Crime Stopper (1990)

Crime Stopper (1990)- * * *1\2

AKA: Lethal Killing Machine

Directed by: Teddy Page

Starring: Rom Kristoff, Jim Gaines and Ned Hourani











An evil South American dictator named Ortega runs a “drug camp” and former Vietnam buddies Ray “Smithy” Smith (Gaines) and Mark Mitchell (Rom) are called in by the government to shut it down permanently…using any means necessary. After Mitchell is captured and imprisoned by Ortega’s goons, Smith goes undercover in the drug camp to break him out. Once the men are reunited, no force on earth can stop them. But they’re going to have to be careful – Ortega then captures Mitchell’s sister Carol and now the mission of the two warriors has to alter to rescue her from the clutches of the sinister and nefarious Ortega. Will the mission succeed?


Crime Stopper (AKA Lethal Killing Machine) is an amazingly fun cocktail of wackiness and non-stop violence that only could have arisen in the Philippines in the early 90’s. We have been Teddy Page fans for a long time, and only now have we discovered that this is one of his best and most all-around entertaining outings. It’s also one of the all-time best “30% New Footage!” movies we’ve ever seen, putting most of Godfrey Ho’s catalog to shame, as Crime Stopper has recycled Rom footage from his other outings such as Blackfire (1985) and Double Edge (1986). Does any of it make sense? No. Do we care? No. Would we have it any other way? Of course not!


First there are some unknown men shooting at each other and chasing each other. Then some different guys are beating the snot out of each other in a kickboxing match (one of which is Ned Hourani). Then more unknown men shoot at them with machine guns. Then a car blows up. Then a grammatically-questionable title card appears on screen to explain (?) what we just saw. Then there are some more blow-ups. Then some tanks enter the picture, and some more unknown guys are fighting a war. The viewer doesn’t know who is who. There is no explanation for anything at all. That’s when you surrender and go with the flow. Once you submit to the nonsensical charm of Crime Stopper, you will have a fantastic time. We can just about guarantee it. All you have to do is throw logic out the window and embrace the absurdity of it all.

Mitchell is the White Guy and Smith is the Black Guy. Mitchell’s code name is Cobra. Smith’s code name is Black Mamba. That probably wouldn’t happen today. But maybe the Cobra code name makes sense because the filmmakers continually want to make the viewer think of Rom Kristoff as some sort of second coming of Stallone. Have you seen the poster for Double Edge? That should explain things. Even the title, Crime Stopper, seems to be a reference to Marion Cobretti’s obsession with crime statistics. Even though the movie has nothing whatsoever to do with stopping street crime, they went with that anyway. 

Just Jim Gaines walking down the street is an entertaining thing to watch in this movie because he looks cool, and you know something awesome is about to happen. He wears a T-shirt that says “Normal is Boring”, and when it comes to Crime Stopper, it couldn’t be more apropos. As far as the voices coming out of the characters’ mouths, there’s a lot of silly dubbing by silly men with silly voices. That alone is worth seeing. Or, more appropriately, hearing. Speaking of great stuff you hear, the score by Patrick Wales is terrific and deserves a CD/vinyl reissue. Hey, if they could do it for Striker (1988), they really should do it for this too. 

All in all, Crime Stopper is a movie right up our alley. It’s a non-stop parade of violence and nonsense. It’s fun, entertaining, and short. It makes no rational sense whatsoever, but something is always happening because the movie moves along at a fast clip. What’s not to love? Recommended.

Comeuppance Review by: Brett and Ty 

Parole Violators (1994)

Parole Violators (1994)- * * *1\2

Directed by: Patrick G. Donahue

Starring: Sean Donahue, Pamela Bosley, Harvier Mims, Joe Edwards, and Lindsey Rhodeos

"It looks like you got into a fight with a pizza."- Tracy











Miles Long (Donahue) is a guy who really cares about his community. A former police officer, he now hosts his own TV show where he chases down PAROLE VIOLATORS, films them personally with his video camera, and, if need be, beats them up. He inexplicably wears a black ninja mask while taping even though he is the host of the show and everyone knows who he is. His night of filming usually ends with him duct-taping the baddies to a pole and writing the words “parole violator” on the bare chests of said baddies with a black marker. The area police are familiar with this local pole and check it regularly for the latest prey of Long, known in the community as “Video Cop.” Video Cop is in a relationship with policewoman Tracy Dodd (Bosley), and when her daughter Susan (Rhodeos) is kidnapped by some thugs that Long had put in prison in his former life as a regular cop, his raging hatred for parole violators kicks into full gear. Teaming up with Tracy, the pair go on a mission of rescue/revenge, and all the local baddies should know that their comeuppance is going to be MILES LONG!

Parole Violators is a wildly fun and entertaining gem in the vein of Samurai Cop (1991), Miami Connection (1987), or Geteven (1993). But would you expect anything less from the great and hugely underrated filmmaker Patrick G. Donahue? This wonderful man gave us the great Kill Squad (1982), as well as Savage Instinct (1991), also starring his son Sean, as this movie does. Both he and this movie as a whole are very Ron Marchini-esque. 

Miles Long is a scrappy Martial Artist who just wants to play horseshoes in the park while wearing his large purple windbreaker. Instead, evildoers are kidnapping girls all around him and he is forced to snap into action. He can take a lot of damage, as he is constantly being punched, kicked, thrown off multiple cliffs and run over by multiple cars. But nothing will stop him on his mission. His serious-minded mullet is all business and you better not get in his way. Naturally there is the time-honored barfight - featuring a bouncer whose name is…Bouncer (Harvier Mims) – and an awesome Final Warehouse Fight. There’s also a goon whose name is Goon (Edwards). There are many, many scenes of Martial Arts fights and shooting. Choreographing and staging them were clearly a labor of love and it’s downright charming to watch.


The thing is, TV shows like Cops and America’s Most Wanted were hot at the time. The Donahue family (including actor Mike) just postulates what might happen if the host went from filming and talking about bad guys, to actually fighting them himself, mano-a-mano. It’s a great idea and it’s executed in a fantastically entertaining way. This movie was even ahead of its time in many respects – it predates current shows like Live P.D. by many years, and Miles Long is like a cross between Dexter and Louis Bloom, the main character of the fine film Nightcrawler (2014), as portrayed by Jake Gyllenhaal.

Most of the cast were one-timers who weren’t in any other movies. But if you’re going to be in one movie only, make it a winner, and they clearly did that with this diamond in the rough. Unfortunately, this got little to no distribution on VHS. It desperately needs to find a bigger audience, so here’s hoping a company like Vinegar Syndrome grants it a Blu-Ray release sometime in the future. For that winning combination of silly/awesome that is so addictive, seek out PAROLE VIOLATORS!

Comeuppance Review by: Ty and Brett