Savate (1995)

Savate (1995)- * * *

Directed by: Isaac Florentine

Starring: Olivier Gruner, Ian Ziering, Ashley Laurence, Michael Palance, James Brolin, Donald Gibb, Marc Singer, Rance Howard, and R. Lee Ermey










Joseph Charlegrand (Gruner) is a French Legionnaire and a pioneer of a fighting style developed by the Legion, known as Savate. He and his fellow military men would practice their Savate and get into good-natured tournaments to hone their skills. But then along comes the dastardly Ziegfield Von Trotta (Singer) - who wears a monocle so you just KNOW he’s evil - and he heartlessly kills one of Charlegrand’s comrades. It turns out that Charlegrand must travel to the United States in his quest to find Von Trotta and get revenge for his friend’s death. This is the immediate post-Civil War period in Texas, mind you. Charlegrand becomes friendly with a brother-sister pair of homesteaders, Cain (Ziering) and Mary Parker (Laurence). 

The evil mayor of the town, Benedict (Ermey in an uncredited role) wants the land and threatens to raise taxes to exorbitant levels. The townsfolk resist, and Benedict has some gunslingers such as Mitchum (Palance) to enforce his will. But Benedict also holds an international “Tough Man” competition with a cash prize. Perhaps Charlegrand should enter the competition, as no one in the wild west has seen kicking in fights before. Will he find Von Trotta, get revenge for his friend, beat Mitchum and the boys, help the homesteaders, fall in love, win the competition, and become a hero to the small town? It seems like a tall order, but will the power of Savate win the day? Find out later...

Fan-favorite director Isaac Florentine sure seems like he was having fun directing this one. He playfully reworks some classic Western (and especially Spaghetti Western) tropes, themes, and, for lack of a better word, cliches, and serves them up in his own, inimitable style. In other words, it’s “SWOOSH”-ing sound effects in the old west. It’s all pretty tongue-in-cheek and relatively upbeat - Florentine’s tribute to the movies he obviously loves and grew up with.

Sure, as moviegoers we’ve seen this plot countless times before, from Desert Heat (1999), to The Final Alliance (1990), to, well, just about anything you can name dating back through the history of cinema. But that’s not the point. Florentine has transposed modern-day fighting skills over an old west setting, and we thought that was pretty cool. You get to see Olivier Gruner as a cowboy. That alone is worth a look, and the concept of ‘Western Kickboxing’ is just so nutty, you have to love it. The music by Kevin Kiner is an unashamed and unabashed Spaghetti Western...well...bonanza, complete with Edda Dell’Orso-style vocals.  It really helps things along. But before you get too excited, there are, of course, some drawbacks.

A lot of times in the movies we’ve seen, there’s no one, clearly delineated baddie. Here, there are too many! You’ve got Von Trotta, Benedict, Mitchum, and any number of fighters in the Punchfighting ring (yeah, the Tough Man competition is Punchfighting. Old West Punchfighting.) Ermey is uncredited, Ashley Laurence doesn’t really do anything at all in the second half, Singer’s character isn’t really set up as well as he could have been, and was James Brolin even in this? His screen time is so minuscule, it’s barely a cameo. And, as usual, at times the movie drags a bit. But, as a display for stunts and fights, which we assume is the main point, it certainly succeeds, and we appreciated the offbeat angle of it all.

Somehow, Ian Ziering looks younger here than he does on 90210 (though to be fair, on that show the male leads were 39-year-old high school students), and he even does some light Ziering-Fu. Clearly this is Ian (pronounced eye-an, of course), at his best. Donald Gibb brightens things up and brings to mind the Bloodsport (1988) parallels, and, in a rare treat, Ashley Laurence says “Get off my land” instead of a cantankerous old man. So that was nice.

While PM was the production company, the movie was released on VHS in the U.S. on A-Pix with the undistinguished title The Fighter. For a reasonably enjoyable homage to Spaghetti Westerns featuring some B-movie names and some notable moments and ideas, Savate comes through.

