Active Stealth (1999)

Active Stealth (1999)- * 

Directed by: Fred Olen Ray

Starring: Daniel Baldwin, Fred Williamson, Terry Funk, Hannes Jaenicke, Chick Vennera, Tim Abell, Joe Lala, and Shannon Whirry

When an evil Mexican drug lord (is there any other kind?) named Salvatore (Lala) and his henchman Morgan (Funk) take a member of our U.S. military hostage, we bring in the best men we have available to go on the rescue mission. Of course, that includes Captain “Murph” Murphy (Baldwin), a sullen and somewhat belligerent man who is haunted by his past. His wife Gina (Whirry) is supportive, but along with Chiccio (Vennera), Lt. Reb Carter (Abell), and “Hollywood” Andrews – because he wants to make it in Hollywood after his military career is over - (Robinson), the boys snap into action and use the awesome new stealth bomber for said mission. They even get help from “Special Guest” Andrew Stevens as Jack Stevens. Whoa. While south of the border, they make friends with a peasant woman and her young son as they find out Salvatore wants to “El Presidente” himself all the way to the top. Paralleling that back home, Captain Reynolds (Williamson) just may be part of conspiracy that also goes to the top.

Here we go again…if Stealth Fighter (1999), Desert Thunder (1999), Crash Dive (1996), its sequel Counter Measures (1999), Agent Red (2000), Air Rage (2001), and all the other Fred Olen Ray or Jim Wynorski-styled plane slogs from the late 90’s/early 2000’s weren’t enough for you, well, here’s another one. Not only does this not add anything to the genre, it actually takes away entertaining elements from the other ones. For example, there’s no precocious kid like a Sarah Dampf to at least make us chuckle here. We do get an Italian stereotype in Chiccio, but it’s just not the same. 

It’s not the “borrowed” footage from other movies that bothers us. We’re used to that by now. It’s the fact that this is a plane slog crossed with an El Presidente slog, two of our least favorite slogs. Just simply stitching them together does not a good movie make. It even knocks off one of our favorites, Commando (1985), with Lala and Funk taking on the Dan Hedaya and Vernon G. Wells roles respectively. There is a ton of groan-inducing dialogue, from the constant military jargon (a lot of which is inaccurate, from what we’ve been able to ascertain), to the noticeably-more-obvious-than-usual homosexual references when our heroes are trying to “bond”. It all will make you long for the glory of Delta Force Commando II: Priority Red One (1990).


And speaking of Fred Williamson, the star of the aforementioned film, let’s face it, this movie is unworthy of his talents. He’s not in it that much, but it even manages to tamp down and tame The Hammer. Not good. Daniel Baldwin puts in a perfunctory performance but seems more interested whenever there’s dialogue involving chili (there’s more than you might think). While casting Terry Funk as one of the baddies was a good idea, we would have liked to have seen Shannon Whirry in more than just the clichéd “worried wife” role. She should have taken a rocket launcher down to Mexico to blow up Salvatore. Then we’d be talking.

Sure, there’s a bunch of mindless shooting, and some helicopters “blow up” (is this stuff even real anymore?) but it’s very, very hard – if not impossible – to care. The Top Gun video game for Nintendo was more entertaining and well-made than this. It’s pretty much the dictionary definition of shelf filler.

The Stealth may be active but your brain cells will be inactive if you witness this muck. 

Comeuppance Review by: Brett and Ty

Double Threat (1993)

Double Threat (1993)-* * *

Directed by: David A. Prior

Starring: Andrew Stevens, Sally Kirkland, Richard Lynch, Anthony Franciosa, Chick Vennera, and Sherrie Rose












Monica Martel (Kirkland) was once hot property in Hollywood, but now her career is on the downslide because, unfortunately, she is aging. But she’s working on a movie that should revive her fortunes. The producer, a man blessed with the name Crocker Scott (Franciosa) tells the director, Ross (Vennera) to spice up the film and make it “sexier”. The only problem is, Monica proudly proclaims she has never done nudity in her career and isn’t going to budge now. So the filmmakers call in a body double, Lisa Shane (Rose), and you’d think that would solve the problem. But that’s just the beginning, as Monica’s younger boy-toy Eric Cline (Stevens) lusts after the super-hot Lisa in a big way. But Monica is very controlling and Eric can’t really escape her clutches. But once a murder plot erupts, and cars start exploding and people start being shot at, Detective Fenich (Lynch) is on the case, and he’s highly suspicious of Eric and his motives. But does he have good reason? After many twists and turns, the fiendish plot is revealed. Just how many threats will there be? Find out today?

The “Erotic Thriller”, as it came to be known (or “Sizzlers”, as a local video store chain, Tommy K’s, called them) were one of the last “video store genres”. While others such as the DieHardInA, the El Presidente slog, the Ninja Boom movie, the teen sex romp, among others, had been around in video stores for years, it seemed it took until the mid-90’s for the Erotic Thriller to truly find its own space on local store shelves. They became so prevalent on pay-cable, Cinemax became known as “Skinemax” and even the movies themselves got the adopted title of “Skinemax Movies”. Here, David A. Prior, Mr. AIP himself, tries his hand at one. While the obvious influence is Body Double (1984), Prior isn’t quite the virtuosic filmmaker De Palma was in his prime. But maybe he’s not trying to be. Maybe his aim was to make a humble, low-budget, noir-ish thriller for a more undemanding video market. If that was the case, he definitely succeeded.

