Red Heat (1988)

 Red Heat (1988)- * * *1\2

Directed by: Walter Hill

Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, James Belushi, Ed O'Ross, Brion James, Gina Gershon, and Peter Boyle

A violent, drug-dealing baddie named Viktor Rostavili (O'Ross) made a huge mistake. He shot and killed the partner of Moscow policeman Ivan Danko (Arnold). After Viktor flees to Chicago to continue his evil ways by associating with a gang called The Cleanheads, Danko follows. The no-nonsense Danko has only one thing on his mind: bring Viktor back to Russia to face justice. When he's teamed up with wisecracking Chicago cop Art Ridzik (Belushi), their personalities don't exactly mesh...at first. As cultures cross, mutual respect and cooperation grows. But are Danko and Ridzik in over their heads? Will they work together to bring down the baddies? You probably already know the answer...it's time for some RED HEAT!

Red Heat is a time-tested winner and an obvious 80's buddy cop classic. It was a mainstay on cable and on VHS during the golden age of the video store. Even people who aren't as die-hard into action movies (if you'll pardon the turn of phrase) as we are have likely seen it. Because it's a mainstream Hollywood production, it has all the high-quality production values you would expect it to have. The writing and direction by the great Walter Hill is, of course, excellent. It's total entertainment and a blast to watch from start to finish.

Arnold as Ivan Danko pioneered the "non-Russian playing a Russian" that Dolph specialized in later on in his career with such outings as The Russian Specialist (2005) and The Killing Machine (2010), among others. Now it's almost commonplace to do that, but Arnold was first. Speaking of similarities between Arnold and Dolph, Ivan Danko has the same "Russian Haircut" that the similarly-named Ivan Drago has in Rocky IV. Apparently filmmakers thought that having a square, spiky brush cut said to the audience "I'm a stony, humorless Russian". 

Of course, there is a lot of humor in the film, and it all works quite well. It's classic Arnie all the way. He makes a lot of great faces and has a ton of amusing stone-faced looks that he gives throughout the proceedings, mainly at Belushi. Those reactions are worth the price of admission alone. The timing and the chemistry between Schwarzenegger and Belushi is fantastic. It's a crucial element in any buddy cop adventure and here everybody nails it.

Red Heat can stand tall in the canon of the buddy cop action comedy boom of the 80's. It delivers what you want in spades. Remember when Jay Leno and Pat Morita were "As different as Hot Dogs and Sushi"? Well, as fondly as we remember Collision Course (1989), Red Heat is even better. I know, hard to believe. In part because of the power of Hollywood and Walter Hill, not only does the film have a great look to it, but there are plenty of fine character actors to fill out the cast. 

Standouts include Gina Gershon as Cat, the dance instructor caught in the middle of all the mayhem (and yes, there is one dance instruction scene), Peter Boyle as the harried police captain, Donnelly (aren't they always harried?) - although it must be said he doesn't really yell at Danko and Ridzik all that much, so he just barely misses the label of WYC but in spirit he really is. Laurence Fishburne is a fellow cop, Sven-Ole Thorsen is a shirtless Russian, and Brion James is, what else, a baddie underling. We could go on and on, but it all adds up to a lot of color and interest for the viewer.

I know we're having a lot of fun here today, but I do think it's important to quickly pause and remember the cultural context. In 1988, relations between the then-Soviet Union and America were typically frosty. TV news often reported on what was going on behind the Iron Curtain, and it usually took on an ominous tone. However, in just a year or two, the Berlin Wall was going to fall and presumably a thawing of the relations was in the offing. So the zeitgeist was perfect for a film like Red Heat, which mirrored that geopolitical situation in its own way. Perhaps less successfully, so did a film like Russkies (1987).

Anyway, they don't make movies like this anymore, which is a real shame. At least we have our VHS tapes, DVDs, and Blu-Rays to preserve this golden time of filmmaking. Just recently, Red Heat was released on 4K, which, as of this writing, not all that many films have been. The fact that it was chosen for a 4K release says a lot. I think its legacy is assured for a long time to come.



Also, it was nice to see the original bus chase. As you may know, both Rangers (2000) and Running Red (1999) used recycled Red Heat footage in their "bus-chase" finales. As we said, the legacy lives on. Featuring some classic sax on the soundtrack as the finishing touch to this 80's classic, it's very, very easy to love Red Heat.