Comeuppance Review by: Ty and Brett

Also check out write-ups from our buddies, DTVC and The Video Vacuum! 

Sweet Justice (1992)

Sweet Justice (1992)- * * *

Directed by: Alain Paris and Allen Plone

Starring: Marc Singer, Finn Carter, Cheryl Paris, Frank Gorshin, Marjean Holden, Michelle McCormick, Catherine Hickland, Patricia Tallman, Kathleen Kinmont, and Mickey Rooney







Sunny Justice (Carter) is a spunky female kickboxer not afraid to take on a man in the ring. This quality is going to come in handy, because she stumbles onto a small-town conspiracy that could go, eventually, all the way to the top. Upon the death of her sister Suzanne (Paris), the mayor of a dusty ol’ town named Los Olivos, Sunny returns home, and after speaking to the Sheriff and Suzanne’s boyfriend, Steve Colton (Singer), and local yokel Zeke (Rooney), she discovers the culprit: an evil land developer (yes, another one!) named Rivas (Gorshin) who is also dumping toxic waste into the old mine (presumably where Timmy from Lassie got stuck every week). Deciding  to cut through the bureaucratic red tape, Sunny reconvenes her old commando unit, an all-female fighting force sanctioned by the U.S. Army. Here is the team, along with some of their relevant credits:

-  Kim (McCormick) - from Hawkeye (1988) and Showdown (1993)
- Chris Barnes (Catherine Hickland) - from Robowar (1988)
-  M.J. (Marjean Holden) - from Ballistic (1995) and Automatic (1995)
- Josie (Patricia Tallman) - known for her work in horror movies, and had a small part in Road House (1989)
- Heather (Kathleen Kinmont) - we all know her, but for those who may not, she is the former Mrs. Lorenzo Lamas and was in a bunch of his movies, such as CIA Code Name: Alexa (1992), Final Impact (1992), and Snake Eater II: The Drug Buster (1989), among others, but she also starred in plenty of stuff on her own such as The Art of Dying (1991) and Gangland (2001), to name just a few. And in further non-Lamas Lamas news, this movie reunites Kinmont, McCormick, and Branscombe Richmond (in a tiny part) - all seen in the show Renegade.
- and, of course, Sunny Justice (Finn Carter), who, coincidentally, was on an unrelated TV show called Sweet Justice a few years later. And her sister, the hot mayor (Cheryl Paris), was in the unfortunate Liberty and Bash (1989).

Will this power-packed team of fighting women get to the bottom of the conspiracy and get their man? Find out today!

Sweet Justice is essentially a cross between Hell Squad (1986), China O’Brien (1990), and Frame Up (1991). To paraphrase our friend Cool Target, the first 30 minutes are kind of slow, but after that, things pick up and become very enjoyable. In Frame Up, the Evil Land Developer (perhaps we should start now capitalizing it and calling them ELD’s for short, we see them so much) was Dick Sargent, and here it’s Frank Gorshin. Maybe aging TV actors are drawn to the role because it’s so perfunctory? It must be like a working retirement for them. Gorshin puts in a wacky performance, even Riddler-esque you might say? Mickey “Maximum Force” Rooney (he’s synonymous with Maximum Force, isn’t he?) puts in a top-notch sit-down role, but to be fair, it’s tough to tell whether he’s standing or not because of his height. When one of Rivas’s goons punches Zeke in the face, that’s when all bets are off and the girls get their SWEET JUSTICE.

It’s your classic “assemble a team” movie, and we always enjoy those. You really have to admire anyone who’s willing to drop their job to go on an illegal killing spree with their buddies just because one of them enlists you to. There’s even a classic training montage and shreddin’ guitars play on the soundtrack during fights. You’ve gotta love it. The women and their diverse personalities and fighting styles keep it from becoming boring. We thought another title for the movie (or another like it in the future) could be “EMPOWERMENT”.  You get the idea.

