If you don’t think the world was a better place in 1980’s, let me tell you that it had both Hamburger: the Motion Picture and Hot Dog…The Movie come out. Perhaps these two cultural forces don’t matter to you. Well, then you’re part of the problem.
Between this and Youngblood, director Peter Markle pretty much laid claim to many an HBO time slot.
Patrick Houser is Harkin Banks, who has saved up all year to travel from Idaho to Squaw Valley to compete in the world freestyle skiing competition. Along the way, he picks up a teen runaway named Sunny (Tracy Smith, Bachelor Party) and joins the Rat Pack, a gang of goofball skiers led by Dan O’Callahan (David Naughton, An American Werewolf In London) and is tempted by Sylvia Fonda (1982 Playboy Playmate of the Year Shannon Tweed).
Of course, there’s the foreign menace, led by the Austrian superstar Rudi. By the end, everyone must battle in a Chinese Downhill to see who the best in the world really is.
Keep an eye out for Playboy Playmate of the Month for September 1971 Crystal Smith as the hotel clerk and Buddy Hackett’s son Sandy as a wet t-shirt contest host.
James Saito, who is Kendo and was the original Shredder in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, fooled the entire cast and crew for three weeks, convincing them that he could speak Japanese. The world was very different — and perhaps way more racist — in 1984. Otherwise, it was much better than 2020.
You can get the unrated producer’s cut of this movie on blu ray directly from Synapse.
Noted urban music video director Nick Leisure (B-Smooth, E-gypt, Carla Flemming) fronts his third feature film (the urban comedies of 2011’s The Lot, 2016’s Janitors) with this gritty, Mexican-produced crime drama inspired by the real life, 1991 Sacramento Hostage Crisis at a Good Guys! electronics store; the event holds the unfortunate distinction as one of the worst police shootouts—and largest hostage situations—in U.S. history. (You can read the truncated version of those events on Wikipedia.)
It’s just another shopping day at the outdoor Florin Mall in Sacramento, California, when four young Vietmanese gunmen storm the Good Guys! electronics store.
The Sacramento P.D calls in their top hostage negoiator, Rick Gomez (Mario Van Peeples), who butts heads with the politically arrogant Sheriff Todd (the excellent and new-to-the-acting-scene Michael Balin) and a trigger happy SWAT Commander (Rafael Siegel) who’s ready to storm the building.
Inside, Loi (Hao Do, in his feature film debut) tries to calm Long (Tony Dew, in his leading man debut), his violence-prone older brother who, if he doesn’t get his ransom money and transport back to Vietnam, will kill the hostages (featuring Glenn Plummer)—including himself and Loi.
As Gomez works to defuse the deadly situation, he comes to realize he’s not dealing with desperate men, but confused boys (who want to trade hostages “for body armor like Robocop”) venting their frustrations at their maligning family, society, and the country. Courtesy of the social and political arrogance boiling inside and outside the store, Gomez’s futile efforts soon digresses into a national tragedy—and alters young Loi’s life, forever.
The marquee names on taunt low-budgeter that inspires us to hit the big red streaming button are Mario Van Peebles and Glenn Plummer. Fans of the USA Network’s Suits know Plummer from his starring role as Leonard Bailey, as Sheriff Vic Trammel on FOX-TV’s Sons of Anarchy, and Timmy Rawlins on NBC-TV’s ER; sci-fi buffs remember Plummer for his roles in Kathryn Bigelow’s Strange Days (1995) and Roland Emmerich’s The Day After Tomorrow (2004). As for Mario Van Peebles: we’ve diligently followed his career since his starring role in Jaws: The Revenge; newer Mario fans know him from his recurring roles in the TV series Z Nation and Superstition. Of course, Peebles and Plummer—along with their unknown support cast—deliever the goods.
