Before Pierce Brosnan starred as James Bond in Golden Eye, he was Mike Graham in the Detonator made for TV movies. Based upon a novel from Alistair MacLean, Detonator 2: Night Watch continues the story of an elite spy fighting bad guys. Not having watched Detonator: Death Train, the first movie in this series, I really didn't know much about its cast. Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot of in-depth character development in this movie. The character Graham comes off as your typical James Bond like spy. Additionally, the movie seemed to start off a little slow. I had no clue what was really going on. Fortunately, the story started to unfold a third of the way through. On the flipside, the story isn't too captivating.

The film opens with Graham undergoing a traumatic on-the-job experience. His partner is killed and he beats himself over it. This becomes a roadblock that Graham must face later in the movie, because he fears losing another partner. Afterwards, we get an insight into two very important developments of the movie. First, the bad guys test their latest technology, which becomes key to their diabolic plan. The technology gives them the ability to eavesdrop on telecommunication conversations that use their "phones". As well, there's an added twist because they can cause the technology to overload and explode the phones. Scary and how realistic! Another important part of the story that unfolds in the beginning revolves around a stolen painting. The "Night Watch", a famous 1700 century renaissance painting crafted by the famous Dutch artist Rembrandt, is stolen. This provides Graham the necessary intelligence to eventually connect the dots to the larger scheme.

While this could be a really interesting story, I really had a hard time enjoying it. The way that the story was presented wasn't very good. It came off slightly lackluster. The action appeal was fairly minimal, with the fight scenes typically a bore. As well, I really didn't find the cast appealing. I enjoy seeing Brosnan as James Bond, but as Graham? Not really. Perhaps missing the development of the character in the first movie, I'm failing to understand him. The other main role in the movie is played by Alexandra Paul, best known for her role in Baywatch. She plays Sabrina Carver, who is an unconvincing character for spy work. Together Graham and Carver provide characters that seem sloppy and poorly developed.

There were many reasons that I did not enjoy this made for TV movie. The story didn't appear to be well written, action was minimal, and the characters just weren't that interesting. I suppose if you enjoyed the first movie in this series, you might want to see this sequel. However, for everyone else this movie probably won't appeal to you. This movie just doesn't have a lot to offer.

The DVD

Video:
The video is given in 1.85:1 ratio anamorphic widescreen color. The picture quality is pretty good, with a fairly sharp and clean picture. There are some traces of grain, which are apparent during the darker scenes of the movie.

Audio:
The audio options in this release come in English 5.1 surround sound, DTS surround sound, and stereo surround sound. The audio tracks are fairly good, providing clear sound, with all spoken dialogue being very audible. As well, sound effects tend to take advantage of the multi-channel setup. However, it's not quite as impressive as the separation seems to be fairly minimal. There are also subtitles in the English and Spanish languages.

Extras:
There aren't really any extras to speak of in this release. However, if you consider trailers extras, you might be excited that there are trailers for Iron Eagle III: Aces, Excessive Force, and A Man Apart.

Final Thoughts:
The made for TV movie Detonator 2: Night Watch is poorly written action film. The story seems to be a little too unrealistic and at times can be hard to follow and the characters are uninviting and poorly developed. In addition, the movie is missing a key element as an action film, action. The movie moves fairly slowly and doesn't seem to provide the awful, yet entertaining action scenes. Overall, this is one of those films I would never recommend anyone watch. There just isn't anything really good about it.