To The Limit (1995)

To The Limit (1995)- * *1\2

Directed by: Raymond Martino

Starring: Anna Nicole Smith, Joey Travolta, John Aprea, David Proval, Jack Bannon, Gino Dentie, Floyd Levine, Branscombe Richmond, and Michael Nouri















When a baddie named Arthur Jameson (Bannon), who is so evil he has the ability to blow up helicopters using nothing more than a CD-ROM flight simulator, crosses the wrong woman, Colette Dubois (Smith), all hell breaks loose. In order to avenge the death of her husband, China Smith (Nouri, presumably no relation to Anna Nicole), it turns out Colette must team up with Vietnam vet Frank Davinci (Travolta). While Davinci has enemies of his own, he also has a support system of fellow goombahs such as Elvis (Dentie), Don Williams (Richmond), and Father Rich (Levine). As an ex-CIA agent, Colette has skills of her own. Will the unholy marriage of mobsters and disgruntled ex-government officials prove too much of a challenge for Frank and Colette? Or will your patience be tested…TO THE LIMIT?



While watching To The Limit, you can practically hear the sound of whirring VHS tape as guys who were in their teens and twenties in the 90’s fast-forwarded to get to the Anna Nicole Smith nudity. However, as this is a PM-produced action movie, we tried to keep the action elements in mind, and there are plenty of gunfights, blow-ups (including not one, but two helicopters), and PM’s time-honored car flip/blow-up that has become so near and dear to our hearts over the years. PM had a pip of an exploitable element in Smith; sometimes, in our nation’s darkest days, Joey Travolta alone isn’t enough to get a potential renter to pull a movie off of a video store shelf. 



You have to remember it was the go-go 90’s, and renting To The Limit carried with it less embarrassment than renting a Playboy video (though that’s debatable). Interestingly enough, this is a sequel to Davinci’s War (1993), of all things. Anna Nicole’s PM follow-up, Skyscraper (1996), came the next year. A lot of the same cast and crew of Davinci’s War came back for this particular outing, and it’s easy to hear a variation of this phrase being said during a pre-production meeting: “we’ll produce your film if you put Anna Nicole Smith in it”. That may be just one of the reasons why this movie makes no sense in the plot department and is pretty much a jumble from start to finish. But it matters not – we would say that you would have to watch Davinci’s War or Skyscraper first or this movie would make no sense, but the fact is that it makes no sense whether you see those movies first or not.

Though it must be noted that Davinci has a Vietnam flashback where he runs from an explosion in slow motion, and it also must be noted that in the scenes where she wears a brunette wig, Anna Nicole looks alarmingly like Monica Lewinsky. In most of these scenes, she’s talking to Travolta, who looks like George Carlin. At least they have similar hair. Travolta and Carlin I mean. So if you’ve ever wanted to see what it looks like for Monica Lewinsky and George Carlin to have a conversation, now’s your chance. There’s also a guy named Philly Bambino in the movie (Aprea). They couldn’t even get Vanity to reprise her role of Lupe.

Of course, To The Limit makes no sense as a mishmash of Davinci’s War sequel/Playboy video/PM action movie, but you knew that going in, didn’t you? Finding a VHS tape like To The Limit at your local video store was all part of the fun of that era. Thanks to Amazon Prime (as of this writing), you can relive it.

Comeuppance Review by: Ty and Brett 

Da Vinci's War (1993)

Da Vinci's War (1993)- * *

Directed by: Raymond Martino

Starring: Joey Travolta, James Russo, Vanity, Richard Foronjy, Branscombe Richmond, Melissa Moore, Harold Joseph Green, Sam Jones, and Michael Nouri












When his sister is violently murdered by arch-baddie Mintz (Russo), Frank Da Vinci (Travolta) wants revenge. Da Vinci, a highly-decorated Vietnam vet, wants to leave his past behind him and move on with his life, getting involved with his local mission, and forging a relationship with the religious Lupe (Vanity), who cares for his young niece when he's not around. 

But Da Vinci is also still in touch with his 'Nam buddies, who all have too-appropriate nicknames such as the Shakespeare-quoting Hamlet (Foronjy), the guy in the wheelchair named Wheels (Green), and the guy of unimportant Asian origin that may or may not be Hawaiian, Don Ho (Richmond), among others. But even Da Vinci's ever-loyal charges aren't enough to get to the bottom of the murder of his beloved sibling, so he enlists the help of hired killer China Smith (Nouri). 

At first Smith doesn't want to be bothered with Da Vinci and would rather concentrate on his girlfriend, mysteriously named Fred (Moore). But after inexplicably talking to his computer (the computer never responds), he gets some info on Da Vinci that changes his mind, and he enlists in DA VINCI'S WAR. But will there be victory or defeat?

 The original Da Vinci code, this is pretty much an Italian-American variant on Gordon's War (1973), right down to the title. But this particular War is about as "Direct To Video" as it gets in its look and feel. Around these parts, however, that's not considered a negative, but other people might want to be forewarned about the low-budget vibe. 

Director Martino is a largely un-talked about figure in the DTV world, having worked a lot with City Lights/PM and been involved with their Anna Nicole Smithsploitation in the 90's. He obviously spent his budget on the stellar B-movie cast, which besides the aforementioned names also features fan favorite Sam Jones, as well as Bob Golic and a whole bunch of Travoltas, such as Rachel, Nicole, and Sam (the latter behind the camera, along with Addison Randall).

