MOVIE REVIEW : Devil-May-Care Mercenaries Fight to Overthrow a Regime

“Fifty/Fifty” (citywide) is an above-average modestly budgeted action-adventure that teams Peter Weller and Robert Hays as a devil-may-care pair of mercenaries blackmailed by the CIA into leading the overthrow of an oppressive island regime somewhere in Malaysia.

Although the material is inherently familiar and predictable, writers Dennis Shryack and Michael Butler, director Charles Martin Smith and the stars successfully freshen up the formula. Clearly designed for the international market, the film comes across with more wit and intelligence than is usual with such fare.

The filmmakers’ key strategy is to introduce Weller and Hays as a couple of boisterous guys in it for the loot, men who have the earmarks of male chauvinists and white supremacists--your standard issue Ugly Americans. Yet the film moves toward an enlightened contemporary tone. Gradually, the two men, led by the more reflective Weller, find themselves committed to the cause of the freedom fighters of the fictional country of Tengara.

Weller and Hays don’t take themselves too seriously, and that impression is contagious. Smith also appears as their CIA boss, a smart, decent type caught between Washington directives and the desire to see Weller and Hays succeed. The film’s leading lady, Ramona Rahman, plays a feisty freedom fighter. “Fifty/Fifty” was shot almost entirely in Malaysia, half of it in Penang, and it benefits from its exotic locales.

The big news in “Fifty/Fifty” (rated R for scenes of violence and for language) is the impressiveness of Smith’s firm direction--lively, brisk and sharp, in what is only his third outing behind the camera.

‘Fifty/Fifty’ Peter Weller: Jake Wyer Robert Hays: Sam French Charles Martin Smith: Martin Sprue Ramona Rahman: Suleta

A Cannon Pictures presentation. Director Charles Martin Smith. Producers Maurice Singer, Raymond Wagner. Line producer Peter Shepherd. Screenplay by Dennis Shryack, Michael Butler. Cinematographer David Connell. Editor Christian A. Wagner. Costumer Terry Dresbach. Music Peter Bernstein. Production design Errol Kelly. Art director Sunil Wijeratne. Set decorator Lal Harindranath. Sound Cameron Hamza. Running time: 1 hour, 41 minutes.

MPAA-rated R (for scenes of violence, and for language).