Open Fire (1994)

Open Fire (1994)- * * *1\2

Directed by: Kurt Anderson

Starring: Jeff Wincott, Patrick Kilpatrick, Mimi Craven, Lee De Broux, and Michael Shaner 








Open Fire is the last of the three movies that director Kurt Anderson and star Jeff Wincott made together in the 90’s. That run being Martial Law II: Undercover (1991), in which the genius move was made to replace Chad McQueen, from the first film, with Wincott, Martial Outlaw (1993), and Open Fire. While Anderson worked on the great Mission of Justice (1992), he did not direct it. Anderson took time out from his Wincott work in the 90’s to make the Lamas movie Bounty Tracker (1993). But when he and Wincott worked together, magic was made. Pairings like that of Anderson and Wincott made the video store era immeasurably better. You just don’t get collaborations like that today. 

Thanks to them and their quality output, your selection at the video store was richer, and it kept you coming back for more, thus enhancing the role of the video store in the lives of everyone everywhere. They are a part of the story of the video store in the 90’s, and they should be recognized and thanked for that.

As for the plot, it’s your standard ‘DieHardInA’ movie that we’ve seen countless times before. However, just because that’s the framework, that doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing. Alec McNeil (Wincott) is a surly phone company worker who just wants to be left alone to shirtlessly pound away with his pneumatic drill with his shirt off. 

His father Bob (de Broux) runs Martinson Industries, some kind of chemical treatment plant in L.A. Before they can head out on a father-son bass fishing trip, a team of evil baddies storm the plant. The on-the-ground baddies are led by Roy (Shaner, also the baddie in The Expert), but the mastermind of the operation is one Stein Kruger (Kilpatrick), (not?) to be confused with Hans Gruber. If his demands aren’t met, a nerve gas goes out over the city, killing countless people. 

The cops and FBI are outside the building, of course, but the one thing they didn’t count on is the bravery and Martial Arts skill of McNeil. We find out he’s surly because he was a former FBI agent who lost his partner and was de-badged. Now is his time to prove he’s more than a shirtless phone company worker. The baddies are about to experience the power of McNeil-Fu at its most deadly!

All the Wincott fight scenes are gold. The movie is entertaining on the whole, but those are the highlights, and they keep the entire outing afloat. There’s even the time-honored (and wonderfully unnecessary) barfight, and this is one of the better ones in recent memory. On top of the top-notch fights, Wincott’s voice is more gravelly than ever. His performance is solid - he’s a man haunted by his past, and, presumably, he’s taking his frustrations out on the baddies, with excellent effect. No Wincott movie would be complete without his use of Arnis sticks, and here he just happens to find, in the middle of a fight scene, of course, two metal pipes that are the exact length and width to be his preferred fighting sticks. Naturally, it’s all part of the fun.

Open Fire is a 90’s video-store action title if there ever was one, and it lives up to the name. Even during the opening credits, there are still shots of guns interposed with the titles on the screen. Just GUNS. You cannot do that today. 

So while Open Fire probably stands as one of the better DieHardInA movies out there, probably its closest parallel is Lethal Tender (1997) - there it’s a water treatment plant, here it’s a chemical treatment plant. For the audience, the difference is negligible. It just provides a lot of warehouse space for Wincott to do his thing. Plus, the baddies in the movie are labeled as mercenaries. Usually in the movies we’re used to, mercenaries are the good guys (hence the Mercs box set, etc.) - so it was interesting to see mercs positioned as villains.

The fact that the plot happens to be another Die Hard knockoff shouldn’t put you off - Open Fire is a qualified winner that delivers the goods you want.

Comeuppance Review by: Ty and Brett 

Also check out write-ups from our buddies, DTVC and Cool Target!

Hunter's Blood (1986)

Hunter's Blood (1986)-* * *

Directed by: Robert C. Hughes

Starring: Sam Bottoms, Kim Delaney, Ken Swofford, Mayf Nutter, Lee De Broux, Joey Travolta, Clu Gulager, Billy Drago, Mickey Jones, and Billy Bob Thornton











Five men decide to go on a hunting trip in the backwoods of Arkansas: David (Bottoms), his father Mason (Gulager), Uncle Al (Swofford), their buddy Ralph (Nutter) and die-hard “city boy” and hunting newbie Marty (Travolta). Things seem to be going well, until they run afoul of some murderous “rednecks” who feel these city folk have intruded upon not just their land, but their illegal meat processing operation. So now it’s a deadly game of hide and go seek with David, Mason, Al, Marty and Ralph versus their rural counterparts Snake (Drago) Wash Pot (Jones), Red Beard (De Broux), and Billy Bob (Thornton of all people). When the baddies kidnap David’s girlfriend Melanie (Delaney), it’s an all-out war for survival. Who will come out on top?

In the 80’s, Deliverance (1972) knockoffs and Wilderness Horror movies were huge in video stores. So it would be the most natural thing in the world to combine them. Hence, Hunter’s Blood was born. It was co-written by the writer/director of 9 Deaths of the Ninja (1985), Emmett Alston, and released in a very bright, clean-looking VHS by Embassy. It would make a nice double feature with Rituals (1977), if you can get a hold of both.

When the movie opens, the music on the soundtrack is a guy playing/bending ONE NOTE on the guitar, over and over again. Could this be a sign that the movie itself is a one-note? But then we get to know the protagonists of the piece, the only really likable one being David, portrayed by Sam Bottoms of Ragin’ Cajun (1991) fame. He does a decent enough job, but there are so many characters he doesn’t get enough time to shine. Then the “male bonding” occurs, and it seems like a 90-minute Jack Links commercial, and the fact that all the men sit around a fire and eat a pepperoni stick only reinforces that. There’s a ton of inane potty humor/dialogue, a lot of which underlines the Deliverance-style homosexual nature of the proceedings. In fact, at times Hunter’s Blood seems to aim to out-gay Deliverance. It was the 80’s after all, they probably figured they had to ramp up the gay from the way it was in the 70’s.

