Repo Jake (1990)

Repo Jake (1990)- * * *

Directed by: Joesph Merhi

Starring: Dan Haggerty, Dana Bentley, Steve Hansborough, Walter Cox, Robert Axelrod, Joe Garcia, Steve Wilcox, R.J. Walker, and Andrew Reilly

Jake Baxter (Haggerty) is a mild-mannered and likable repo man who moves from Minnesota to Los Angeles for a business opportunity in the world of repo’ing. As an ex-Marine and former race car driver, there’s very little that scares Jake Baxter. On his first day in L.A., he thwarts a purse snatcher and develops a romantic relationship with the intended target, Jenny (Bentley). He then moves into the same apartment building as her and begins his new life.

Now working with a classic ragtag bunch of misfits, including aspiring rapper Darnell “Jam” Jones (Hansborough), the hapless Lippy (Cox), Wiseguy Skidmark (Garcia), the sleepy Waldo (Walker), and fellow racer Blondie (Wilcox), among others, Jake fits in well with his new bros. But what he doesn’t realize is that danger is afoot in the form of nefarious gangster Kovar (Reilly) and his vicious underlings, including Lincoln King (Axelrod). 

Amongst their many criminal activities is illegal gambling on something called the “Slam Track”, which is itself an illegal car race. Will Repo Jake return to his racin’ ways? Will he and Jenny survive the threat of mobsters? Will any cars blow up? Only REPO JAKE knows the truth…

It’s “humor and Haggerty” as PM tries a more lighthearted tone this time around. The main influence here seems to be D.C. Cab (1983), though Dan Haggerty does throw that purse snatcher through several windows and there are some other light-violent bits. It is PM after all. As much as we all love Lee Canalito, the choice of Dan Haggerty as main star is an inspired and welcome one. His screen presence and genial good-humoredness carries the movie. It would have suffered a lot without him.

Clearly car repossession was very hot back in the video store days, as Don “The Dragon” Wilson was one in Bloodfist IV: Die Trying (1992) and Corey Michael Eubanks was as well in Forced To Kill (1994). And lest we forget Repo Man (1984). As usual, PM was ahead of the curve and made what is arguably the ultimate direct-to-video repo movie. 

As a side note, let’s not forget that in 2011 the show Repo Games premiered, where deadbeats who didn’t pay their car payments agreed to answer trivia questions in a desperate bid to keep their vehicle. Repo Jake puts all this modern-day cynicism in perspective. We would all like an ally such as Jake Baxter on our side.

While the mixture of wacky humor and evil gangsters forcing drug-addicted women into prostitution is certainly an uneasy one, Repo Jake is a good example of the type of movie that isn’t being made anymore, and which gave color and interest to your video store choices. It also shows PM was adventurous and willing to try new things. 

In the end, Repo Jake is an enjoyable way to spend 90 minutes or so, especially for PM buffs.

Comeuppance Review by: Brett and Ty 

One Man War (1990)

One Man War (1990)- *

Directed by: Bret McCormick

Starring: Dan Haggerty, Benton Jennings, and Malinda Bryant










When hirsute rambling man Cole Jackson (Haggerty) returns to his rural Southern hometown of Macon County, Texas (which you’d think would be in Georgia), he rustles up a whole heap o’ trouble and becomes good ol’ boy enemy number one when he stumbles upon some illegal dealings. Smuggled goods, government cover-ups, threats, kidnapping and perhaps even...murder are all part of the corruption currently enveloping Macon County, a known hotbed for such things. 

Even though he’s staying with his younger brother Nathan (Jennings) and his wife Jenny (Bryant), Cole gets shot and spends the vast majority of the running time in a hospital bed. Will the Jackson family (not including Tito) clean up their town before it’s too late? Or will they just swig moonshine out of a glass jug until blindness sets in? Dare you find out today?

