Review of Gridlock

Gridlock (1996 TV Movie)
Horrible, cheap rip-off of Die Hard with no redeeming aspects
11 January 2002
When a supposed terrorist attack on two bridges bring the city to a standstill, traffic cop Jake Gorsky lands his helicopter to investigate suspicious happenings. In the building he finds himself facing up to a heavily armed group of criminals who are using the chaos on the streets as a diversion.

There are plenty of films that copy the Die Hard model of one man versus a group of criminals in a specific location - Cliff Hanger, Lethal Tender, Passenger 57 etc. However this is one of the first I've seen that blatantly just rips off Die Hard itself. Here we have one lone cop trapped in a building with his ex-wife trying to evade a group of criminals posing as terrorists....we even have scenes where Gorsky escapes by using a hosepipe to abseil down the building and has to deal with police incompetence. The only way it could have been more obvious would be if he'd lost his shoes and stripped down to his vest! Unfortunately this has no where near the class of Die Hard. The action is toothless with no real excitement, the bad guys are little more than incompetent clowns and you never believe that Gorsky is in any real danger at all.

The performances are roundly terrible. Where Willis' sweat drenched performance helped us believe that he was a man in a very dangerous situation, Hasselhoff has the opposite impact. His total lack of talent and charisma made me feel that I couldn't care less about what happened to him or his situation. Similarly the bad guys are so unmemorable that I can't even think of them despite only watching it a few days ago.

Overall this is a horrible cheap film that combines elements of Die Hard and Die Hard with a Vengeance without taking any of the good points of either. Bad action, bad script and bad acting - watch Willis in action instead.
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