Comeuppance Review by: Brett and Ty

Out For Justice (1991)

Out For Justice (1991) - * * *1\2

Directed by: John Flynn

Starring: Steven Seagal, William Forsythe, Nick Corello, Joe Spataro, Robert LaSardo, Gina Gershon, and Jerry Orbach

Detective Gino Felino (Seagal) is Brooklyn born and bred, and Brooklyn to the bone. While he and some of his buddies from the old neighborhood such as Bobby Lupo (Spataro) became cops, others became wiseguys and took up the Italian gangster lifestyle. When psychotic, drug-abusing thug Richie Madano (Forsythe) guns down Lupo in broad daylight and in front of his family, Gino, to use Brooklyn slang…isn’t happy. (Keep in mind we’re not from Brooklyn). 

Having disappeared, Gino is certain Richie is still somewhere in Brooklyn and won’t leave its confines, so he turns the borough upside down looking for him. Gino has his foot in two worlds, as he utilizes police compatriots such as Captain Donziger (Orbach), as well as gangsters such as Joey Dogs (Corello) in order to find him. Throughout his search, he encounters many characters, everyone from Richie’s sister Patti (Gershon) to gangster Bochi (Lasardo), but is anyone safe as Gino goes….OUT FOR JUSTICE?

Out for Justice is Seagal at his absolute best and has proven itself over time to be a classic of 90’s action. Lest you think we’re a bunch of Seagal haters, we’re not; we’re just disappointed by the way his career trajectory went in later years. 

If he had maintained the high quality put forth here, we’d be some of his biggest cheerleaders. It’s a mainstream Hollywood production, so everything is lit and shot well, and all the technical aspects are very professional, as you might expect. Anyone only familiar with Seagal’s output from the latter third of his career will be shocked by what they see here: he’s actually ACTING, i.e., playing a character other than himself. And he does a fine job as Gino, even speaking Italian in many scenes. He gets a nice intro to his character as befits an action star, and it’s all just a modern updating of the time-honored “some kids from the neighborhood became cops and some became gangsters” plot we’ve seen since the early days of Hollywood. But it’s done well, with verve and excitement.

John Flynn is one of the most underrated and underappreciated directors of his era, having consistently turned in tough movies such as this, Nails (1992), and the all-time classic Rolling Thunder (1977). As our society became more and more wussified, the style of directors like Flynn fell out of favor in Hollywood, and that may explain why his name isn’t mentioned more often. 

According to our research, Warner Brothers insisted this movie have a three-word title, and the formula held true – Out for Justice was Seagal’s third straight number one at the box office. Needless to say, in the late 80’s/early 90’s Seagal was hot property, and this is the result of that clout – a well-produced tough-guy movie with a lot of beatings and shootings, that isn’t overlong and moves at a nice clip. The whole package works.

Seagal is backed up with a great cast as well – Jerry Orbach plays a character identical to the beloved Lenny on Law & Order, so this is the closest we’ll get to seeing Seagal as a cast member. 

Fan favorite William Forsythe plays the baddie with a deranged strength, making him sort of a 1991 version of James Cagney as Cody Jarrett in White Heat (1949). Gershon puts in an energetic performance, and all the cops, gangsters, and family members help to complete the picture. Future Skinemax stars Shannon Whirry, Athena Massey, and Julie Strain also make brief appearances. 

It’s also fascinating to see the Brooklyn of 1991 compared with the Brooklyn of today. Back then it was gritty, unpretentious and unglamorous, a perfect setting for an action movie. It’s hard to imagine Seagal and Forsythe battling their way through young hipsters with skintight jeans and tattoos wandering around playing Pokemon GO on their iPhones. It’s no wonder we continually retreat back to the age when Seagal was cracking heads with pool balls and throwing people out of windows.

As for the music, Seagal co-wrote two of the songs on the soundtrack, “Bad Side of Town” and “Don’t Stand in My Way”, along with Todd Smallwood. Smallwood did some of the other songs without Seagal, which may have led to his working on the soundtrack of Street Knight (1993) with Jeff Speakman. It must be a nice life, being an action movie song composer. In the end, Out for Justice remains a highlight of Seagal’s career and 90’s action as a whole.