Despite the title and the promising prospect of Dan Haggerty shooting lots of people, One Man War (or Macon County War if you prefer, not to be confused with the Macon County series - Macon County Line, Macon County Jail, and Return to Macon County, from 1974, 1975, and 1997 respectively) is a disappointment. Haggerty is indeed likable, but he’s not in the movie enough. Watching his hair was the mane part of the movie for us (sorry). 

We kept asking, “why is this a movie?” - as a window into a living room, perhaps it works on its own terms, but why is there an abrupt jump cut to Nathan feeding the ducks? He picks up his gun and then shoots nothing and comes back a few minutes later and puts it back where he found it. If you’re aiming for action fans to view your movie, that’s not a good way to win their hearts.

Like Lethal Force (2002), we were sucked in by the cool title and then left with scraps of nothingness. The whole outing is dull and repetitive. It makes Radical Jack (2000) look like a masterpiece. There are some amusing (?) older gentlemen in the cast, which perhaps was a precursor to later McCormick movie The Protector (1999), where Ed Marinaro and Lee Majors took center stage. Hard to believe this is only the second directorial effort from McCormick, coming just a few years after the underground cult horror gem The Abomination (1986). Two more different projects you cannot imagine, but perhaps he was showing off his range.

While we know something underhanded is going on in Macon County, it’s never clearly explained just what it is, except maybe right at the end when we’re not interested anymore. There is a secret warehouse right out in the open, hiding away barrels of a translucent green liquid. We only could surmise from this that they are involved in the illegal importation of Hi-C Ecto Cooler. They’re clearly hiding it from Slimer as they brew their own homemade batch right next to their moonshine.

Taking the concept of a “sit-down” role to a new extreme, Dan Haggerty comfortably LAYS down in bed for a lot of the movie’s running time. But wouldn’t you if you were in his shoes? Though to be fair, Haggerty’s hair isn’t the only point of visual interest - Jenny’s acid washed jeans provided a welcome oasis for our eyes amongst the nondescript morass of the rest of the movie. It should also be noted that there are some weak gun-shooting scenes, some limp car blow-ups and a laughably awful exploding helicopter.

We’d say watch an episode of The Dukes of Hazzard instead of One Man War, but, due to political correctness, it’s been yanked (no pun intended) from TV. What’s this world coming to? And who ever would have thought One Man War would outlive and be more readily available than The Dukes? There isn’t a lot to recommend with One Man War. Go on YouTube and watch The Abomination instead.

Comeuppance Review by: Ty and Brett 

Chance (1990)

Chance (1990)-* * *

Directed by: Charles T. Kanganis and Addison Randall

Starring: Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, Dan Haggerty, Roger Rodd, and Jastereo Coviare












Det. Jon Leroy Chance (LHJ) is an L.A. Cop On The Edge. After he is put on suspension by your classic WYC (or White Yelling Chief), who tells Chance that he’s “made a lot of enemies because of your freewheeling style!”, he reconnects with old partner Zachary “Zack” Chamberlain (Haggerty). Zack is an alcoholic who’s fooling the world that he’s now sober. He now works for a repo company for a living. After a diamond heist orchestrated by arch-baddie Kingsley (Rodd), the loot is hidden inside a Plymouth Barracuda. Zack, unaware of the connection to the diamond heist, repo’s said Barracuda. 

Now Kingsley is angry and is willing to send his entire army of goons after whoever has the diamonds, and he believes it is Zack, and by association, Chance. So now Zack, Chance and mysterious Indian Bear (Coviare) must fight for their lives and to clear their good names. Can they do it?

If you’ve been following the Chance series - and if you care at all about good movies, you are - those of course being today’s movie at hand, plus L.A. Vice (1989), L.A. Heat (1989) or the similar but non-Chance outing Quietfire (1991), clearly you will want to check out this final installment of the cinematic works of one Jon Chance. 

