Tough and Deadly (1995)

Tough and Deadly (1995)-* * *1\2

Directed by: Steve Cohen

Starring: Roddy Piper, Billy Blanks, Richard Norton, Sal Landi, Phil Morris, James Karen, and Lisa Stahl












Elmo Freech (Piper) is a rough-and-tumble Private Investigator and ex-cop who does things his way. He ends up teaming up with a mysterious man who has lost his memory, John Portland (Blanks). But Portland appears to be a trained fighter, and together the two men - who certainly don’t always see eye to eye - get deeper and deeper into a conspiracy that goes all the way to the top. They’re going to have to work together and fight to get to the truth. Can they do it?

Tough and Deadly is classic 90’s fun at its best. One of its main strengths is its healthy dose of humor. So many movies out there, DTV actioners included, take themselves so seriously - finally, here’s a movie with the guts to not take itself so seriously, but also has some killer stunts and fights, which are taken seriously. So it strikes a near-perfect balance of tongue-in-cheek, well, cheekiness, with some nice bone-crunching action. It’s a surprisingly rare mix, so our hats go off to the filmmakers on this win.

The movie really gives you what you want: on top of the humor, the stunts, fights, etc., it has a very good pace and nice energy. You can actually SEE what’s going on. Nothing is shrouded in shadow. Considering there’s a barfight AND a poolhall fight, as well as a (completely inexplicable) training sequence followed by a montage, Tough and Deadly truly has it all. 

Let’s not forget the Billy Blanks and Richard Norton fight, which gets the movie off to an engaging beginning. There’s also the classic “I want to listen to country!” “I want to listen to rap!” CD player confrontation between Freech and Portland. Just the names of the characters are insane - Elmo Freech, Winston Briggers (Karen), Trekkler, and Freech’s assistant Maureen Peek (Stahl). Yet, the great Richard Norton plays...Agent Norton. Does he feel cheated that he didn’t get a wacky name? At least he’s on board. That’s all that counts. 

Naturally, it all ends in the time-honored abandoned warehouse. Also Elmo Freech has a poster in his house that simply says “Pasta Sauce”. For his interior decoration skills alone, you should see Tough and Deadly.

It’s easy to see why Piper and Blanks teamed up again after Back In Action (1993). Piper’s charm and Blanks’ woodenness make an excellent combination. It’s sad that they didn’t team up on any more movies after this. But at least we have two. While debate continues to rage as to who -  John Portland or Elmo Freech - is Tough and who is Deadly - there’s certainly no shortage of face-punching action in this prime example of what the 90’s Direct-To-Video era could do.

Comeuppance Review by: Ty and Brett

Also check out write-ups by our buddies, DTVC and Cool Awesome Movies!

Warbus (1986)

Warbus (1986)-* *1\2

Directed by: Ferdinando Baldi

Starring: Daniel Stephen and Romano Kristoff













In the thick of the Vietnam war, Viet Cong killers attack some Christian Missionaries. Some U.S. Special Forces come to save them, but their only means of escape is an old school bus. Seizing the only opportunity available to flee from the enemy onslaught, they begin their trek on the bus. But it’s going to be a treacherous ride. Now faced with this not-particularly-ideal situation, will the soldiers protect the Missionaries and destroy the enemy?

Warbus is director Ferdinando Baldi’s take on the Vietnam jungle actioner replete with multiple shots of waterfalls, plenty of machine gun shooting, huts which may or may not explode, and all manner of blow-ups. But these blow-ups are notable in that they are of a high quality. 

It appears most of the budget for this film went to the pyrotechnics. And if you do indeed have a limited budget to work with, that’s actually very smart, because Baldi clearly knows his audience. If you’re renting/buying or somehow viewing a movie called WARBUS, you don’t want to disappoint action buffs. On that same topic, there is minimal dialogue, but what dialogue there is has that funny dubbing we all know and love.

As far as the characters, we really don’t know who these people are, but does it really matter? The movie is a brief 79 minutes, which makes sense because it’s probably hard to do an entire feature-length movie about a Warbus. The bus in question has the words “SCHOOL BUS” proudly emblazoned all over it, and its license plate is NGH 666. So make of that what you will.

On the negative side, Warbus is a little more run-of-the-mill than it should be for a good portion of the film’s running time. The problem is this one simple idea. 

The movie is like a 79 minute action SCENE, not so much a fully fleshed-out movie. Nothing sticks with you, there’s nothing to hang on to once the movie ends. Adding to that, the Mercs DVD has some tracking issues. You wouldn’t think in the age of DVD, a DVD would have tracking issues, but because it was obviously taken right from a VHS, there you go. But we’re lucky to see the movie to begin with. Let’s not look a gift bus in the mouth. Plus Warbus should get some credit for being the original Speed (1994).

There’s nothing actively bad about Warbus - we’d say it’s a minor and inoffensive entry into the Exploding Hut Movie sweepstakes. With Warbus, we’re solidly in one-time-watch territory.

Comeuppance Review by: Brett and Ty