Comeuppance Review by: Ty and Brett 

Sweet Revenge (1987)

 Sweet Revenge (1987)-* *1\2

Directed by: Mark Sobel

Starring: Ted Shackelford, Nancy Allen, Martin Landau, Sal Landi, Lotis Key, Stacy Adams, Michele Little, and Gina Gershon











Boone (Shackelford) is a smuggler of counterfeit perfume and an international adventurer. When a TV news reporter, Jillian Grey (Allen) starts following a story about girls abducted from L.A. and put into white slavery camps, it leads her to the diabolical mastermind Geoffrey Cicero (Landau). Grey and her young daughter are then kidnapped. Meanwhile, three friends, K.C. (Gershon), Tina (Adams) and Lee (Little) are expecting a modeling agent to meet with them. It turns out it’s two of Cicero’s top goons, Sonya (Key) and Gil (Landi). The three girls are also kidnapped. When the girls, Jillian, and Boone all end up crossing paths, they make an unlikely force and they all fight to escape the clutches of Cicero and his minions. Will they get SWEET REVENGE?

While mostly a TV actor, Sweet Revenge seems to be the only starring film role of one Theodore T. Shackelford III, who modestly just goes by “Ted”. While he’s supposed to be an Indiana Jones-type hero, his smug, glib one-liners (which were perfect for the 80’s, let’s not forget) do tend to undercut the audience’s faith in him as a powerful central hero. He’s more of a jokester, a goofball. But the movie as a whole has a cartoonish, comic-booky vibe, where opponents are easily knocked over by the slightest touch, and muzzle flashes look painted-on. Add some triumphant, A-Team-style music over it all, and you have some dumb, but not offensively bad, video store shelf-filler that only could have existed in the 80’s.

Not to be confused with Best Revenge (1984), One Man Out (1989), Cocaine Wars (1985), or a myriad other items of this type, you really have to be a fan of rediscovering movies otherwise left languishing on video store shelves to appreciate Sweet Revenge. It has a lot of the hallmarks we look for when it comes to 80’s action: the disco scene, at least one pinball machine, exploding huts, and an exploding helicopter. But the movie it resembles most is Catch the Heat (1987). The goofy tone is similar, the climax is almost exactly the same, and they each got one major star: Catch the Heat got Rod Steiger, this has Martin Landau.

It must have been fun for Nancy Allen and Gina Gershon to run around the Philippines shooting machine guns and such. When we’re first introduced to Allen’s character, it seems she’s going to be another in a long line of female reporters who don’t do much. Thankfully, she basically becomes a gun-toting hero, along with her unlikely compatriots, some L.A. girls and Ted Shackelford. Strangely, that description makes the movie sound better than it really is. But the movie was kind of ahead of its time with its look at human trafficking, and Martin Landau as Cicero has his own logo. If you live in a palace surrounded by goons, and you have flags bearing your own personal emblem hanging all over the place, you might as well have a neon sign reading “BADDIE!” also outside your house. But Cicero makes no bones about the fact that he’s evil. He sometimes comes out of his house, says nothing, then turns right around and goes back in. Such are his powers of intimidation.

Released on VHS by Media, Sweet Revenge is a lightweight offering in just about every sense of the word. The 79 minute running time reinforces that, and is certainly welcome. While not a must-buy, you could do a lot worse than Sweet Revenge.

Comeuppance Review by: Brett and Ty

Best Of The Best 3: No Turning Back (1995)

Best Of The Best 3: No Turning Back (1995)-* * *

Directed by: Phillip Rhee

Starring: Phillip Rhee, Christopher McDonald, Gina Gershon, Dee Wallace-Stone, and R. Lee Ermey









There’s some bad stuff goin’ down in the small town of Liberty (either Indiana or Ohio, we’re not entirely sure, but it’s a rural burg and that’s all the viewers need to know, apparently). White supremacists are taking over the formerly-peaceful town, led by the hate-filled preacher Brian (an uncredited Ermey). Just as their evil empire is growing, none other than Tommy Lee (the drummer from Motley Crue) (just kidding, it’s Phillip Rhee of course) rolls into town to visit his sister who just happens to live in this town, and her husband Jack (McDonald). Jack also happens to be the sheriff, but is powerless to stop the hate-filled mobs. Lee finds he must use his fists and his feet not only to defeat the stupid racists, but to defend choir director Margo (Gershon). Will Tommy Lee beat the neo-Nazis and ride off into the sunset?

To Best of the Best 3’s credit, it has an extremely professional look, with very good production values.  This was Phillip Rhee’s first directorial effort, and it seems like he had been building up to this for a while, because he does a very competent job, with a lot of interesting shots and as mentioned, the technical aspects are very good.  Plus, with its themes about racism, it was at least trying not to be the same old dumb meathead movie. It made an effort to make you think, which is more than you can say about some of this movie’s competitors (or other entries in the series, for that matter).

