weston. I think they should do a whole bunch of these. Even if the show would end. Only with much better story lines.Now it is possible that even having charisma is not enough for people to like Bruce Campbell. Well,if that is the case than I think you will have trouble liking this movie. Since the whole movie is build on Bruce.I was skeptic at first. But overall the movie is very entertaining. Forget about the show and it's twists and just soak in a little bit of Bruce.