WHEN THE BULLET HITS THE BONE (1998) *

A few days ago, I watched a decent Jeff Wincott flick, Martial Law 2:  Undercover.  That got me itching to watch another Jeff Wincott movie.  Unfortunately for me, the one I watched was When the Bullet Hits the Bone.  

Jeff stars as a doctor who becomes disillusioned with stitching up drug dealers, pushers, and junkies.  He quits, crawls into a whisky bottle, and winds up confronting a gunman hassling Michelle Johnson in an alley.  After a lot of back and forth, he eventually agrees to help Johnson and her kid get away from the main baddie who controls the drug flow in the city.  In the process, Jeff comes into possession of a disc that could incriminate a bunch of politicians.

I like Jeff Wincott and all, but it’s a little hard to buy him as a doctor.  He isn’t a bad actor.  It’s just that he’s at his best when he’s allowed to kick a little ass.  Since When the Bullet Hits the Bone doesn’t give him any opportunities to bust out his patented Kung Fu moves, it feels like his talents are being wasted.  Johnson isn’t convincing as the junkie damsel in distress either.

As bad as the movie is, it really drags whenever Wincott isn’t on screen.  The bad guy is weak and his righthand man is even worse.  He has a lame gimmick where he asks presidential trivia before he kills someone.  There’s also an odd scene where he makes an old guy do a bunch of push-ups before offing him.  Speaking of push-ups, the only (unintentionally) funny moment comes when Wincott is doing push-ups and the camera is set way too close to his crotch.

Written and directed by Damian Lee (who also directed Wincott and Johnson in The Donor a few years prior), When the Bullet Hits the Bone is low rent in just about every way.  The overall cheapness of the production coupled with the nearly nonexistent action (the few shootouts we do get are poorly staged) make for a bottom of the barrel affair.  I wouldn’t mind the crappy production values if the movie wasn’t so dull, lifeless, and forgettable.  Also, some scenes suffer from crummy editing and inexplicable use slow motion.  All this might’ve been tolerable if Wincott karate chopped or kicked a bunch of people.  The heavy emphasis on torture doesn’t help.  

The phrase “When the Bullet Hits the Bone”, of course comes from The Golden Earring song, Twilight Zone.  This movie is so cheap, they couldn’t even afford to put it on the soundtrack.  Heck, I’d rather listen to that song played on a loop for 82 minutes straight than watch When the Bullet Hits the Bone again. 

AKA:  Terror Zone.  AKA:  Bullet in the Dark.