The Taking Of Beverly Hills (1991)

The Taking Of Beverly Hills (1991)- *

Directed by: Sidney J. Furie

Starring: Ken Wahl, Robert Davi, Lee Ving, Matt Frewer, Harley Jane Kozak, and Branscombe Richmond


 “Beverly Hills is Closed."










Boomer Hayes (Wahl) is a big stupid meathead named Boomer Hayes. He happens to live in Beverly Hills, California, which, to his dismay, is being “taken” by Lee Ving and his gang of fraudulent cops. They organize a fake chemical spill in order to get the uber-rich out of their tony mansions so they can then steal all their expensive stuff. 

Seems like a great plan, right? Well, Boomer Hayes reckons he can put a stop to it. Utilizing all the skills he learned on the gridiron, as well as all the intelligence that would imply, he teams up with real police officer Kelvin (Frewer), who originally was with the baddies but defected back to the good guys. Masterson (Davi) is the mastermind of the operation, and Boomer’s quest involves saving the love of his life/woman he just met that night, Laura (Kozak). Will Boomer single-handedly take back Beverly Hills?

Right from the jump, something seems off about The Taking of Beverly Hills. Sure, it’s a “DieHardInA” movie, but its low-budget, shot-in-Mexico vibe is clearly evident, and the scenes almost feel like they’re in the wrong order, or something. Beginning with an unnecessarily long intro/credits sequence/travelogue, and continuing through to the mixed-up scenes, bad humor and amazingly inane dialogue, not to mention the generic aspects of the plot, The Taking of Beverly Hills is one big - as Boomer might say - fumble. 

It’s not that the concept of a Die-Hard-In-A-Town that has to be saved by an ex-footballer is a bad idea per se, it’s the pain of seeing a potentially awesome movie fall apart right before your very eyes. We hate to see when an idea isn’t properly capitalized on, and here is a prime example.

The problem is you’re not invested in the characters, and you can’t really care about Boomer as a triumphant hero. He’s so much of a meathead, he can only think in terms of football analogies to anything that happens to him. So while there are a bunch of cool explosions, car stunts, shooting and general blow-ups and mayhem that ensues, it’s really all for naught, because we don’t really care anyway. 

We really, really wanted to care. But the movie wouldn’t allow us to. Matt Frewer played the typical, whining “regular guy” caught up in the action situations. There’s always a complainer. During a car chase, you know a movie is poorly written when the sidekick says something like “I think this is a bad idea!!!!!” Scooby-Doo has less audience-insulting dialogue than that. The end result is that Boomer Hayes is no more than a talking mullet.

So while Wahl’s mullet is both extraordinary and distracting, Branscombe Richmond attempts to steal focus away from whatever that is that’s on Wahl’s head by driving a tank and screaming while shooting a flamethrower. While those moments were indeed cool, the overall tidal wave of dumbness washes over every second of the movie. 

As far as the music, we liked the Jan Hammer score, and of course there is the time-honored sax on the soundtrack as well, but there are all these weirdly unnecessary hits of the day on the soundtrack too. The filmmakers must have paid a bundle for them. At random times we get EMF’s “Unbelievable” and Faith No More’s “Epic”, almost as if a little punk 14-year-old snuck into the editing room after hours and added them on as some sort of prank. But then again, you haven’t heard Janet Jackson’s “Black Cat” until you’ve heard a snippet of it tacked-on to The Taking of Beverly Hills.

The long career of director Sidney J. Furie is spotty at best: there’s the good, Direct Action (2004), the okay, The Rage (1997), and the downright awful, Detention (2003). The Taking is quite mediocre and appears no one really had much faith in the project. Fan favorite Robert Davi does what he can, and we loved seeing him brandish a crossbow, but for much better Davi, see The Dangerous (1995) instead. You’d be “Taking” up a lot of your valuable time if you waste it on an unfortunate dud like this.

