Today’s quick review: The Detonator. Sonni Griffith (Wesley Snipes), a DHS agent known for his cowboy tactics, travels to Romania to investigate Jozef Bostanescu (Tim Dutton), a millionaire arms dealer. To keep Griffith out of trouble, Shepard (William Hope), a CIA agent, and Flint (Michael Brandon), the CIA station chief, assign him to protect Nadia Cominski (Silvia Colloca), a CIA witness that Bostanescu wants dead.
The Detonator is an action thriller starring Wesley Snipes. While on a mission to Bucharest, Griffith is ambushed, forcing him to go on the run with the woman he was meant to protect. The Detonator colors within the lines when it comes to the action genre. Everything from the hero to the villain to the plot twist obeys convention. With that said, the movie does a fair job with the formula, especially given what appears to be a limited budget.
The Detonator’s greatest strength is that it avoid the missteps seen in other budget picks. Griffith is competent at both combat and tactics, making him a fine character to follow. Bostanescu resorts to generic villainy a little too much, but the story does a good job of making him a threat. The plot is not especially deep, but it does have a tangible progression. And while the action isn’t novel, there is quite a bit of it.
The result is a fine but highly forgettable action flick. Give The Detonator a shot if you’re a fan of the budget side of the action genre. It comes closer than some of its peers to the standard set by more ambitious films. But it fails to add anything new to the genre, making it a poor choice for fans looking for something new.
For a more compelling story about betrayal at a CIA safe house, try Safe House. For an action thriller about a killer protecting a wanted woman, try Hitman, Hitman: Agent 47, or The Transporter. For a Wesley Snipes thriller in a similar vein, try The Contractor, The Marksman, or 7 Seconds.
[4.7 out of 10 on IMDB](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0345461/). I give it a 6.0 for generic but functional action.