Gary For whatever reason I never knew this even existed and just watched it this night (6-26-13).The movie itself was nothing to write home about but was nice to see Sam being Sam.With Burn Notice ending after this season I am actually glad I didn't know about this till now as it was the beginning to the end of a TV show I greatly enjoyed.For such a hodgepodge character set I was always amazed that they made it work. Campbell's character was a big part of its success and quite possibly its glue.If you are a fan of the show it is worth watching.

jonahjthompson It was completely and utterly terrible. I am so committed to the burn notice franchise and series, and love the characters, but this seems to be a joke. I was cringing for a good 99% of the time. I thought that Sam Axe was supposed to be so quirky because of his retired man mind set, I can't ever imagine that being a trait he kept whilst in military service. It was essentially slanderous to what is a truly great action drama, the film simply never needed to be done. I am trying to erase every part of this movie from my memory in order to retain some kind of regard for Burn Notice. However this is proving hard as I am somewhat scared from the experience.

orion_ss1 I really wanted to like this movie. I am a big Burn Notice fan, and like the Sam Axe character. But other than the basic uniform colors being white and khaki, little else showed anyone connected with the project had ever met anyone in the Navy. I got the bit that he was supposed to stand out in the jungle, which is why his superiors gave him blue urban cammies ( on a covert op, but with his name on his cammies ), and while usually Seals go in as a team, Sam went in alone. Sam was supposed to be a Navy Seal, but wore a Surface Warfare Officer device. His white hat did not have the scrambled eggs a full Commander would be wearing. The khaki uniforms of his interrogators had no rank insignia.The story wasn't bad, but it wasn't that good either. It would have been a passable two-part episode, but it left a lot of room for improvement.

Jaymuller The concept is easy enough; a made for television spin-off prequel to a popular series with a cult following, on a dirt cheap, shoestring budget. Who said executing a concept is easy? The humor exhibited in Burn Notice: The Rise of Sam Axe spans the gauntlet from down-right imbecilic to border-line sophisticated.At the very beginning we see foreshadowing, in the form of his seemingly obsessive compulsive attention to the precision of his belt buckle's orientation, soon contrasted by a scene making one have no choice but to smell the possibility of the video game rights being sold to the makers of "Donkey Kong". Sam Axe, brilliantly portrayed by the affable Bruce Campbell, of "The Adventures of Briscoe County Jr." fame, is a living, breathing, oxymoron sans the "oxy", capable of leaving his calling card at the scene of the alleged crime while simultaneously reminding us how the likes of James Bond, Jason Bourne, and Jack Bauer often take themselves too seriously (perhaps those guys should be connoisseurs of Scotch, like Sam). I can't vouch for the authenticity of his uniform, or verify whether or not naval personnel are required to salute indoors, but I enjoy a good laugh when I see one.The cameo with Michael Weston (played by Jeffrey Donovan) is priceless. Jerry Seinfeld was not a better mentor to George Costanza, nor was Bud Abbott to Lou Costello. Accordingly, the tone of the movie is much more comedic than that of its progenitor. Fans of "Burn Notice" will especially appreciate the term of endearment Sam uses when referring to an un-named ex girlfriend of Michael's. The interplay of the source of the soundtrack with specific situations is reminiscent of a Mel Brook's movie.On the more sophisticated end of the comedy spectrum are the way subtitles don't always correspond to the spoken words, whether or not subtitles were even necessary in a given scene, and how Sam clumsily, yet fluently, spoke Spanish so inconsistently. I am reminded of numerous scenes in Quentin Tarantino's "Inglorious Basterds". Two examples are how Sam says "flaming sword" instead of "burning sword" for his interpretation of "ardiente espada", and when the subtitles display "thank you" when he says "gracious bandidos".Sam Axe should also receive the "Second Best Use of a Chainsaw in an Under-funded Film" Award. The name of the first best user of a chainsaw in one of those situations escapes me, making me feel like a tree. Chainsaws don't help trees, people help trees. To cap it all off, the song played at the end is about Snow White, in celebration of a Cinderella victory. Nice.