If you happened to have seen any of the aforementioned movies, you will know what to expect, it’s more of the same (in a good way). If you haven’t, let’s just say they have a unique cinematic style. The acting, action, and technical aspects will transport you to a more innocent time. That being the early-90’s video store, of course. PM always provides entertainment in one form or another, and they don’t disappoint with Chance.

Chance features two powerhouses teaming up. LHJ has a lot of great quips and one-liners (he even gets a credit for “Additional Dialogue”), and his all-black “NOW I’m ready for action” outfit makes a reappearance. He really seems to care about Chance and how he portrays him, after all. Dan Haggerty plays the bearded, long-haired, chunky action hero who hides his Jack Daniels in the toilet tank. 

We applaud whoever thought it was a good idea to take a man who looks like a young Santa Claus and put him in physically demanding situations like running, climbing hills, punching, chasing, gun-shooting and more. Haggerty proves he can still hack it with the skinnier action stars of today.  You might even say his team-up with LHJ makes them the Laurel and Hardy or Chris Farley and David Spade of action.

It should also be mentioned that Zack has his own nickname for Chance, “BuddyPal”. Just simply “Buddy” or “Pal” can’t truly convey the man-to-man love he has for him, so he combined the words for maximum effectiveness. While we haven’t, at the time of this writing, seen Repo Jake (1990), it seems Chance is an extension of the Repo Jake storyline or characters. But here Haggerty is “Repo Zack” instead.  LHJ has his own dialogue inventions, as every time he answers the phone, instead of saying “Hello” like some kind of nerd, he coolly intones “You’re On.” It’s a shame the Chance trilogy had to end here.

Jastereo Coviare returns as a rural Indian, this time named Bear. Not to be confused with the Bear from fellow PM movie Maximum Force (1992). I guess if PM is going to introduce a foreigner of some kind, they’re only allowed to use one animal name. While we don’t know who he is, a man named simply Gold plays a character in the movie called “Red”. If anyone out there knows who the enigmatic Gold is, please write in today. Speaking of classic names, Roger Rodd plays the ponytailed baddie Kingsley. You can tell he’s evil because of the ponytail and some kind of faux-British accent.

After this, co-director Addison Randall went on to work with Malibu in The Killing Zone (1991), which is on DVD and worth checking out. The other director on this project, Charles Kanganis, went on to work with Traci Lords on A Time To Die (1991) and Intent To Kill (1992). So Chance was a springboard for their careers and they both ended up giving us more choices in our local video stores. It truly was a golden time.

While it’s probably been said before, we encourage those with a sense of humor to take a chance on Chance.

Comeuppance Review by: Brett and Ty

Elves (1989)

Elves (1989)-* * *1\2

Directed by: Jeffrey Mandel

Starring: Dan Haggerty, Julie Austin, Stacey Dye, Christopher Graham and Laura Lichstein

Kirsten (Austin), and her friends Brooke (Lichstein) and Amy (Dye) are group of young gals interested in the occult. They call themselves “Masters Without Slaves” and go to the woods at night for seances and things like that. And no wonder, as Kirsten’s family is quite the creepy lot, and her younger brother Willy (Graham) is a perverted little brat that likes to dress up like Donatello from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and peep on her in the shower. As is wont to happen, the group of girls accidentally unleash a malevolent Nazi elf into the town at large. As part of a breeding experiment, the Nazis did various experiments using not guns, not bombs, not planes to take down their enemies, but elves.

Meanwhile, unemployed ex-police detective Mike McGavin (Haggerty), who is so down on his luck, he’s evicted from his trailer, reluctantly accepts a job as a department store Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. But those mischievous girls are camping out in the department store that night waiting for some boys to appear. But there’s another unwanted guest - here’s a hint: it’s a three-letter word, and it’s not “imp”! But to destroy this nasty elf, McGavin will have to unravel a complex web of history, deceits and lies from Nazi elf experts. Will he and Kirsten live to see another Christmas?