The team leader, Sunny Justice, is a pre-The Fight (2001) woman who takes on men in the ring. She was truly ahead of her time. And in Street Corner Justice (1996), Marc Singer played the immortal Mike Justus. Sunny Justice and Mike Justus together again at last. We celebrated. Singer has never looked more like Kevin Bacon than he does here. Maybe it’s the hair. While Finn Carter takes on the Cynthia Rothrock role from the aforementioned China O’Brien (there’s even a fight in a gym just like in that movie), we thought that if Sweet Justice were made today, the part of Sunny Justice could be portrayed by Gina Carano.

Featuring the prerequisite sax on the soundtrack, as well as end credits ballad “The Glory of it All” by Sherry Cameron, Sweet Justice is rollicking entertainment, perfect for video stores of the 90’s. Released by Triboro on VHS at that time, Sweet Justice is sweet viewing.

Comeuppance Review by: Brett and Ty 

Silk Degrees (1994)

Silk Degrees (1994)- *1\2

Directed by: Armand Garabidian

Starring: Marc Singer, Mark Hamill, Deborah Shelton, Adrienne Barbeau, Michael Des Barres, India Allen, Gilbert Gottfried, and Charles Napier










When actress Alex Ramsey (Shelton) witnesses a murder by gangster Degrillo (Des Barres), she has to go into witness protection. Degrillo had previously been under surveillance by federal agents Rick Baker (Singer, not the famed makeup artist portraying himself) and Johnson (Hamill). Ramsey doesn’t want to leave her glamorous Hollywood life, though she is tired of being bossed around by her TV director, Rene (Gottfried). Baker and Johnson decide the best course of action is to go to a rural inn and get some country livin’ during her sequestration. 

While hiding out from Degrillo and his goons, they meet local folk such as Violet (Barbeau) and Sheila (Allen), who work at the inn, as well as bumpkins looking to sell meth to bikers. Schultz (Napier) is a classic WYC (White Yelling Chief) who constantly screams at Baker to do his job. But naturally there’s romance in the air as Ramsey and Baker – as well as Sheila and Johnson – succumb to the cabin fever and pay-cable 90’s nudity ensues. Will our heroes return to civilization un-shot at and intact?

Erotic thrillers. Gilbert Gottfried. Two things that have gone together since time immemorial. But for some reason, this time the two don’t mix. Silk Degrees typifies the movie you would see on the shelf of your local video store, look at it quickly, shrug your shoulders, say “meh...” and keep walking by. Hence, it’s a “walk-by”, a term we would like to start using. 

Having Mark Hamill and Marc Singer be partners was a novel idea, if only for the fact that we can see the both of them together in the same place at the same time, thus proving that they are indeed two different people. The difference in the two men is academic; casting them as partners is just confusing. At least have one of the federal agents have dark hair, a mustache, a scar, something to distinguish the two. But judging by the mediocrity of it all, the writers must have said “meh...” too.

So why should we, as viewers, care? Is some nudity meant to be enough to keep our attention? Because even that is doled out sparingly. Fan favorite Napier just goes through the motions as he did so many times during his 90’s career, Hamill and Barbeau don’t even really need to be there, and the presence of Gilbert Gottfried is off-putting. 

To be fair, Shelton is attractive and does a decent job, and Singer puts in a respectable amount of energy. But the whole thing is lazily written, and it’s nothing you haven’t seen a million times before. For a far better movie about someone put under witness protection, check out Hit List (1989). 

Silk Degrees isn’t softcore porn, so fans of that will be unsatisfied, it’s not a biopic of Boz Scaggs where he reveals the secrets of the Lido Shuffle, and it’s not a decent mystery, thriller, procedural, or drama, so fans of those will be left wanting. And it’s certainly not an action movie, though there is one really funny moment at the end (that should have happened a lot earlier, and more moments like it to boot - more stupidity on the part of the filmmakers) - but that’s not enough to save it.

