The Warrior Class (2004)

Directed by: Alan Hruska | 110 minutes | drama | Actors: Anson Mount, Erica Leerhsen, Robert Vaughn, Jake Weber, Jamey Sheridan, Dan Hedaya, Pedro Barreira, Sage Doviak, Mark Blum, Keith Randolph Smith, Tracie Thoms, Rick Stear, Jerry Walsh, Stephen Barker Turner, David Thornton, Daniel Oreskes, Clark Middleton, Michael Medeiros, Marylouise Burke, Sam Coppola, John Cunningham, Ramsey Faragallah, Kit Flanagan, Bill Hunter, Adam LeFevre, Christopher Wynkoop, Thom Christopher, Benja K.

Movies can make us believe an awful lot. That we live in a virtual world and can all get super powers if we just believe (‘The Matrix’). That dwarves and elves can work well together if it is based on a noble purpose (‘The Lord of the Rings’). That there is a school near London where children learn to use magic (‘Harry Potter’ series). And then there are movies that can’t make us believe anything at all. A lawyer with an important case who instantly falls in love with the main witness who is a junkie and married to a well-known mob boss? If the rest of the story wasn’t so poorly written, maybe. But then there would also have to be better acting.

Director Alan Hruska was once a lawyer, so he knows a thing or two about standing in a courthouse. The things Hruska describes are also a moment of attention. For a moment it seems that it is a movie that you have to pay attention to. But after the first half hour, there’s not a shred of intelligent story left and the plotholes pile up. It seems as if Hruska had written six short reasonable stories and then put them in a mixer, after which nothing of any coherence remained. The actors can’t do much with such a bad story. There are a few familiar faces with relatively short roles, such as Dan Hedaya (“Alien 4′, “Daylight”) and Robert Vaughn (“The Man From UNCLE”, “Superman III”) who break their rules without much ado. And a few lesser-known faces with relatively much larger roles.

The two protagonists were probably chosen for their film past. Anson Mount is used to dealing with a not very intelligent junkie who still looks reasonable in ‘Crossroads’ (with Britney Spears). Erica Leerhsen is also used to starring in films without a story, such as ‘Blair Witch 2’ and ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’. Regardless of their background, neither of them are exactly believable in their roles. For example, the lawyer-playing Mount is one moment shyly babbled to a judge by little experience, but after a short lunch he is experienced as a Jason Lochinvar ‘Fatman’ McCabe. ‘The Warrior Class’ can only be enjoyed by people with short-term memory problems (as in ‘Memento’) or who simply don’t spend more than two seconds thinking about a story in a movie. To anyone else, this film is an insult to the mind. You get a kick ass at the very unbelievable ending of the film.