Andrew Stevens’ mullet and sleeveless denim shirt star in the movie, and when he puts on his Ray-Ban Wayfarer sunglasses, he becomes the ultimate coolguy. He seems to be some sort of cross between Patrick Swayze and David Hasselhoff, so it’s plain to see why he starred in so many of these “Sizzlers”. Connecticut’s own Sherrie Rose has never looked better. Maybe when she does roles that require Martial Arts, she feels the need to be less feminine. The linchpin of the movie is her sex appeal, so unfortunately no Martial Arts is on hand. But her car’s license plate is “MUVIES”. In the fictional world of Double Threat, was “MOVIES”, spelled properly, taken? Is her phone’s ringtone the song from the old Starz channel commercial (set to Beethoven’s 9th Symphony 4th Movement AKA Ode To Joy): “movies-movies-movies-movies-movies-movies-moooo-ooooovies”? She also wears a Seinfeld-style puffy shirt for a decent chunk of Double Threat’s running time. Ted Prior makes a brief appearance as “Thug #1”, a Van Halen-loving street tough who gets in a quick fight with Stevens. Even though there wasn’t really room for him after this one scene, the movie still could have used more Prior.

We always like to point out when there is a disco scene, and there is a good one here, with a generic C + C Music Factory knockoff for a song with a Freedom Williams soundalike commanding us to “Dance” over and over again. Yes, that is what we’re here to do, sir. Thank you. As for the tape itself, it looks quite good, with bright colors. It has no AIP trailers, but we suspect that is because it was released by West Side Studios Home Video, and it was not an entirely in-house AIP release. Regardless, it’s of good quality. But the important thing to know is that there is a longer unrated version. Should you want to add Double Threat to your collection, make sure you track down the unrated edition.

Double Threat has some familiar faces and isn’t a bad way to spend the time. Fans of the Erotic Thriller genre will probably get the most enjoyment out of the movie, but DTV fans in general should like it too.

Comeuppance Review by: Brett and Ty

McBain (1991)

McBain (1991)-* *1\2

Directed by: James Glickenhaus

Starring: Christopher Walken, Maria Conchita Alonso, Michael Ironside, Chick Vennera, Cris Aguilar, Victor Argo, Luis Guzman, and Steve James

Back in ‘Nam, Santos (Vennera) rescued McBain (Walken) when he was captured and made a prisoner. A bond developed between the two men, as represented by a ripped hundred dollar bill. In the present, Santos is leading a revolutionary army in Colombia against the dictator oppressing their country. When Santos dies in that fight, his sister Christina (Alonso) goes to New York to find McBain. McBain then agrees to help Christina finish what Santos started, and rally the revolutionary rebels to victory. To do this, he re-assembles his team of old ‘Nam buddies, including Eastland (James), Dalton (Patterson) and Frank (Ironside), among other helpers. Will McBain’s team - and the people of Colombia - be victorious?

Thanks to its cast and its professional sheen, McBain was one of the more well-known action titles around video stores back in the golden age. While it may not have had the visibility of a Van Damme, Seagal, Stallone or Schwarzenegger vehicle, it did have Christopher Walken instead, which is interesting - you don’t see him in roles like this too often. The only other one that comes to mind is The Dogs of War (1980). Walken’s square hair and Steve James wearing his trademark Wrestlemania hat brandishing a rocket launcher is a great combination. 

At its heart, this is just another exploding hut/falling guard tower movie, it’s just glossier. Imagine your standard “El Presidente” movie (for an explanation of this, see our review for Hour of the Assassin, 1987) crossed with the camaraderie of Last of the Finest (1990).  The film tries to be all things to all people, throwing a lot at the viewer: A Vietnam movie, an urban thriller, an airplane slog, A Mercenary action movie, and the aforementioned El Presidente and Exploding Hut scenarios are thrown in too, and the movie, trying to accommodate all these things, is overlong.

Alonso is there to provide the societal comment and relevance to supposedly justify all the action, and Steve James proves he’s one of the most under-appreciated and awesomely cool stars of the era. And who wouldn’t want to do what McBain’s team does - get the old gang back together to bust some heads? This A-Team-inspired scenario is appealing, but there’s way too much fat around this steak. The middle section, where the gang is in New York City taking down the baddies, is excellent. The whole movie should have been THAT. But there’s all this other stuff, like an interminable tangent about airplanes and bogeys and such. In our eyes, even though McBain is of a higher quality and budget than a lot of the stuff out there, that ends up being irrelevant because the movie doesn’t live up to its potential. That New York City section, rather than just being a color on the action movie palette listed earlier, should have been expanded and brought to its full flower.

While the movie is called McBain (not to be confused with Frank “Bulletproof” McBain or the Simpsons character), it’s really not ABOUT Christopher Walken’s character per se. We don’t know that much about him, and the movie doesn’t really revolve around him. It’s more about his team and the Colombian rebels scenario.

While there are some cool aspects to this movie, we can’t wholeheartedly recommend it, which is a shame, because we’d like to. But the NYC portion of the film and the presence of Steve James, while they can’t support the whole thing, are bright spots in this mixed bag of a movie.

Also check out our buddy, The Direct To Video Connoisseur's review of McBain!

Comeuppance Review by: Brett and Ty