Terror In Beverly Hills (1989)

Terror In Beverly Hills (1989)- * * *

Directed by: John Myhers

Starring: Frank Stallone, Behrouz Vossoughi, Lysa Hevlov, William Smith, and Cameron Mitchell 

“They brought terrorism to our streets…only one man can stop them!”

When an evil gang of middle-eastern terrorists led by the sinister Abdul (Vossoughi) comes to Beverly Hills, well, terror ensues. Their main target is Margaret (Heslov), daughter of The President (no actual name for The President is ever said) (Smith). They kidnap her while she’s shopping and spirit her away to “the old bean factory”. While LAPD Captain Stills (Cam) is crankily and dyspeptically working his way through the situation, it becomes evident to all concerned that only one man can rescue Margaret, take down the terrorists, and restore law and order to Beverly Hills: HACK STONE (Stallone). (Hack Stone is not an anagram for Frank Stallone; we checked). Will the fantastically-named Hack Stone, who is a former Special Forces soldier and now Karate instructor, be able to complete his mission? Or will terror reign at the old bean factory…er, I mean, BEVERLY HILLS? Find out today…


Here’s a movie that delivers what it promises – terrorists come to Beverly Hills. It also gets sillier and sillier as it goes along. It starts out fairly seriously, with comments about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the threat of terrorism in our time, which actually makes ‘Terror fairly topical even today. Well, about as much so as Terror Squad (1988), Hostage (1987), or Scorpion (1986). VERY quickly, however, we are launched headlong into a highly-entertaining morass of ridiculousness that we as viewers do not return from.

Thanks to its rock-bottom budget, we get some classic nonsensical dubbing/dialogue, wonderfully stupid chase/shooting scenes, and the whole outing has that vibe of absurdity that fans of fun movies will recognize immediately. It’s almost like a cousin of Provoked (1989), and there’s even a McKeiver Jones III-like character. And that’s the key to Terror in Beverly Hills – its characters. Even with all the preposterous goings-on, what stands out are the characters, no matter how small they are in the overall scheme of things.

Of course, we have the aforementioned Cam Mitchell as Stills, who puts in a performance that enlivens the proceedings. Then we have the great William Smith, perfectly cast as The President. Unfortunately, like most of the other characters, his voice was dubbed, so his trademark gravel is not heard. Naturally, there’s Hack Stone, AKA Frank Stallone, who ties it all together. The main difference between Stone and Stills is that Stone drinks regular Pepsi (with a very prominent place on his desk) but Stills prominently drinks Diet Pepsi. Have the Pepsi people ever seen this movie?

The smaller parts, the incidental roles, are what really make ‘Terror a gem. There’s Crystal, the 911 dispatcher who really cares about her job and has terrific typing skills, there’s Brian Leonard as Tony Motta, the enthusiastic and pushy TV news anchor, and there’s Captain Leonard (the McKeiver guy), who really shines as an LAPD detective. But the show is well and truly stolen by the charming interplay between Bruce and Gandhi, two locals.

All that isn’t surprising, as director Myhers was primarily known as an actor himself, but he did direct one movie per decade in the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s. Obviously this was his 80’s entry, released in the golden year of 1989. Myhers passed away shortly thereafter in 1992. Evidently the old bean factory that is so central to the story was a real place, as in the end credits, the California Bean Growers Association are thanked. You don’t see that every day.

In the end, Terror in Beverly Hills is a ton of silly and absurd fun, and despite its limited resources, it is vastly better than The Taking of Beverly Hills (1991). If you only see one movie where something bad happens to Beverly Hills, see this one.

Comeuppance Review by: Brett and Ty 

Code Name: Vengeance (1987)

Code Name: Vengeance (1987)- * * *

Directed by: David Winters

Starring: Robert Ginty, Shannon Tweed, James Ryan, Don Gordon, and Cameron Mitchell

In Africa, an evil terrorist named Musseem Tabrak (Ryan) seems to be gaining political influence in his region. In order to further his nefarious ends, he kidnaps the wife and son of one of his rivals. That’s when the ambassador, Harry Applegate (Gordon), calls in the only solution to this geopolitical problem: Monroe Bieler (Ginty). Bieler is a warrior who was imprisoned by Tabrak for twelve years and is burning with the desire for revenge. Applegate teams him up with a guy from the U.S. consulate named Chuck Hawley (Brophy), but things really start to heat up when Bieler re-connects with old warhorse Dutch Busselmeyer (Cam). Along with love interest/reluctant compatriot Sam (Tweed), the four unlikely heroes proceed to shoot, blast, and blow up the minions of Tabrak – but who is the true mastermind? Will Applegate wrap himself in the flag…and will Monroe Bieler live to machine-gun-shoot another day?


Fan favorite Robert Ginty saves the day in CODE NAME VENGEANCE, an entertaining shoot-em-up/blow-em-up that you pretty much have to love. It's an AIP-distributed outing from director David Winters which looks more professional than usual. His production company this time around was The Killmasters Company, and when you see that that is the first credit on the screen, you know you’re in for a good time.


As we’ve noted before, there are many types of dumb. Thankfully, Code Name Vengeance is the fun kind of dumb. Lots of very stupid things happen, but you can’t help but smile. The movie has that 80’s charm mixed with the type of charm that comes from clunky editing and ridiculously-staged action scenes. The viewer can get by on this combination of dumbness and charm any day of the week. It is also satisfying to see black-robed terrorists getting killed by the good guys. There are many instances where all this comes together. For example, in one scene, there are some terrorists in an abandoned warehouse. Ginty somehow hooks a bunch of grenades onto a very, very slow-moving forklift and sends it towards them. The baddies see this coming and have ample time to run away. Instead, they just sit there for a long time, yelling. Then they blow up. Thank goodness.

When we first see Ginty, he’s embroiled in a prison-yard fight and he looks a lot like Chuck Norris. Then we see Gordon as Applegate and he looks a lot like John Saxon. We went on Cam watch and he eventually shows up 43 minutes in. He adds a lot of energy and even gets into the shooting action with the younger cast members. He would shortly re-team with James Ryan in another South Africa-shot David Winters movie, Rage To Kill (1988).


All the other characters, but especially Hawley, say Bieler’s name many, many times. Almost every sentence they say ends with the word “Bieler”. “I don’t think so, Bieler”, “Not a good idea, Bieler”, etc. It’s not even that cool of a name. By contrast, James Ryan’s name in Rage To Kill was Blaine Striker. Now that’s a name worth repeating. Bieler is dangerously close to Bieber. Obviously they must have known that in 1988 and should have acted accordingly.


The music, by Steve McClintock along with Mark Mancina and Tim James, is terrific and McClintock contributes yet another excellent song, “Is It Really Love?” This just goes to further prove that McClintock was one of the most underrated musical talents of the 80’s.

All the ingredients are here: the Winters direction, the McClintock music, the conspiracy that goes all the way to the top, the terrorists getting blown up, the silliness, the combination of Cam Mitchell, Shannon Tweed, and Robert Ginty, and it was the 80’s. Consequently, it’s easy to love Code Name Vengeance. We say give it a watch.

Comeuppance Review by: Ty and Brett