The perfect time and place for Silk Degrees was Skinemax in the mid-90’s. In 2015 (or whenever you happen to be reading this), it, sadly, doesn’t cut it.

Comeuppance Review by: Brett and Ty 

Street Corner Justice (1996)

Street Corner Justice (1996)-* *

Directed by: Chuck Bail

Starring:  Marc Singer, Steve Railsback, Soon-Teck Oh, Kim Lankford, Tommy "Tiny" Lister, Clint Howard, and Bryan Cranston



 "The law of the land just came home to stay."








 The wonderfully-named Mike Justus (Singer) is “The Best”. The best cop in Pittsburgh, that is. Because of his rogue ways and defiance of authority, his higher-ups decide to let him “retire early”. Justus sees this as a good time to fix up and re-sell a house his aunt left him in the suburbs of Los Angeles. Upon arriving in a section of L.A. called Norwood, he finds it overrun by criminals, hoodlums, punks, ne’er-do-wells, scofflaws, loiterers, scapegraces, Sir-Lucius-O’Triggers, delinquents, ruffians, thugs, hooligans, and the like. Not getting any help from local cop Freeborn (Railsback), Justus, along with a rainbow coalition of people in the community such as restauranteur Lee (Oh), stereotypical Irish Priest Father Brophy (Cranston), stereotypical Bible-quoting tough guy Angel (Lister), and video store proprietress/love interest to Mike Justus Jenny (Lankford), form a Guardian Angels-like group called TNB, or “Take Norwood Back”. This doesn’t sit well with the local gangs, so a showdown ensues. Will Justus actually get STREET CORNER JUSTICE?

As far as “take back the community” movies go, Street Corner Justice isn’t as good as The Annihilators (1985) or Private Wars (1993) (which also featured Steve Railsback, who must really care about his community). It’s one of our favorite themes for DTV movies, so we could never get sick of this formula, but this one in particular is just relentlessly dumb. It’s also too long, and oddly paced at that. Even though director Chuck Bail is a veteran of the movie industry, it’s like he was a newbie in the production department. 

That aside, at least he had the raw nerve to name the main character Mike Justus. As if to drill the point home to viewers who may be even dumber than this movie, at one point Justus says, “There’s no justice. There’s just us.” Yes, we get it. But Mike Justus smokes - because he’s cool - and that’s something you’d never see today. No hero would ever smoke in our ridiculously P.C. society of the 2000’s. Also Singer looks a lot like David Spade in this movie. If you’ve ever wanted to see David Spade beat up bad guys and chase rapists that are Clint Howard, this might be your only chance.

‘Justice is riddled with cliches and stereotypes (there’s even a fast montage of nothing but cliches early on in the movie, watch out for it) and these are fun to watch, but is it enough to support a whole (overlong) movie? There are some moments which aren’t in the box of cliches, such as the fact that the main baddie and supposedly the toughest gang member in town wears a sweatervest, and the fact that this whole “citizens vs. punks” war was initiated when a fat guy couldn’t play a game of Street Fighter II. All the way up until the time-honored final abandoned warehouse fight, there’s plenty of unmitigated stupidity on show. But that may be your thing.

There’s also an “evil playground” that we haven’t seen since Balance Of Power (1996) - it might even be the same one as Balance Of Power, which would be weird. That’s one seriously evil playground. We can see why two movies have highlighted it. And the video store that Kim Lankford’s character, Jenny, works at is called Cine-Video, and looks like a real place. Lankford gets to sing not one, but two songs on the soundtrack. But no rockin’ tunes, just ballads. It’s a shame, a faster song might have bumped up the energy level a bit more.

Considering Mike Justus fought his whole life against red tape, it’s pretty ironic that this movie comes housed in a red tape. But no amount of gimmickry or colored inks can blot out the fact that Street Corner Justice is video store shelf-filler and a waste of a nice B-movie cast.