Produced at a low-budget indie cost of just over a million dollars, A Clear Shot has everything going for it: The set and production design, along with its cinematography by DP Jorge Roman (2017’s Larceny starring Dolph Lundgren), is excellent. In addition, Leisure’s tight direction works wonders against its restrictive budget and his supenseful script takes the viewer deeper than the usual Stallone (Cobra) or Willis (Die Hard) hostage-action flick; no Dennis Hooper villaneous, dick-swingin’ hysterics (Speed) need apply here. Leisure’s pen took the time to the explore the psychology; the “why” of what drove four confused men to commit such a heinous act, also while exploring the political, ego-driven hierarchy of law enforcement.
While A Clear Shot is less action-bombast and more dramatic-introspective, Leisure’s crafty eye reminds me of the working-against-the-budget skills of Steven C. Miller’s oeuvre of morally-screwed characters in the action frames of First Kill (2017, starring Bruce Willis), Arsenal (2018, Nicolas Cage), and Line of Duty (2019, starring Aaron Eckhart).
Making its theatrical debut in Los Angeles last October, A Clear Shot will be available across all of the usual VOD, PPV, cable, and streaming platforms in the U.S on June 6, 2020. You can watch Nick Leisure’s video catalog, along with some interviews and behind the scenes footage from A Clear Shot, on his official You Tube page. You can also learn more about Leisure’s development as a storyteller in an extended interview courtesy of ESPN TrueHoop Network’s Cowbell Kingdom on You Tube.
Nick Leisure’s got game—and a bag o’ chips. If he can accomplish a film like A Clear Shot with a little over a millon dollars, then the sky’s the limit for Leisure’s future in Hollywood. And I wait in anticipation for his next film. Leisure sat down with Sacramento’s ABC 10 News to discuss the film back in July 2019.
About the Author: You can read the music and film reviews of R.D Francis on Medium and learn more about his work on Facebook.He also writes for B&S About Movies.
Disclaimer: This movie was sent to us by its PR department. As always: you know that has nothing to do with our feelings on the movie.
Rod Holcomb mostly has worked as a TV director. For this film, he declined to use his name, instead going by Alan Smithee. Is it really that embarrassing? As bad as making the movie Chains of Gold, the only thing that John Travolta ever wrote?
Parker Stevenson, Geoffrey Lewis and Brian Tochi (yes, he of Takashi from Revenge of the Nerds, Leonardo the Ninja Turtle and Nagata from Police Academy 3 and 4 fame) are medical students running afoul of the administration, which would be Eddie Albert.
Robin Dearden, who would one day by Bryan Cranston’s wife, is in this. So there’s that. You learned something, even if these medical students didn’t. It does, however, have a great open where the three medical madcaps dress up as cadavers and freak out an entire class.
I can accept cops being against the rules. For some reason, I can’t do the same with doctors. I don’t know what that says about me.
When it comes to the youth against authority genre, you really can’t go wrong with Neal Israel. Just look at his resume. Beyond directing Bachelor Party, he wrote Police Academy, Moving Violations and Real Genius. Here’s a weird fact: he was once married to Amy Heckerling, but they divorced after making Look Who’s Talking Too together. You know what else helped? Israel believed their daughter, Mollie, was his until a DNA test proved that she was really the daughter of Harold Ramis.
Originally airing on NBC on November 23, 1986, this movie is all about Max Mendelsson (Keith Gordon, who seemingly was in everything) and Perry Barnett (Wally Ward), two pranksters who cause so much damage that a judge (Sherman Hemsley) sends them to Kirkland Military School.
There, they run afoul of Cadet Major Biff Woods (George Clooney!), who is trying to prove himself to his father, General Edward “Ed” Woods (Robert Culp) who runs the school along with Colonel Frierick (Jamie Farr).
I can hear you asking so let me answer. Yes, as this movie was made in 1986, Richard Moll is definitely in it. He and Keith Gordon being in the same movie, well…if Michael Caine had been there as well, the world would have ended. We got close with Dressed to Kill. This would be the other time that the world skirted so close to oblivion, with these multi-movie stars all so close to aligning and unleashing the end of all things.
