If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Thousands of people have died after nuclear missiles have launched in the ongoing war between the U.S. and Russia. Rather than risk any more human life, both sides agree to send one of their best soldiers to fight the other in a mano-a-mano duel to the death. Representing America is Sgt. Tom Batanic (Prior), a dude with a bad attitude. Despite his insubordinate ways, the Army chooses him because...you guessed it...he's "The Best". Representing Russia is Sgt. Sergei Schvackov (Z'Dar), a SuperSoldier of sorts. Having trained to be an emotionless killing machine by his trainer Maj. Galashkin (Smith), his higher-ups assume he can withstand any challenge. But he has yet to face the wisecracking Tom Batanic, the best the U.S. has to offer.Also on Batanic's side is the fact that the Army has installed a device in his brain that can allow him to automatically communicate with Lt. Tavlin (Cline), who is helping him out via computer. If he talks out loud, she can hear him, and she can tell him things directly into his skull. Naturally, at first they don't get along, but Tavlin begins to fall for Batanic's unshaven, jaded, one-linery charm. Set loose in a forest to chase and kill each other, who will be victorious? We have to quote a section of the description on the back of the box: "Armed with every high tech killing device in existence, the renegade American (Ted Prior) and the committed communist (Robert Z'Dar) wage a war to determine the fate of mankind. Democratic Freedom or Communist Slavery...the answer will be written in blood by the last man alive." Wow. Sounds awesome, right? While it can't possibly live up to those overblown claims (every device IN EXISTENCE?), The Final Sanction is really not that bad. Especially considering it's basically Prior and Z'Dar playing hide and go seek in a forest for 80 minutes. It's amazing the mileage that David A. Prior gets out of this simple concept. And considering his filmmaking abilities had improved considerably by this point, he should be applauded.The movie starts with some bomb-blast stock footage, and they spell "Leavenworth" incorrectly, so it gets off to something of a rocky start. But the silliness comes in quickly thereafter to soothe us all, when a delegation of "world leaders" vote on what is presumably nuclear annihilation of the planet by putting scraps of paper with their vote in a grandma-style pewter candy dish! We then move to William Smith doing all sorts of psych and stress tests on Robert Z'Dar, who makes a lot of funny faces. We always have trouble understanding Smith anyway, what with his low, gravelly voice, but add to that a pseudo-Russian accent, and he's completely unintelligible. It's almost as if Prior told him, "eh, do what you think sounds Russian". So he does this kind of gobbledygook that is pretty funny.As for Ted Prior, he looks a lot like Don Johnson here, and his attitude is pretty Bruce Willis-y in this sort of "Die Hard in a forest" scenario. Tavlin is helping him on a classic old computer screen and it looks like she's playing Battleship. But with Batanic's Ozzy Osbourne patch on his uniform, he represents the ramshackle spirit of the U.S. vs. the tightly-controlled training of the USSR.Try to imagine Deadly Prey (1987) but with no goons, just one enemy for Prior to fight. And the fact that Z'Dar attacks Prior with a series of gardening spades. This could have been one of the many "paintball gone wrong" movies that were surprisingly popular around this time, but they decided on actual weaponry. Nothing much actually HAPPENS in this movie, but it has something of a message at the end, and at 80 minutes (not 88 as the box claims), it never gets boring. It's all pretty stupid (but you knew it would be going in, so it's no real surprise) but it's not BAD. Plus Prior and AIP deliver yet another catchy Steve McClintock song, "The View From Here" for the closing credits.It should also be noted that the movie's tagline, "The Only Rule Is There Are No Rules", is a quote originally stated by Wayne Newton in Best of the Best 2 (1993). How dare they steal from The Newt.For a simple, undemanding tale where titans clash one-on-one, The Final Sanction fits the bill.For more action insanity, please visit: www.comeuppancereviews.com

Scouring the internet, I can find nothing but derision for the film in question here, which although on one hand is perhaps not entirely surprising, on the other I believe it proves to reflect a somewhat severe case of metaphorical myopia on the part of its plethora of critics. Why? Well, let's put this all into perspective shall we? To all of this films vehement enemies; just take a precursory look at the absurd plot in this for starters. Next add to this the fact that this was directed by none other than David Prior (who's famous for churning out low budget action flicks) and finally weigh up in thy own minds the intrinsic relevance that this also stars the directors brother Ted, yes, Ted Prior who played Mike Danton in the incomparable Deadly Prey (also directed by his brother)....Well?.......What is my point here? – Good God! – What the hell did you expect?! Simply put, reviewing this film against normal criteria, of course it's a bloody clunker from the get go. However, films like this shouldn't ever be compared with 'serious' flicks in the first place. Suffice to say, if you want credible performances, a thought provoking script and high end production values then you're quite obviously p*ssing into the wind with this one. If on the other hand you want a bit of mindless fun and a jolly good chuckle at a film so riddled with short comings as to make an Australian soap opera look like high art, then step right up my friends, for here there be much to admire.First things first and as mentioned previously, the plot in this pretty much tells you right from the start that this is going to be some quality crap. Sure enough this ill thought out scenario plays out entirely true to form i.e it's preposterous of course, but does provide some dumb fun along the way. Let us not forget also, the plethora of clichés that fill this to the absolute brim; our hero having been set up for a crime he never committed, the feisty female who's initially frosty towards our hero but who by the end of the film shows that she has a warm heart and utterly falls for his 'charms' (inverted commas as our hero is in fact a major a*sehole throughout!), the tough as nails, almost robotic, patriotic Russian soldier (played by the always great to watch, iron jawed Robert D'Zar) who furthermore seems completely impervious to explosions(!!!) and a somewhat predictable plot contrivance at the end wherein it is revealed that the whole operation is a fix and that the combatants have been double crossed.Yes, it's all here, present and correct in spade loads and let's be honest, is all the more fun for it. How anyone can take this film seriously is way beyond me – it simply transcends its own stupidity and comes out as some quite rivetingly bad entertainment.I'll say one more thing in its favour to – at least Michael Bay didn't direct it! Now THAT would have been bad!!!!! I can imagine it now, an overblown, pretentious pile of CGI saturated crap featuring some woeful attempts at heartfelt sentiment coupled with some utterly risible moments of 'humour' so bloody unfunny as to make an Ebola Zaire outbreak desirable!*shudder!*

