Black Ops 
| |
| Genre | Action, thriller, comedy |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Matt Richards |
| Produced by | Louis McCain Harold Parkman |
| Screenplay by | Matt Richards Nathan Kelly |
| Cast | Phil Martinez Oliver Hewton |
| Production company | LMC Production Co., Ltd
The Black Ops Company |
| Distributor | Transbaum Films |
| Runtime | 108 minutes (theatrical cut) 116 minutes (unrated cut) |
| Budget | L$2.75 million |
| Box office | L$10.2 million |
| Release date | June 20, 2013 |
Black Ops is a 2013 action thriller film directed and co-written by Matt Richards and Nathan Kelly. After the box-office success but poor critical reception of the original series, Transbaum Films decided to reinvent Black Ops in the early 2010s as Lovia's answer to the then-popular Expendables films. While a part of the Black Ops series, it is not considered to be part of the series canon and instead is considered to be in its own separate universe.
The film follows the middle-aged Brad Avery (Phil Martinez), who faked his death in 1992 in order to escape a suicide mission and retire to a more peaceful life. In 2013, he is rediscovered and is recruited back into the Lovian Secret Service to stop a rogue soldier from using an arsenal of stolen nuclear weapons against Lovia.
The film opened on June 20, 2013 and received mixed-to-positive reviews from the reviewing press; critics praised the visual effects, the "enjoyably over-the-top" plot and campy sense of humor but criticized the character development and deviations from the original films. Although a box-office success in itself the film notably received negative reactions from fans of the original series and was eventually retconned out of the series canon come the fifth film, Black Ops: Termination (2015).
Synopsis[]
The year is 1992. After escaping a suicide mission on the island of San Columbo in the South Pacific, Avery (Phil Martinez) defects aboard a cargo plane back to Lovia, and upon arrival to his home country, he changes his identity and 'retires' to a more peaceful life as a travel writer. Twenty years later, in 2012, he is rediscovered by Lovian Secret Service agents and recruited back into the agency against his own will in order to capture a deranged Lovian soldier who has reportedly stolen nuclear weapons and is planning to use them on his own country.
Cast[]
- Phil Martinez - Brad Avery
- Oliver Hewton
Production[]
Transbaum wanted to produce an all-new sequel to the original Black Ops films since the early 2000s as they saw the films had remained popular in spite of their poor quality, however this project did not attract much interest from filmmakers and investors alike and was shelved in 2004. Later on in the decade, however, interest in the proposed reboot rebounded and "serious consideration" was eventually given to the idea by staffers, with comedian and screenwriter Nathan Kelly, of Cops fame, writing the script and Arthur Jefferson courted as a director in 2008. Jefferson instead pulled out of the project due to work on the 2010 drama The Lovely, also citing his lack of familiarity with the action genre as a cause for his withdrawal. The project was shelved once more until April 2010, when Cops superstar Matt Richards was hired as director; in a January 2012 interview, Richards commented that he was "overjoyed and excited" to be working on a Black Ops movie. He also stated that he was a fan of the film series ever since his mid-teens and always wanted to direct a sequel or a remake, that is, if one was ever to be made.
After being hired as a director, Richards contributed some minor changes to the script, combining the Schwarzenegger-style action of the originals with spy fiction the likes of Mission: Impossible. Principal photography began on March 28, 2012 in Noble City and ended on June 15 of that same year. Principal scenes for Black Ops were filmed in Artista, Downtown, on Highway 1, and in Newhaven, with special effects added in post-production. The film's highway sequence - where Avery pursues spies who are in cahoots with the villain, leaving carnage in his wake - was filmed entirely on location on the 1; the footage was then combined with computer animation created by Transbaum Effects Studios and green-screen footage shot on a sound stage in Newhaven.
Release[]
Reception[]
This is the first Black Ops to have gained positive reviews from the community of film critics. Praise was reserved for many aspects of the film, including plot, casting and special effects. Negative criticism however stemmed from the poor character development.
As of March 2022, Black Ops has a 71% critic score on RottenTomatoes, based on 32 reviews. The site consensus states that the film is “a briskly-paced, ridiculously enjoyable action thriller.”
Box office[]
Black Ops was very successful at the Lovian box office, grossing L$10.2 million against a L$2.8 million budget.