My friends and I raid cheap video stores around LA and pick up TONS of titles like this. There's nothing like straight to video 80s B movies, they fu*kin rule.
This one absolutely did not disappoint. The best aspect of one of these films is that they always manage to bring in one washed up star for the "heavy" role, or some juicy part. Amazingly, they managed to get Tony Curtis for this picture.
I had the feeling that the entire thing was an excuse for the director to call his friends and go "Holy shi*, I got Tony Curtis to be in my movie!" The whole thing seems like Tony just walked on set, threw away his pages and ignored all direction and just said "Im not doing it like that, ya motherfu*ker. Im doing it THIS way." And bless his heart for it, because he RULES in this. Of course this was a schlocky movie for him to do, and its no doubt Tony's a great actor. But to watch him in something like this, surrounded by a bunch of other horrendous actors makes him shine twice as bright. It's kind of like being a mediocre looking chick in a group of fatties. Any other night, nobody would look twice at you. But tonight, you're a STAR. He's such a bad ass in it, I loved it. It made me wish he'd go for meatier roles like this in real movies in his older age.
Micheal Parks is his usual, bad ass "Nick Nolte before Nick Nolte" self. He spews tons of great B movie dialog, and says "got-damn" better than most actors in the history of Hollywood. He actually pushes a line of coke in front of the main character and goes "Be somebody." YES! He also has one of the most ridiculous death scenes I've seen in a while, and one of the best funeral sequences ever captured on celluloid.
And thank god, thank GOD they didn't let the neon nun-chucks go. You see in bad movies, often there will be some kind of awesome aspect alluded to or featured on the box cover that never really lives up to it's potential; a new kind of gun, some kind of crazy car, etc. (Think of the Balabushka pool cue from Color of Money; some kind of weapon or item that makes the character special) They'll tease you with it for hours, but due to budget constraints it will either fall by the wayside or wind up being totally lame.
In this one, they keep showing these awesome glow in the dark nun-chucks. And in the 3rd act, he does indeed use them to their full potential. I was so happy. This movie rocks man, if you're into 80s cheese this one does not disappoint. It's kind of like Roadhouse before the Roadhouse.
