NARCOTIC (1933) **

Narcotic is director Dwain (Maniac) Esper’s anti-drug propaganda flick that rallies against the use of opium.  A doctor with a promising future is engaged to be married and spends his spare time volunteering at a free clinic.  He starts hanging out with his Chinese friend from college who recreationally visits opium dens and before long, he becomes a hopelessly addicted doper.  His wife figures out he’s an addict and tries to get him help.  After a successful stint in rehab, he becomes addicted once again after getting into a terrible car wreck.  Tragically, his life quickly spirals from there.

Lacking the jaw-dropping lunacy of Esper’s classic, Maniac or even the wild-eyed fun of the Esper-produced Reefer Madness, Narcotic is a tepid and routine affair.  I guess that has a lot to do with the presentation as we’re told upfront it’s a “case study”.  In another words, a factual account.  What made Esper’s other adults-only roadshow outings so much fun is that they were fire and brimstone scare pictures.  This one is more of a filmed manual about the dangers of addiction.  Whereas Maniac had nudity and gore and Reefer Madness had hilarious overacting, this one has boring speeches about addiction.  (To be fair, there may have been harsher scenes in its original release.  The editing is so choppy throughout that it’s conceivable that at some point there was a tawdrier version before the censors got ahold of it.)

Other than a brief birth of a baby scene and the guy in yellow face who smokes hookahs and spouts fortune cookie witticisms, Narcotic is curiously low on the WTF moments you hope for from a dated scare picture.   The closest it comes to matching the heights of Esper’s other works is the “dope party” scene near the end.  Even then, it’s more or less just a bunch of people hanging around and telling bad jokes, but the close-up of a needle going in the arm is rather graphic.  (The shots of the pothead’s uncontrolled giggling sort of portends the hilarity of Reefer Madness.)  The funniest part is when one partygoer says, “We’re gonna get lit!”  It’s nice to know that after nearly a hundred years some slang words never change. 

LET’S GET PHYSICAL: TELL ME NO LIES (2001) ***

FORMAT:  DVD

A serial killer is going around butchering a bevy of beautiful busty college coeds.  Amber Smith is a sexy DJ for a college radio call-in show whose sultry voice attracts the attention of the killer.  When he reveals on the air that he killed Amber’s sister, it naturally rattles her.  While the police drag their feet and come up with no leads, Amber sets out to take down the killer on her own terms. 

Smith makes quite an impression as she really commands the screen.  She has a sexy voice and is a natural fit behind the microphone.  She also looks great in her frequent nude scenes. 

Most of the sex scenes are gratuitous and would make a Mainline Releasing erotic thriller seem subtle and restrained by comparison.  That’s just a fancy way of saying they’re pretty darn good.  These sequences are well lit, have patient editing, and director Emmanuele Itier frames the scenes in such a way that he’s able to get the most out of the performers'… uh… assets.  The sex scenes also occur at a steady clip which also help to disguise the thin plot. 

Other than Amber’s impressive performance, the rest of the cast are sadly, more or less a washout.  Jason Ryan, who plays the main cop on the case especially looks ridiculous in his ill-fitting cowboy hat, especially considering that without it, he otherwise looks like a member of Sugar Ray.  His Texas accent sounds equally phony.  Thankfully, his goofy appearances don’t detract from the hot and heavy softcore action. 

The finale where Amber and her boyfriend are attacked by the killer is a lot less effective than the build-up to the confrontation.  This lengthy sequence also cuts into the nude scenes, which were previously occurring every five minutes.  The tepid climax aside, for the first hour or so, Tell Me No Lies is truthfully a great Skinamax thriller. 

Itier later went on to direct documentaries, many of which were narrated by none other than Sharon Stone!

LET’S GET PHYSICAL: SHOTGUN (1989) ** ½

FORMAT:  DVD (REWATCH)

ORIGINAL REVIEW:

(As posted on April 11th, 2018)

There’s a psycho going around the city wearing a leather S & M mask and beating up hookers.  Two concerned cops, Jones (Stuart Chapin) and Billings (Riff Hutton) warn the ladies of the night to beware.  When Jones’ sister becomes the killer’s latest victim, he goes out for revenge.  He flies off the handle and winds up getting thrown off the force.  Jones ekes out a living as a bounty hunter and quickly gains the nickname “Shotgun” for his propensity for shooting people in the ass with a shotgun.