Ah, Elves. Such fond memories. This is one of the first (if not the first) AIP’s we’d ever seen. Needless to say, we were hooked. The plot of the movie is just so endearingly bonkers, you can’t help but love it. Anyone who would release this gem into the world should really receive our thanks. It’s packed with nutty ideas, hilarious dialogue, enjoyable fun, and a Nazi elf. Yes, just one elf. The title is a bit misleading. But we, as the audience, are treated to “elf vision” as he’s walking around, so we can see the world through the eyes of this lonely, but murderous, elf.

National hero Dan Haggerty is at his absolute best here. He continues his tradition of great sweaters, and, somehow, his beard actually matches his sweater selections. And his pinky ring. But who else could bellow “Tell me the connection between the Nazis and the elves!!!” with a complete straight face and utter conviction like Mr. Haggerty. We salute you, sir. Pretty female lead Julie Austin has quite a career under her belt, having also appeared in Night of the Wilding (1990), Twisted Justice (1990) and Extreme Justice (1993).

Taking some of its cues from Dawn of the Dead (1978), but others from God-knows-where, Elves is a strong contender for best Christmas-themed horror/unintentional (?) comedy ever. This extremely enjoyable and fun outing shot in Colorado in the golden year of 1989 should be in your collection. “Dan” we now our gay apparel and watch Elves tonight, even if it’s not Christmas.

Also check out our buddy, The Video Vacuum's funny review!

Comeuppance Review by: Ty and Brett

Night Wars (1988)

Night Wars (1988)-* *1\2

Directed by: David A. Prior

Starring: Dan Haggerty, Brian O'Connor, Cameron Smith, Jill Foors, and Chet Hood













Jim Lowery (Smith) and Trent Matthews (O’Connor) are ‘Nam buddies who, nine years after the war, are both  haunted by the specter of their compatriot Jhonny O‘Connor (that’s how they spell his first name, it’s not a typo) (Hood). Jim and Trent must feel guilty for Jhonny’s becoming a POW. But when their dreams are so vivid, their injuries and cuts appear in their waking lives, they know there’s a serious problem. The torment of rogue mercenary McGregor (Horton) and his torture tactics have gotten to Jim and Trent so badly, Trent’s concerned wife Susanne (Foors) calls in psychologist Dr. Mike Campbell (Haggerty) for help. But the boys must “sleep together” in their fatigues to defeat the enemies in their dreams. When dreams and real life blur, who knows what the truth really is?

Night Wars is a good attempt at seriousness from AIP, but, once again, comes off as silly most of the time. That might be because of the constant, uncanny casting of goofy-looking sweaty people in almost every role. But there are some cool ideas and effects mixed in with the standard machine-gun firefights. This movie asks the question: what if the emotional trauma of returning Vietnam vets mutated into an actual, physical horror after the war? Try to imagine Jungle Assault (1989) crossed with A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984).
What if Freddy Krueger was a Vietnam vet?

The role of Jim Lowery should have been played by Wings Hauser, and he and Trent surely are the Bill and Ted of AIP movies, but mention (not necessarily honorable) must go to Dan Haggerty as the “cool” psychologist with the necklace and the pared-down beard. He’s really showing his range here. He’s not Grizzly Adams or the guy from Elves (1989). He’s a doctor. It’s really one of his best sweaters, er, performances.

There are the prerequisite torture sequences, but this time, they are really heaped on. There’s also the typical jungle/war cliches, but this time they are mixed with a dash of spookiness. Also it must be noted that this film has the most amount of people bellowing “NOOOOooooo!!!!!” that we’ve seen to date - it occurs four times during the movie.

While the ideas in Night Wars can’t exactly be described as original (many are lifted wholesale from Elm Street), the attempt to marry the Vietnam war film with the phantasmagoric dream film gives this AIP outing an interesting and noteworthy edge above some of the others. It really gives new meaning to the term “Dream Warriors”. Dokken take note.

For a war/horror hybrid film served up AIP style, look no further than Night Wars.

Comeuppance Review by: Ty and Brett