There have been times where people have started talking about Robert Z'Dar to me and they panned him. `No, no,' I would say, `Haven't you seen a Maniac Cop movie? He's great!' And while I would warn them away from `Return to Frogtown,' I would advise them to give Z'Dar a chance. If any of those people followed my advice and proceeded to find and watch `The Final Sanction,' I deeply apologize, though no amount of groveling can forgive the odious crime I have committed. I was not aware of this movie's existence and had not watched it. Until now. And I am less of a person for that! Remember back in the 80's where Hollywood was pumping out movies with Cold War themes? Now place yourselves a few years after that era and you'll find David A. Prior trying to revive the Cold War with `The Final Sanction.' It appears as if America and Russia are at it again, threatening to blow each other up and aren't afraid to take out the rest of the world with them. Someone realizes that this is a bad idea and the two countries agree to fight things out with as few casualties as humanly possible. So they make the plan of each side picking their best soldier and seventy-five pounds of artillery. The two soldiers would then square off in a chosen woodsy area and shoot at each other, their only assistance being a telecommunications link with one person in front of a computer that can tell him where his opponent is at. Oh and the place where they are to battle? Virginia! And here we have some of the biggest troubling questions. If you were the head of a superpower nation, would you trust the fate of the world to one little battle? And one that is virtually unmonitored? Don't you think you would have some neutral country's people monitoring the fight and playing referee? Like the Swiss? Don't you think it would be more fair to pick a neutral place to stage said battle? Like Switzerland? A place with people who neither side would care about if they walked into the line of fire? Again, like the Swiss . . . . Just joking there! Making sure you are paying attention.The next silly thing here are the fighters themselves. Russian general William Smith chooses Robert Z'Dar, whom he proceeds to put through rigorous mental training. Z'Dar is pretty wicked with throwing small spades, which would do him wonders if the fate of the world were being decided in a gardening contest. A much dumber choice is America's choice of Ted Prior, a military prisoner locked up for killing his entire platoon during a mission. He's a rebel, a loose cannon, a loud-mouthed lunatic, he's the director's brother! Just the person whose hands we should put the fate of the world in! The first half of the movie deals with lengthy introductions of these two characters, as well as some unnecessary subplots involving a United States senator that is just there for padding. I thought the action would never start. When it did, I wished it hadn't. Prior and Z'Dar shoot at each other in the Virginia woods (actually, it was made in Alabama, but never mind that). Then Z'Dar runs away. Then he comes back. And they shoot. And they shoot. And they shoot. And I yawn, yawn, yawn. Never before have I been so bored by shooting. These guys are the best America and Russia can supply, yet they can't hit the broad side of a barn at close range! They hide behind skinny trees that you can shove a plastic knife through! But that's just the icing on the cake. There's some laughably bad moments where Z'Dar is blown up, but he survives with only a burn mark on his big left cheek. Worse than that is where Prior has Z'Dar down after the explosion, gun in hand. One bullet would win the fate of the world, but he doesn't shoot. Instead, thin smoke from the explosion allows Z'Dar to disappear like a magician in the vast area right in front of Prior's eyes! I laughed ‘til I cried. Or vice versa. I won't even bother getting into the silly love-interest for Prior, the shoehorning of a character responsible for Prior's lost platoon, or the terrible resolution.Obviously this is a bad movie. Z'Dar and Smith fare the best, since their early scenes aren't that bad. Ted Prior is so awful I was rooting for Russia. But writer/director David A. Prior is to blame for the unleashed misery. It looks like he and Ted discovered about $75 worth of unused special effects lying around and decided to make a movie with them. I'm done complaining. From now on, give Robert Z'Dar movies a chance, just as long as they are not titled `Return to Frogtown' or `The Final Sanction!' Zantara's score: 1 out of 10.

The Final Sanction comes close to being one of the worst movies I've seen from the '90s. Stock missle/nuclear blast footage, actors with seeming facial deformities (Robert D'Zar, BLECH. I didn't believe he was even real for the first fifteen minutes), and horrible, HORRIBLE dialog (Sergei loves ALL women!). This is how NOT to make an action movie, kids. When you blow people up, THEY'RE SUPPOSED TO DIE. Not just get part of their face somewhat charred. In all honesty, this is prime MST3k material. Rent this movie and watch it with a couple friends to revel in the horror of it all.