Shotgun is a chintzy, low-rent, but watchable cop thriller.  The sometimes-blurry cinematography gives it the look of a slightly higher budgeted homemade movie.  The amateurish performances (especially by Chapin) help add to the fact (and the fun).

The early scenes of the masked killer whipping hookers have a kick to them and gives you a good look at Hollywood Boulevard in the late ‘80s.  However, the tone is inconsistent.  It goes from comedy (like when Chapin and Hutton bust up a robbery in a bar) to prostitute beating a little crudely, which sometimes hampers it from truly taking off.

Shotgun suffers from a low budget, but the filmmakers wisely saved all their money for the final reel.  In the end, Chapin gets an old buddy to turn his truck into a tank equipped with a flamethrower.  They then head down to Mexico to take out the killer who's hiding in a fortress surrounded by armed goons.  This sequence has enough explosions, pyrotechnics, and shots of people being blown away and/or set on fire to qualify it as a minor classic. 

Chapin gets the best line of the movie when he tells an Internal Affairs officer:  “My partner and I were in a situation that probably would’ve given you Hershey Squirts!”

LET’S GET PHYSICAL: DEADLY TARGET (1994) ** ½

FORMAT:  DVD

Gary Daniels stars in this moderately entertaining PM Entertainment actioner as a Hong Kong cop who is sent to Los Angeles to bring back the drug kingpin (Byron Mann) who killed his brother.  Naturally, the prisoner transfer goes awry and his quarry escapes.  Everyone tells Gary to go back home, but he sticks around and teams up with a karate-kicking LA cop (Ken McLeod) to get his man(n). 

Deadly Target was the one and only directorial effort from actress Charla Driver.  She handles the fight scenes competently enough for the most part, and while there’s nothing revolutionary here, it’s quite satisfying overall.  (Driver gives us the obligatory scene where there’s a shot of a conspicuously placed vase, and you just know it’s only a matter of time before it is smashed by a whirling leg kick in slow motion.)  The car chases and explosions are rather over the top too, which is the norm for a PM flick.  Unfortunately, Driver puts way too much concentration on the love story subplot between Daniels and a Chinese blackjack dealer (Susan Byun).  These scenes are okay, but they only add to the already lengthy ninety-nine-minute running time. 

The characters make so much about Gary being a cop from Hong Kong that it almost made me wonder if the script was originally supposed to star an Asian lead.  Either way, I guess it didn’t matter where he was from.  (Although I guess it would make sense for Gary to be English since Hong Kong was under British rule at the time.)  All that really matters is that he kicks a bunch of dudes in the face and shoots a bunch of drug dealers, which, of course, he does.  Because of that, I’d say Deadly Target is a reasonably enjoyable addition to Gary’s vast DTV filmography. 

AKA:  Fire Zone.  AKA:  Street War.

LET’S GET PHYSICAL: SOLDIER BOYZ (1996) **

FORMAT:  DVD (REWATCH)

ORIGINAL REVIEW:

(As posted on September 23rd, 2011)

Soldier Boyz finds Michael Dudikoff as an ex-military man-turned-social worker trying to get through to some gang members in a jail for troubled kids. Some rich guy approaches him to rescue his daughter who’s being held captive by Cary Hiroyuki Tagawa in Vietnam. Dudikoff accepts the mission but only as long as he can take a couple of these kids with him. Because the teens are in opposing gangs, racists, or otherwise psychotic, Dudikoff has to make sure they don’t kill each other before they kill the enemy.

So, basically what we’ve got here is a gangbanger version of The Dirty Dozen with The American Ninja in the Lee Marvin role.

Let me get this off my chest. The plot of this movie is fucking stupid. I mean who in their right mind would authorize sending incarcerated gang members to Vietnam on a top-secret mission? MILITARY prisoners, sure; but generic hoodrats? Please. Plus, the title is also misleading because there’s a girl on the team too. I guess Soldier Boyz and One Gurl just didn’t have the same ring to it.

Whatever the flick lacks in the probability department, it makes up for in the earnestness of Dudikoff’s performance. He really gives it his all and does a helluva job here. As misguided as most of the movie is, Dudikoff gives it some gravitas at least.

Despite the highly unlikely set-up, a good movie could’ve been made from this material. Often times, the flick plays like an OK first draft of a potentially good film. Maybe if they beefed up the villain a bit more and actually worked to make the gang members likeable; it could’ve worked.

