Mercifully, this sadistic exercise in macho gruffness grunts and groans by so rapidly that viewers can ignore the confusing plot curves and simply keep track of the fatalities. Better acted than most routine bonebusters, DECOY gets less mileage out of its central trumped-up plot reversal
than it does out of the bloodbrother relationship of principals Peter Weller and Robert Patrick.
Jack Travis (Patrick), a Secret Service veteran, is hired by millionaire predator John Wellington (Peter Breck) to protect his daughter Diana (Darlene Vogel) from the machinations of a business rival, Jensen (Scott Hylands), who is still smarting because Wellington stole a computer chip from him.
Travis insists his trusted former sidekick turned mercenary, Baxter (Weller), be hired also, despite his oddball ways. Travis and Baxter are introduced to Diana, but en route to a safe house, they are attacked by Jensen's hit lady, Katya (Charlotte Lewis), and commandeer a school bus to escape
annihilation. Soon the bodyguards realize that the woman they're guarding is a decoy; she tells them about the computer chip theft and Baxter realizes he and his buddy have been set up--because Baxter once had an affair with Wellington's late wife. After several close calls and the kidnapping of
the decoy by Jensen's thugs, Travis and Baxter confront Wellington at his compound. Meanwhile, a furious Jensen refuses to pay Katya after he discovers that she's nabbed an impersonator (the real Diana Wellington is actually a schoolgirl), having used his business feud as a cover for his desire to
get Baxter's child. Baxter saves the decoy Diana and spares Katya's life but is fatally shot by Jensen, whom Travis then dispatches. The dying Baxter requests that Travis and the actress spare no effort in locating his little girl.
Failing to exploit Wellington's deception for maximum suspense, DECOY wastes two fine performances in yet another direct-to-video revenge hunt. On the plus side, the rugged action is spiced with lots of save-your-ass sequences and a dazzling array of high-tech weaponry fit for an arms trade show.
More essentially, this action sprawl is given a degree of humanity by Baxter and Travis's forged-in-misery rapport. Like mercenary vaudevillians, they use fancy footwork to rescue each other as they soft-shoe around explosives and assassins. If their circumstantial intimacy with the impostor
posing as Diana lacks the required sexual-romantic dynamic, at least their comrades-in-arms bond provides a foundation of human interest. (Graphic violence, extreme profanity.) leave a comment