Like China O’Brien (1990), the “rural action movie” angle is used, and, like Substitute 4 (2001), the “white power” angle is used. Interestingly enough, the director of Substitute 4 is Robert Radler, the director of Best of the Best 2 (1993). There’s even some Jackie Chan-like martial arts, as evidenced by the scene in which Rhee fights some baddies in a clown outfit. You truly haven’t lived until you’ve seen thugs get kicked by a man with giant shoes.

As we’ve seen in everything from American Ninja (1985) to terrorist training videos, the army of bad guys have their own training camp, complete with, you guessed it, monkey bars. Exactly how these monkey bars would help someone defeat Tommy Lee in a fight is not known. And the head Nazi guy wouldn’t even come close to challenging Lee in a fight. He only holds his own for a long time because that’s what a lot of final bad guys do. A lot of action movies fall into that cliche: Although the main baddie may have no martial arts or combat training whatsoever, when the hero faces off against him in a fight, after handily defeating hundreds of goons, NOW the final fight is actually a challenge for the hero. It’s just silly, but you can’t really help it.

If you have Netflix streaming, you should view Best of the Best 3 that way, as the quality is excellent and it’s in widescreen. The movie has never looked better.

So grab a Like soda and cheer for Phillip Rhee, Christopher McDonald and Gina Gershon in a truly hard hitting tale of racism.

Comeuppance Review by: Brett and Ty

Driven (2001)

Driven (2001)-*1\2

Directed By: Renny Harlin

Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Burt Reynolds, Til Schweiger, Kip Pardue, Estella Warren, Gina Gershon, and Robert Sean Leonard






"The street track is very dangerous!"






In the dangerous world of drag racing, Jimmy Bly (Pardue) is an up and coming drag racer. He is always battling fellow racer Beau Brandenburg (Schweiger) to be number one. When Bly falls into a slump, Carl Henry (Reynolds) hires old salt Joe "The Hummer" Tanto (Stallone) to mentor him. There is a lame romantic subplot involving Sophia Simone (Warren) and it causes more animosity with Beau and Bly.


While this is not a straight to video release, it sure looks like one. For example when Tanto is racing, he runs over CGI quarters that look awful and it is hilarious. The racing sequences leave a lot to be desired and apes Days Of Thunder (1990). There is pervasive product placement throughout the movie. It is basically a 2-hour commercial for Nextel and Target.com among many others.

There are numerous dialogue scenes between Tanto and Beau which are nigh-unintelligible because Sly slurs his speech and Til has a heavy German accent.



This nonsense was written by Stallone (including all the funny names) and a lot of plot items make no sense or are not fully thought through.

I guess Carl has a past with Joe Tanto and he forces him to mentor Bly with the line: "We go back, you and me. We go way back. You owe me Joe.". We never know the past between them. There is the prerequisite scene where Bly gets in over his head and Tanto yells: "You don't know who you are anymore!"



The most annoying thing about the movie is that it is geared towards the ADD\ADHD generation. Every scene has lame rock music from the 3-CD collection "The Edge" (not sold in stores!)

"Driven"? more like Drivel!

Comeuppance Review by: Ty

Man About Town (2005)

Man About Town (2005) -* *1\2

Directed By: Mike Binder

Starring: Ben Affleck, Rebecca Romijn, Adam Goldberg, John Cleese and Gina Gershon









Man About Town is the biggest DTV movie of 2007. I can see why it deserved its DTV fate.

The plot: Jack Giamoro (Affleck) is a smarmy talent agent who has a successful life and a beautiful wife (Romijn). He realizes that his wife is cheating on him with his top client (Goldberg). This sets him off emotionally and he starts a journal and it contains all his dark secrets.

Unfortunately, it gets stolen in a robbery and he needs it back desperately.



The first 40 minutes are pretty decent. Affleck and Romijn are great and they have some strong chemistry. Then it falls apart....fast. The journal class\robbery subplot just doesn't work. If they cut that out and focused on the infidelity it would have been a stronger movie. I think this went straight to video because of its wildly uneven tone. It's not really a comedy, it's more of a drama. The climax, while entertaining, is predictable and feels rushed. The supporting cast is good however, with John Cleese standing out as Jack's teacher.



Overall, Man About Town is worth seeing for the first 40 minutes. If you like Affleck, you might enjoy it.

Comeuppance Review by: Ty