It also has the late Dana Hill from National Lampoon’s European Vacation, Bernie Kopell (Doc from Love Boat), Dick Van Patten, Tina Caspary (Mac and Me, Teen Witch), John Ratzenberger and Marc Price (Ragman from Trick or Treat).
Before Neal Israel’s connection with Police Academy, you may have seen this movie as Combat High. It was renamed in syndication.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Roger Braden runs the Facebook group Valley Nightmares, which is all about the history of the films that played at the drive-ins and theaters in his home state of Kentucky. Besides that, he loves metal as much as I do and brings kick ass moonshine to the drive-in. He’s one of my favorite people to watch movies with, so I’m so happy he’s decided to share his drive-in picks with us.
Some of my earliest memories are of going to the Drive In with my parents, and a lot of those times friends from school or the neighborhood were there with their families as well. We were pretty much able to run wild, go to the playgrounds, walk the lot, just hang out and be kids. But when a feature was about to begin we knew to be back to our vehicle to watch whatever movie was up next. Westerns, car movies, comedies and war movies were the usual menu. First time I saw True Grit, Patton, VanishingPoint and so many others was at the Drive In as a kid. Then being in my mid teens in the late 1970’s and then progressing through the 1980’s meant turning up the Drive In experience a notch or two. We still ran wild in the lot, met up with friends and usually had a chick or two that wanted to get on the swing set and be pushed higher and higher. But unless we were parked in the back of the lot, when the next feature was going to start we were at our spot and ready for it.
When the fantastic folks at B & S About Movies mentioned doing this every Friday, I started writing down flicks and then working out what my Friday Night at the Drive In would look like. I had a lot of combinations, but this was the one I dug the most. All four are from the 1970’s, that three of the four are “PG” rated just helps my argument that the 70’s was one of the best decades for movies ever.
I’ve got to get the night started with 1976’s Grizzly from Louisville’s William Girdler. Suspenseful, fast paced, awesome scenery and for a “PG” rated film it has a fair amount of blood and gore. The scenes with the Grizzly look great too. When the Grizzly squares up on a helicopter, it still makes my jaw drop even though I know how it was done.
They didn’t call this one “Jaws on Land” by accident and it’s my favorite Girdler film.
Right from the very start with it’s documentary style opening, 1977’s Shock Waves draws you into it’s story of an elite Nazi Deathcorp that was unleashed at the end of World War 2 that were never captured or killed. Flash forward to the 1970’s where a group of tourists end up shipwrecked on a seemingly deserted island only to discover the former Nazi Commander (Peter Cushing) of that Deathcorp and the secret he’s been hiding all these years. The Nazi Deathcorp are still one of the best villians, visually and with their brutality, as they stalk the tourists on land and from underwater! Violent, but not gory, fast paced and an almost non-stop sense of dread power this “PG” rated film into one of my all time favorites.
Two couples (Peter Fonda, Warren Oats, Loretta Swit, Lara Parker) take a road trip vacation in a brand new RV (Look, it has one of those microwaves in it!) and on their very first night, in the middle of nowhwere, witness a Satanic sacrifice. And from then on it’s an almost non stop flight or fight movie as our couples try to report what they saw and just try to escape the Satanists who are trying to silence them. Race with the Devil , from 1975 and “PG” rated as well, is action packed, tense, suspensful and has plenty of shocks and surprises along the way that all lead up to one of the best “downer” endings to a Horror film still.
We all know this one. and if you don’t, stop reading this, and go watch Phantasm right now! My best description of this movie… it’s a fucking nightmare. The only “R” rated film of the night, 1979’s Phantasm is a classic whose style, visuals, story and blending of genres takes the film to the next level. Add to that a villian who became an icon, The Tall Man, with his legion of small hooded dwarfs determined to hide the secret of their existence cemented the films legacy as one of the best Horror films of the last 40 plus years.