Then again, since Louis (The Hitcher 2) Morneau, was in the director’s chair, the flick probably never stood a chance. Although there is quite a lot of gunfire and explosions; most of the action is routine and the finale is weak. The flick also loses major points for giving guys like Cary Hiroyuki Tagawa and Don Stroud (who wears an eye patch) virtually nothing worthwhile to do.

The flick is at its best during the scenes where Dudikoff whips his team in shape. It’s here where you can see glimpses of a decent movie trying to get out. Once Dudikoff and his “Boyz” start soldiering, it’s not much to write home about.

LET’S GET PHYSICAL: PLATOON LEADER (1988) ** ½

FORMAT:  DVD

There was a time when the DTV action market was filled with low budget Nam actioners in the wake of Rambo and Platoon.  With Platoon Leader, you can relive that short, but memorable era of home video entertainment. 

As far as Namsploitation flicks go, this one is OK.  It was produced by Cannon and stars Michael (American Ninja) Dudikoff as a green lieutenant who is sent to Nam to whip a platoon of soldiers into shape.  The disillusioned, weary grunts have been in the shit for months and resent their wet behind the ears superior who’s never seen combat.  He eventually learns what his men know all too well:  War is hell. 

Aaron Norris directs (in a rare outing in which his brother Chuck isn’t the star) with a workmanlike competence.  He does a better job directing the various gunfire battles and explosions than he does with the drama, but I guess that’s to be expected.  While Platoon Leader is certainly watchable, it’s honestly nothing we haven’t seen before, and done better I might add.  

At least the performances are pretty good.  Dudikoff is fine in the lead, even if his major character trait is to be constantly wrong about everything.  William Smith shows up for a little bit as his superior who sends him into battle without sufficient firepower or man support.  Robert F. Lyons is also solid as Dudikoff’s second in command who dutifully follows him into battle.  The rest of the grunts are the usual assortment of cliches and interchangeable soldier characters that are usually found in these sorts of things. 

If you’re a war movie buff, you probably won’t mind the cliched plot and characters, so you’ll probably enjoy it more than I did.  As a Dudikoff fan, I’d say it makes for an evening of perfectly agreeable entertainment.  It’s just that it’s more than a tad generic and nearly just as forgettable. 

LET’S GET PHYSICAL: BIG CITY BLUES (1998) ½ *

FORMAT:  DVD

Sigh.  Big City Blues is one of those Tarantino knockoffs that were so prevalent in the late ‘90s.  As such, it features vignettes of interconnected criminal characters.  There are scenes of hitmen talking about movies and making long speeches (one is about “celestial roulette”) before they kill their target, people scoring drugs, and hookers that yammer on and on. 

It's sad that Burt Reynolds never got to be in a Tarantino movie.  (He was supposed to be in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, but passed away before filming began.)  I guess crap like this is probably the closest we’ll get, but it’s kind of depressing to see him in a Sam’s Choice/Great Value/Dr. Perky version of Pulp Fiction.  His bored, grumpy hitman character talks about Clint Eastwood and gives long monologues, but the scripting is amateurish, and the direction is borderline pathetic.  William Forsythe (who was also in the much better Strike Force with Burt) plays his partner in crime, and even he looks tired and ashamed.  Arye Gross and Giancarlo Esposito are on hand as a pair of trans individuals who want to get money for a sex reassignment surgery.   Don’t think this is a win for inclusion as their characters are one-note and feel like they were only there to cash in on To Wong Foo.  And don’t even get me started on the dumb comedy bits (like a hooker jerking off a client who gets off from singing “Old MacDonald Had a Farm”) and the lame fantasy scenes (like a party where everyone dresses up in frog costumes). 

The script rips off Pulp Fiction right down to the scene where characters are kidnapped by creepy, perverted, would-be rapists.  This time, instead of rednecks, it’s kinky Satanists.  I’ve lived a long time and I’ve seen a lot of things, but I didn’t need to see Burt Reynolds strapped to a torture rack and wearing a studded S & M leather thong. 

When the characters finally come together, it’s anticlimactic and not nearly worth all the trouble.  Plus, to add insult to injury, Burt gets one of the worst death scenes on record.  If it wasn’t for Georgina Cates’ lengthy third act nude scene, it would’ve been totally worthless. 

The worst thing about it is the awful cinematography.  Many scenes are dimly lit to the point that it’s hard to see much of anything.  Others are awash in a dark blue hue.  I know the movie is called Big City Blues. but they could’ve picked a lighter shade.  It might’ve at least been easier to see.