Comeuppance Review by: Ty and Brett

L.A.P.D.: To Protect and to Serve (2001)

L.A.P.D.: To Protect and to Serve (2001)-* *

Directed by: Ed Anders

Starring: Marc Singer, Steve Bacic, Wayne Crawford, Michael Roberds, Kiara Hunter, Charles Durning, Dennis Hopper, and Michael Madsen











Wade (Bacic) is a young L.A.P.D. cop, and his partner and mentor is Sam Steele (Singer). When their fellow cops Alexander (Madsen), Sextram (Crawford), and Meyerling (Roberds), among others, begin throwing wild parties at a house in the Hollywood hills, and getting involved in illegal activities, Wade doesn’t like it and it begins tearing his professional and personal life apart. Steele is more conflicted, and his father (Durning) and Alexander’s father have histories on the force. When all this affects his girlfriend Kimberly (Hunter), things get personal for Steele and it leads to a showdown. Also, the captain at the precinct is Elsworth (Hopper) - even though it’s fairly irrelevant to the plot, it’s Dennis Hopper, and he’s front and center on the box art even though he’s only in the film for a few minutes. 


Anything else you may have read about how bad this movie is, is more than likely true - it has an incredibly cheap, junky look, and even the music feels very low budget. Not that low budget on its own is a bad thing - but what clearly happened here was that all the money the filmmakers had was spent on corralling all these great actors together. Sure, the movie has a killer cast...but at what price?

Probably the most offensive thing about LAPD is that it portrays cops in such a negative light. It tends to leave a bad taste in your mouth. This movie was obviously influenced by such films as The Choirboys (1977), The New Centurions (1972), and Extreme Justice (1993), but it’s all done so ham-fistedly. If someone tried to film a James Ellroy story like Dark Blue (2002) on their video camera, something like LAPD might result. 


The only snag with it being an Ellroy-style out-and-out L.A. story is...wait for it...it was shot in Canada! That’s right, except for some exterior shots (we think), the whole thing was done in Vancouver. Why didn’t they just change the storyline to be about Mounties?

Special note about the locations: In one scene you can see the video store Video Update - their stickers are on many used VHS tapes. We have some in our collections, and you probably do too. Also, there’s a scene at an “adult” movie theater and some characters spend a lot of time in front of a poster for the Romp Screwball Hotel (1988). 


It's all pretty light on action, and what action remains is pretty ridiculous - they were trying for a cop drama sort of thing apparently. There are plenty of cliches, and not all good ones either. Crawford as Sextram looks exactly like Robert DeNiro (or perhaps a lost Baldwin brother). 

Michael Madsen, who’s cool all the time (possibly because of his love of stealing 2 liter bottles of Pepsi), and all the other names (why is Charles Durning here?) make the movie at least watchable - and it is fairly coherent - so this isn’t the worst movie ever made but it’s still pretty mediocre. It was released as a budget-priced (probably a dollar or so) DVD with an unflattering cardstock sleeve. 


We wouldn’t tell you to put LAPD at the top of your list, unless you are an extreme fan of any of the names involved.

Also check out DTVC's review! 

Comeuppance Review by: Ty and Brett

Angel Blade (2002)

Angel Blade (2002) -*1\2

Directed by: David Heavener

Starring: David Heavener, Marc Singer, Louis Mandylor, Richard Moll, Amanda Righetti and Margot Kidder









David Heavener is stuck in the 80's. Angel Blade is filled to the brim with 80's cheese. First the casting: Margot Kidder, Marc Singer and everybody's favorite actor, David Heavener.

Then the plot: A cop at the end of his rope (Heavener) has to find out who is killing hookers. But not just your ordinary hookers, PREGNANT hookers. It can't get any more sleazy than that. Not that sleaziness is bad, but when it is acted, edited and directed in a lifeless and horrible way, all you can do is stare at the griminess dripping off the screen.



I like David Heavener, but he puts in a poor performance this time around. Instead of Heavener always writing and directing himself, He should give someone else a job for once.



Comeuppance Review By: Ty