Comeuppance Review by: Ty and Brett

The Soldier (1982)

The Soldier (1982)-* * *

Directed by: James Glickenhaus

Starring:  Ken Wahl, Joaquim De Almeida, Steve James, Alberta Watson, and Klaus Kinski









Evil Russians steal some nukes, plant them in an oil field, and threaten to detonate them, thereby contaminating a large part of the world’s oil supply. For some unexplained reason, they are anti-Israel bigots who want to move the Israelis off the West Bank. Sadly, The President (that’s actually his credited character name) (Prince) is all too willing to comply. But there’s one more ace up the USA’s sleeve: The Soldier (Wahl). He’s a highly-trained agent who controls a super-secretive and elite unit, and he’s working with the Israelis to save the world.

This movie has a killer opening sequence that really pulls you in. Its themes of terrorism and anti-Semitism (even from the highest levels of government) are, disturbingly, quite relevant and even prescient for today. The Soldier, for all it’s 80’s-style anti-commie plot threads (not that those are a bad thing in any way), was ahead of its time. Plus it has an unbeatable combination of Ken Wahl and Steve James fighting the baddies. So for that alone The Soldier is worth seeking out.

Of course, there is some top-notch stuntwork as well. The ski chase sequence is a movie highlight, and director Glickenhaus must have loved it so much, he also included it in his movie Shakedown (1988). Sam Elliott is watching it in the movie theater. It’s truly Glickenhaus on Glickenhaus. And it’s top-notch Glickenhaus. He’s only directed eight movies, and out of those, The Soldier stands out. He’s adept at action sequences, as amply proven here.

Wahl is cool, and he’s as cool here as we’ve ever seen him. He should have done more projects like this. His sweaters are very stylish and we liked his attitude. As for Klaus Kinski, one of the most underrated actors of all time, he does about a five minute cameo and has no spoken dialogue. Hmmmm...talk about a paycheck role. The Soldier could have been improved if Kinski was the main bad guy and Wahl had to face off against him. That would have been awesome. Chalk that up to a missed opportunity.

Loaded with three of the best things you can ask for in a movie like this: top-quality stunts, over-the-top action violence and 80’s atmosphere, these elements overcome some plot weaknesses. Additionally, the soundtrack by Tangerine Dream rules.

You should definitely enlist The Soldier into your collection.

Comeuppance Review by: Ty and Brett

Omega Syndrome (1987)

Omega Syndrome (1987)-* *

Directed By: Joseph Manduke

Starring: Ken Wahl, Robert Kim, Colm Meaney,  Doug McClure, Xander Berkley, and Nicole Eggert













When transporting a prisoner who says "Maaaannnnn" after every sentence goes awry, it opens the floodgates for a gang of baddies in a wood-paneled station wagon to go on the loose in the L.A. area.

Meanwhile, washed-up drunken newspaper reporter, Jack Corbett (Wahl) is sort of drifting through life. After he got out of 'Nam, he had a daughter but his wife died. His beloved daughter Jessie (Eggert) lives with her grandfather but Corbett has custody for one weekend a month.

One weekend with her, he stops at a convenience store with Jessie so she can get some candy. The wood-paneled gang - who have tattoos of the Greek letter Omega on their arms - just happen to hold up the place and kidnap Jessie.



Corbett finds the police to be unhelpful, mainly because Detective Milnor (McClure) has been put on a diet by his nagging wife and he is grumpy because he has to eat yogurt all day. Luckily, he has a loose twizzler he can dip in the yogurt when no one is looking.

Corbett's next stop is his old buddy "Philly". He is an expert in guns and owns a shooting range. He even admits to selling guns to some gang members in his past, so Philly and Corbett "interview" some crips and bloods and turn up not too much information. Soon enough, the two ex-GI.'s are hunting high and low for Jessie and punching and threatening plenty of people along the way. Will they find the auto garage hideout of the evil rednecks and rescue Jessie?

A good performance from Ken Wahl, in all his mulleted glory, unfortunately can't save this tired and unengaging premise. It should have been like Taken (2008) but wasn't by a long shot. A guy going rogue, defying the police and everyone else on a no-holds-barred mission to find his daughter seems like it should have worked here, but "Omega Syndrome", which seems to have been marketed like some sort of spy/conspiracy thriller for no real reason, lacks the grit and intensity needed to pull off such a feat.



For 80's action fun, there are better places to go than the lackluster Omega Syndrome. For die-hard Ken Wahl fans only.

Comeuppance Review by: Ty & Brett