I’ve always believed that the final feature of the night at the Drive In should be as stong, if not stronger, than the films that came before it. That’s what you’re taking home with you, especially with Horror films. There’s nothing like getting home just before the sun comes up and then hearing every creak and noise a house makes while you’re hoping to crash out for a few hours.
All of these films are on disc or stream at various sites. Many thanks to B & S About Movies!
If you laughed at the fact that Pete Bonerz directed this movie, then this is the movie for you.
This time, Harris and Proctor must work with the good guys to apprehend the Mastermind, whose gang is running wild all over town. Bonus points to him for getting Gerrit Graham (Terrorvision, Phantom of the Paradise) to join up!
Commandant Lassard (George Gaynes) assembles his finest men and women for the case, including Hightower (Bubba Smith), Tackleberry (David Graf), Jones (Michael Winslow), Hooks (Marion Ramsey), Callahan (Leslie Easterbrook), Fackler (Bruce Mahler), and Mahoney replacement and his nephew, Nick (Matt McCoy).
Billie Byrd is in this, but she’s playing a totally different role and not Mrs. Feldman, so if you demand continuity in your 80’s comedies, you’re out of luck.
That is, however, Grandmaster Melle Mel in this. And Allison Mack, the one-time Smallville actress who charged with sex trafficking, sex trafficking conspiracy and forced labor conspiracy as part of her role in the NXIVM sex cult. Who would have guessed?
The following year Paul Maslansky would produce Ski Patrol, which he had hoped would replace Police Academy and have several sequels. It failed, as did this movie. There wouldn’t be another Police Academy film for five more years.
You’d think I’d stop after three Vice Academy movies. Guess what? I’m the person that watched 160 slashers in October and 130 spy movies in April. I’ll watch every single Vice Academy movie that comes my way.
Candy (Elizabeth Kaitan, who played this role in Vice Academy 3 to 6) and her new partner Samantha (Rebecca Rocheford) are up against Malathion (Julia Parton), who has broken out of jail again. Yes, it’s the same plot as just about every other one of these films, but you aren’t watching this for the plot.
The Commissioner and Miss Thelma are getting married, as long as our villain and her new man Anvil (Steve Mateo, who was Professor Kaufinger in 3 and Brock in 5) have their sinister way.
Rick Sloane based one of the characters in this movie on his mom. Yes, in a sex comedy. That’s why I love life. Even when things seem dark, weirdness in all its wonder is all around us.
You will learn nothing from this movie. You will not find the secret to any mystery. You will see some girls in 90’s underwear and some dumb cop jokes. That said, perhaps those two things are the answer to life.
Camille Keaton, the iconic scream queen of 1978’s I Spit on Your Grave fame (as well as Massimo Dallamano’s What Have You Done to Solange?; we’ve also reviewed her work in 1973’s Sex of the Witch, 1982’s Raw Force, and 2016’s The 6th Friend) is perfectly cast in this welcomed, ’70s retro-revenge flick as Marsha Kane, a lonely, grieving widow who strikes back at a trio of criminals who’ve invaded her rural home.
More thriller than horror film (pinching its title from the classic Lynyrd Skynyrd song of the same name from 1976’s Give Me Back My Bullets), the film’s Tarantinoesque antagonist-protagonist standoff is triggered when Kane rejects an offer from Bill MacMohan, a local tycoon-town hero who wants her stately country home. So his privileged sons (read: law-scoffing rednecks) Billy, Wayne and Derek begin a terror campaign to force her out. And since big bad Bill is cut from the Brad Wesley Roadhouse cloth, he owns the town and there’s no one to help her.
Do you feel lucky, punks?
Well, then . . . you’re idiots. Marsha Kane is ready for you—with extreme graphic violence. Never underestimate a female . . . or a senior citizen: for the bully is the true, scared weakling.
