Rating: C
Dir: Darren Ward.
Star: Nick Rendell, Paul Murphy, Andy Ranger, Victor D. Thorn.
Ah, the nineties. A time when it seemed like anyone with a video-camera would round up his mates and make a film. The results tended to be variable, to put it mildly. But I always have a soft-spot for this kind of nonsense. The makers’ typical enthusiasm for their art goes some way to countering the inevitable deficiencies in other areas. This would be a good example. At 108 minutes, it’s undeniably too long, the title is utterly generic, the script has obvious flaws, and some of the acting is beyond coarse, almost reaching an almost Zen-like state, somewhere past Stanislavsky. And yet… How far can surprisingly good pyrotechnics and enthusiastic blood squibbing take a movie? Let’s find out!
This takes place on the mean streets of… em, Southampton, where drug boss John Randell (Murphy) is making a move against his rival, Harris. Unfortunately, Harris has discovered Randell was behind the theft of 2.5 million pounds’ worth of cocaine, and is none too happy about it. Randell hires the area’s top hitman, Walker (Rendell), to eliminate the competition, but tells his Lieutenant, Jimmy (Ranger) to get all Star Trek VI on the killer i.e. “First rule of assassination: kill the assassins.” Clearly, Randell – whose name is spelt Randall in most reviews, but it definitely has an E in the end-credits – has never seen any movies. Otherwise, he’d know how terribly things tend to work out for those who attempt to follow rule #1.
To nobody’s surprise except Randell and Jimmy’s, Walker survives, and therefore joins Harris on the “not too happy” train. On the assumption that you, unlike Randell, have seen a few movies, I’ll leave it up to you to fill in the rest of the plot, since there are no real surprises here. Okay, maybe the one: round half-way through, a new character, Lennox (Thorn), shows up and unexpectedly takes over from Randell as the main antagonist the rest of the way. He has a Soth Africkin accent, and history with Walker. We learn from some flashbacks that they fought together, in a “jungle” which looks suspiciously deciduous, and was quite probably filmed on a day-trip to the New Forest.
Rendell can barely act, but is a goddamn Oscar-winner beside Murphy. Their limitations become all the more obvious, due to the presence of genuine actor David Warbeck, in his final screen role as Harris’s killer Mr. Pike. Getting a “name” is always a double-edged sword for this kind of film. While adding sales value, it can also prove, as here, the English Channel-sized gulf between professional actors and amateurs. This is definitely better when the performers stop talking, and instead unleash weaponry on each other. These scenes are unexpectedly good, and would not disgrace a film with a hundred times the budget. Which would still only be £1.5m, but you get my point.
In a weird turn of events, this month will see a box-set collecting this and Ward’s other South Coast actioners from Treasured Films. I wasn’t convinced to get it myself as a result of this. However, I won’t judge if you decide to.