 Joey, quite possibly the most talented Travolta to date, is initially unrecognizable with his facial hair. But once he utters the immortal line “Aw Geez!”(in a surprisingly dramatic reading of that Travolta-ism) we know it can only be him. In other cast news, there’s also Gino Dentie, who released the “Direct Disco” album in the 70’s, and who also collaborated on the song “Da Vinci’s March” with Branscombe Richmond. So there’s more than enough on-screen talent, but it doesn’t entirely translate into a wholly enjoyable and completely cohesive final product.

What’s good about Da Vinci’s War is that it is from a time before Tarantino knockoffs polluted the market. And that both James Russo and Joey Travolta, at different points, walk in slow motion, thus looking cool. Plus Michael Nouri gets a great intro to his character. 

What’s bad about Da Vinci’s War is that it falls prey to the typical low budget pitfalls: stodgy acting, a stiff feel, and low-energy valleys that we as viewers have to go through. Not to say that there aren’t a few okay moments (not to mention some unintentionally funny moments), but the balance isn’t always in the movie’s favor.

While the epilogue after the movie states that it is dedicated to all the homeless veterans, the sentiment is undercut somewhat due to the fact that on a banner over all the vets, they misspelled the word “homeless”! If they’re trying to get our sympathy by informing us of the “homless” vets, they should run their banner through spell check. Unless the point is to announce their lack of hom. Or maybe they’re going the route of little moppets selling lemonade with a sign with a few backwards letters in order to draw us in. Our vets deserve better than that. But the banner is over what can only be described as a shuffling “Homeless Veteran’s Choir” and they all sing, led by Vanity of course. So that must be a movie first.

In the end, Da Vinci’s War sports a never-to-be-replicated cast assemblage, but it lacks the forceful punch it could have had.

Comeuppance Review by: Brett and Ty 

The Killer's Edge (1991)

The Killer's Edge (1991)-* * *

Directed by: Joseph Merhi

Starring: Wings Hauser, Karen Black, Gino Dentie, Joe Palese, and Robert Z'Dar












Detective Jack Saxon (Wings) is a cop who shoots first...and doesn’t bother to ask any questions later. Some people in his department don’t approve of his methods, but he gets results. That’s why Barrett (Black) hand-picks him to break up a counterfeiting ring and bring the culprits to justice. His partner Burt (Palese) is a good guy, but unlike Jack, is afraid to fire his gun. This odd couple of sorts must get to the truth about the gangster Miller Richardson (Z’Dar). As it turns out, Jack and Miller were in Vietnam together and have a deep history. But they ended up on opposite sides of the law. Try to imagine a Luc Deveraux-Andrew Scott (Universal Soldier series)- sort of relationship, but instead of later being turned into SuperSoldiers, they fight it out man-to-man in the streets of L.A. Through it all, Jack must keep his relationship with fiance Dorothy (Elaine Pelino) afloat. Can he do it?

The Killer’s Edge is what would happen if Joseph Merhi directed To Live and Die in L.A. (1985). It’s cops vs. counterfeiters, PM style. And while Merhi would improve to a higher level later in his career with awesome classics like Zero Tolerance (1994), Last Man Standing (1996), and The Sweeper (1996), The Killer’s Edge is like laying the groundwork for those later masterpieces. It’s not quite up to those titles because his talents were still improving. Looking back from today’s standpoint, you can see his evolution.

This could be a sequel to the same year’s  The Art of Dying - Wings plays a cop named Jack who seems to have some mild issues with women. He plays by his own rules, and they even have the same catchphrase: “Owwww!” Since we don’t know for sure, we’ll just pretend both movies are chapters in the ongoing tale of Jack Saxon. It’s great to see Wings interact with Robert Z’Dar. Truly it’s the clash of the titans, and it’s enjoyable to watch their interplay. We get to see Wings struggle on ice skates, but we get Z’Dar with a rocket launcher. So it’s pretty much a wash.

Miller’s sidekick, Tony (Dentie) - who looks exactly like Tony Curtis (probably a coincidence with the name) - has a really interesting history that’s worth looking up. He was a disco artist that released “Direct Disco”, the first (and possibly only) disco album recorded “direct to disc”, meaning the musicians all play live and the final product is released that way. And speaking of incidental characters, the guy that works at the airstrip has a hat that says “helicopters inc.” - does said helicopter explode? You’ll have to watch the movie to find out...

While The Killer’s Edge wasn’t shot all that long ago, there are plenty of cool, nostalgic things in the movie that don’t exist anymore: people smoking in government buildings without a second thought, they have pagers that they must respond to by using the nearest pay phone, there’s a reference to how the U.S. dollar is “strong”, and there’s even a Fotomat in a parking lot. Remember those little huts where people used to get their film developed?  Truly those around in 1991 didn’t know the fool’s paradise we were living in. Especially when we had Jack Saxon to protect us all.

The Killer’s Edge is a solid, quality DTV film that signaled the further quality to come from PM.

Also check our buddy DTVC's review!

Comeuppance Review by: Ty and Brett