As you can see from the trailer, this is well-shot and tightly edited with the suspense moving along at appreciated, brisk 70-minute runtime—so this will easily drop into a two-hour programming block on the SyFy Channel, that is, after completing its streaming and PPV run. Screenwriter-director Sam Farmer knows we’ve been down this “rural revenge” road before, so he doesn’t bog the story in pesky plot set ups, and all of the characters are fully fleshed out with skilled actors backed by solid writing—so no boring character development is required.
Good things are in store for Sam Farmer, who made his debut with the 2013 horror-mystery Girl of My Dreams. (He’s been awarded the City of Jacksonville’s Film and Television Office “Rising Star” award and the Nevada Film Festival “Silver Screen Award” for past works.) And it’s nice to see Camille Keaton having a shot at a leading role. She’s still got it in spades, mainstream Hollywood. Give her a call.
Cry for the Bad Man is fresh off a successful festival run with double nominations for “Best Director” and “Best Feature” at Jacksonville’s Rendezvous Film Festival. It makes its U.S streaming and PPV debut on May 5 on all the usual platforms. You can learn more about the film on Facebook.
Update: November 2020: You can now watch Cry for the Bad Man as a free-with-ads stream on Tubi TV.
Disclaimer: This movie was sent to us by its PR department. As always: you know that has nothing to do with our feelings on the movie.
About the Author: You can read the music and film reviews of R.D Francis on Medium and learn more about his work on Facebook. He also writes for B&S About Movies.
Mayor Bagley learns that the governor is coming to his town of Clam Cove to announce that they’re getting a freeway. To make sure nothing goes wrong, he demands that Police Chief McGruder (Mike McDonald, who was also in Oddballs and Screwballs II) add more people to the police force. That means that anyone can be a cop. And before you can ask, “Isn’t this almost the same movie as Police Academy?” I’m ready to answer that this is a Canadian tax shelter movie made in Ottawa’s Wasaga Beach, just like Fireballs, which was filmed at the same time.
If you want to win a trivia contest — actually I don’t know who would ask this question — this would be Lolita Davidovich’s third movie. It’s also the first movie for Jon Mikl Thor, who would make Rock ‘n’ Roll Nightmare the very next year.
Director Rafal Zielinski would also make two Screwballs movies, as well as State Park, which you know that I’ve watched several times. He also made Spellcaster, which has Adam Ant, DJ Richard Blade and Traci Lind from Fright Night Part 2. You better believe I’m hunting that movie down as you read this.
The writer behind this is Charlie Wiener, who wrote and directed a bogus ’80s SOV horror that’s actually a Canadian TV movie called Blue Murder, and a martial arts movie Dragon Hunt, in addition to writing Screwball Hotel, so let me assure you — his scumbag skills are in full effect here. And don’t confuse the Hotel one with Screwball Academy.
Recruits comes and goes from You Tube — here’s the latest age-restricted sign-in upload.
This movie quite literally has a murderer’s row of mid 80’s comedy favorites. You’ve got Guttenberg. Bill Macy from TV’s Maude. Curtis Armstrong from Revenge of the Nerds and Better Off Dead. A pre-Simpsons Julie Kavner. Julie Hagerty from Airplane! Alan Arkin and Gilbert Gottfried as the bad guys. And, as all movies should, a perfect quick role for Taylor Negron.
Guttenberg plays constantly goofing around pre-med student Jeffrey Marx, who is sent by his father to a Central American — shot in Spain — medical school. He discovers that medicine is actually his life’s calling by illegally treating the villagers, using supplies taken from the school.
Writer and director Harvey Miller also wrote Private Benjamin, Cannonball Run II, Jekyll and Hyde… Together Again, Protocol and Getting Away with Murder.
You can do worse than this movie. Of this genre, it’s one of the better films and Guttenberg is pretty much Mahoney, which is the role that he’s best at.
B&S About Movies 
You must be logged in to post a comment.