But once the plot kicks into high gear, there are a lot of nice surprises and worthwhile moments to raise Hunter’s Blood above the pack. And let’s not forget Joey Travolta is on board. A great moment comes when he guilelessly blurts out the line “I love TV!” Not any one particular show, just TV. There are plenty of country tunes that continually appear throughout the film, and the first credit after the movie ends shows this (seemingly a rarity), but the credit only lasts on-screen for about a fraction of a second. But we were able to determine the songs on the soundtrack are by Hamilton, Joe Frank and Weber. We can only assume this is the same group that sang the great song “Don’t Pull Your Love”, but that was Hamilton, Joe Frank and Reynolds. Either Reynolds was replaced by Weber, or, mirroring the “Deliverance knockoff” scenario, there’s a “band knockoff” going on. Either way, no song herein is as good as “Don’t Pull Your Love”.

In the end, Hunter’s Blood is solid entertainment, especially if you are a fan of survival-type movies.

Comeuppance Review by: Ty and Brett

Hangfire (1991)

Hangfire (1991)-*

Directed by: Peter Maris

Starring: Jan Michael-Vincent, Brad Davis, Lee De Broux, Kim Delaney, Yaphet Kotto, George Kennedy, Ken Foree, Lyle Alzado, James Tolkan, and Lou Ferrigno












Kuttner (De Broux) is an inmate at the New Mexico State Penitentiary. At his parole hearing, he is determined by the board, including by psychologist Maria Slayton (Delaney), to be an extremely dangerous psychopath.  During a freak accident involving a poison gas cloud that is a really stupid pretext for a prison escape, Kuttner, along with his eyepatchioed right-hand man, uncannily enough named “Patch” (Tolkan), kidnap a bunch of people  - one of which is Maria - and take an entire Western-style town hostage. 

Maria’s husband, Isaac “Ike” Slayton (Davis), who is a Vietnam vet and also a town sheriff,  teams up with his buddy Billy (Foree) to take down the baddies. But the National Guard is called in, and their leader is the hard-headed Lt. Col. Johnson (Vincent), who doesn’t approve of Ike and Billy’s methods. Who will prevail: Johnson, the local cops (headed up by Yaphet Kotto who is insultingly only credited as “Police Lieutenant”), or the bad guys?

In 1981, The Rolling Stones released their song, “Hangfire”. Most people would agree that by that point in their career, they were past their prime. So it seems fitting that this movie under review today would have the same moniker as a less-than-fresh source. Hangfire - the movie - is a shameful waste of an incredible, once-in-a-lifetime cast. You might think, looking at the cast list, that you can’t lose. Unfortunately, we learned the hard way that you definitely can. 

We’ve been burned before by movies with awesome casts that turned out to be not so awesome. The least punishing example being Lone Tiger (1999), the most punishing being Detour (1998). It’s truly a case of “too many cooks spoiling the broth”. Don’t be fooled by the stellar cast. It only makes you wonder: “Why would they all agree to this?”

The talent of pretty much everyone in the cast is completely wasted in this cliche-ridden (in a bad way), lackluster, unfun, overly-serious slog. George Kennedy has a throwaway role as a prison warden. Nothing is done with it. Same with Kotto as the cop. Kim Delaney says almost no dialogue in the movie. JMV inexplicably smokes a pipe, which, sadly enough was a movie highlight. You usually don’t see the gruff, beret-ed, uniformed commander lighting up his meerschaum. 

And here’s the ultimate waste: Lou Ferrigno and Lyle Alzado as prison buddies Smitty and Albert (respectively). They almost could have carried an entire movie on their own, but their scenes together are pointless and incredibly dumb. Along with JMV’s pipe, Alzado’s mullet is the only other bright spot in this otherwise lifeless movie.

The problem is, this movie is not well-written, and thanks to an almost total lack of character development, you really don’t care about what happens. Any one or two of the characters should have had time spent by the filmmakers on fleshing them out. But Maris splits the difference and spends no time on any. That’s the danger of a super-cast. Hangfire is so paint-by-numbers, and so painful to sit through, we coined a new term, “pain-by-numbers”. 

Did we mention the similarities to the also-awful Fear (1988), the dank, dark lighting, and the annoying musical stings? A few humorous crossbow shots and Brad Davis prancing around in zebra makeup (presumably to hide from the bad guys?) isn’t enough to save this dud.

But what’s really insulting to the audience are the unspeakably horrendous gun muzzle flashes. Here’s where it gets to “Sci-Fi channel original movie” territory, with crudely-superimposed “flashes” that aren’t even laughably bad, they’re just bad. Muzzle flashes are one of the joys of action movies, and Maris duly crosses that off his “I made this suck” checklist. Perhaps fortunately, it’s not like these crimes against muzzle flashes ruin an otherwise good movie. 

In this case there’s nothing to ruin. So structurally it’s no harm no foul. Visually it’s just foul. This is the fourth Peter Maris movie we’ve seen to date (though we’re not planning on seeing any more) - the others being Terror Squad (1988) - which featured fan favorite Chuck Connors - Ministry Of Vengeance (1989), and Diplomatic Immunity (1991). Let’s put it this way: we’d trade this whole cast for one Chuck Connors.

The excellent cast is just a distraction - even a misdirection in true grifter style - to the fact that Hangfire is a movie you must avoid.

Comeuppance Review by: Brett and Ty