OBSESSION

Teddy Fay steps up to deal with felonious complications on the set of Centurion Studios’ aptly named new project, Storm’s Eye.

Tech billionaire Carl Novak is only just starting his own production company, so he has no reason to know that Billy Barnett, the producer of Storm’s Eye, is actually Teddy, a former CIA agent who also moonlights as Oscar-winning actor Mark Weldon. But it’s a lucky thing for him that Teddy’s on hand when Carl’s wife, Rebecca, is kidnapped by Croatian gang leader Zoran Janic, since Teddy’s even more at home hunting down vermin like Janic than he is in the Hollywood scene. Janic claims he’s holding Rebecca for a hefty ransom, but Carl thinks he’s really out for bloody revenge, since he’s convinced that Carl was responsible for his brother’s death. That means both high stakes and a short timeline. As if the abduction weren’t drama enough, Matthew Wagner, a fan who’s been stalking Oscar-winning actor Tessa Tweed Bacchetti, finally succeeds in insinuating himself onto the set, where he plots to make Tessa his own by eliminating her husband, Centurion head Ben Bacchetti. Because he’s Teddy Fay, Teddy picks up the bad vibe from Matthew almost as quickly as he realizes that the kidnapping depends on a contact in Carl’s inner circle. Calculating that he can’t afford to put off dealing with either bad guy because of the imminent (though unrelated) dangers they pose, he resolves to take care of them both on the same night, and does so in a neat one-two punch that leaves one of them sitting in a car outside the other one’s lair before the closer.

Battles effortlessly apes the late Woods’ fleet pace and trademark lack of depth.