We originally reviewed this film on March 10, 2020, as part of Mill Creek’s Explosive Cinema set. But since Mill Creek is a recycling-green DVD distributor, we’re going to review it one more time. Which is two more reviews than this Z-grade Lethal Weapon rip (I’d even blame some Road House inspiration) from Crown International, deserves. No wonder the studio imprint went under, right? And the award for “Worst Poster Art of a Crown Flick” goes to . . . they just stopped trying. And we just kept on renting this junk because, well, the cover is so bad. So, we wondered, “How bad is the film inside?”

It’s ALWAYS worse . . . and it looks like it was shot in the Drive-In ’70s during Crown’s heydays and not in a post-cable TV world . . . regardless of Leonard Maltin claiming that Top Cop was the “best erotic thriller of 1990.”

Surely, you jest, Lenny.

Lenny-boy must have confused this with another movie. Perhaps Arnie’s Kindergarten Cop. More than likely one of Len’s many ghost writers and editors behind the film compendiums he “writes” got sick of Len’s ego-shite and decided to screw with him. An “erotic thriller” is well, the pinnacle of those would be Basic Instinct . . . and Top Cop isn’t even CLOSE to that level in its filmmaking or “erotica.” Or Kindergarden Cop. Or Raw Deal. Or Commando. Maybe if Top Cop was made in L.A. by any studio other than Crown? Well, we can’t blame Crown, as it seems they only distributed it and didn’t bank it. And Rondo placed this on our home video shelves. Oh, the joy . . . and the pain.

So, our intrepid Vic Malone, the “Top Cop” of the title, loses his partner to a drug kingpin. And Malone goes “scorched earth” on said kingpin and his minions. And if the cover doesn’t give it away: our “Top Cop” is top heavy — with a case of Type-2 diabetes for desert. For Malone has none of Dr. James Dalton’s rips and none of that Martin Riggs swagger: he’s almost a Mike Biggs from Mike and Molly. (In real life, the actor behind Vic Malone is an ex-Marine. But I forget if that fact was worked into the plot. Not that it matters to the story. Oh, and Mike Bass, who plays one of said drug kinpin’s heavies, played ball for the Washington Redskins.)

Anyway . . . Malone risks his life. He’s saves women. He blows up stuff and rattles off rounds of bullets — and in the usual “ensues” rat-a-tat-tat you’d expect from a low-budget action flick from Crown International. And one set in Arkansas, on top of that.

This was the first directing effort from Mark L. Maness who got his start at 10 years old with an 8mm movie camera he received for Christmas; he then moved on to work for ESPN and Fox Sports Net network. And those Walmart commercials from back in the day: Mark made those.

So, has anyone seen Mark’s films Birthrite (2008) or It Knows (2018)? Neither have we, especially It Knows, which is a low-budget horror (with a decent poster; that he wrote and directed) and we usually get screeners o’ plenty for that genre sent to the B&S cubicle farm. And Maness is still rockin’ the Canon Red, as he has a new flick in production, Ohio (2021). Yeah, we’re interested in seeing that, as it is cool to see these under-the-radar low-budget purveyors still pumpin’ the tiger blood and winning at the foot of Mount Lee.

However, is the writer on this, Helen P. Pollins, still “winning” the tiger blood sweepstakes? Huh? A woman wrote this? Yeah, we thinks that be an alias of the Ellen Cabot-is-really-David DeCoteau variety. Now, apparently, per the credits, there’s a Mr. Pollins, aka Frank, co-producing . . . but again, we think that’s a nom de plume for someone else. If the Pollinses are, in fact, a husband and wife writing-production team, the abysmal state of affairs displayed in Top Cop was enough to make them quit the business.

Our star — and stunt coordinator, associate producer and special effects artist, here — Stephen P. Sides, well, this is his show. So we are guessing he’s the “Helen” of these proceedings. He also produced the vanity flicks Blood Forest (2009) and Step Away from the Stone (2010). There’s another one — that he didn’t act in, but produced and did all the stunts — called Too Scared to Laugh (1989). One of the common denominator actors across those films is Todd Tongen, who went on to become an ABC-TV news anchor affiliate for WPLG/Miami. So, if you’re from South Florida and only knew Todd as news anchor, here’s your chance to see him effectively thespin’ it up as the dopey brother of a drug kingpin.

Look, a self-financed, shoestring run to be the next “Bruce Willis” isn’t going to be good. But one thing Top Cop isn’t: boring (well, it is, but, uh . . .), as the serviceable, cliched action just keeps on comin’ at ya. But does it “come at ya” as good as The Patriot and the Leo Fong two-fer of Low Blow and Killpoint (which also all appear on the Explosive Cinema set; the Patriot also pops up on B-Movie Blast)? Oh, hell no, but it’s as good as The Silencer, which has its own issues, but also keeps the Z-gradeness of the Lethal Weapon-Die Hard variety comin’ at yah.

Eh, it’s something different that you’ve never seen before to watch to burn off some downtime. And you’ll never see this on the all-reality-and-repeats of cable, right? So stream it on You Tube. Be sure to check out our B-Movie Blast Round Up for all of the films on the set.

Eh, better you watch the other “set in Arkansas” (or was it Georgia) Michael Sopkiw action fest that is Blastfighter. For the ‘Sop is god here at B&S.

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.

Editor’s Note: This review ran on March 9, 2020, as part of our Mill Creek Explosive Cinema 12-Pack of reviews. We’re bringing it back as we unpacked Mill Creek’s B-Movie Blast 50-Film Pack (Amazon). And guess what? Mill Creek includes The Patriot on their Excellent Eighties 50-Film Pack (Amazon) — and Sam, the Movie Themed Drink Mix Master, will be back with another take on the film for our unloading of that box set. Unlike most of the films (well, some of them) on Mill Creek sets (Cavegirl and Brain Twisters, we’re lookin’ at ya), this is actually an entertaining movie — like all Frank Harris flicks — that deserves your time. Enjoy!

Yesterday (again, back to our Explosive Cinema March 9 review) we took a look at two of writer-director Frank Harris’s Leo Fong-starring films: Killpoint and Low Blow (also both on the Explosive and B-Movie Blast packs). The Patriot—which reminds of the later Steven Siegal war-actioner, 1992’s Under Siege—is the third and final Crown International release from writer-director Frank Harris’s resume included on Mill Creek’s “Explosive Cinema” 12-pack.

I remember going to my local, small town duplex to see what was Harris’s best-distributed film—with its splashy newspaper print and TV ads. The film was an early attempt to transition prolific television actor and Brian De Palma troupe-actor mainstay Gregg Henry (1984’s Body Double) into a leading man. You more likely know Henry from his later work on 1998’s Star Trek: Insurrection, The Guardians of the Galaxy franchise (as Grandpa Quill), ABC-TV’s Scandal, and the CW’s Black Lightning. The Patriot also stars Leslie Nielson (Airplane and the Naked Gun franchise), the always-happy-to-see-him Michael J. Pollard (where do I even begin with his incredible resume), and Jeff Conway (ABC-TV’s Taxi; 1978’s Grease).

The plot concerns ex-pro-boxer Stack Pierce—from Killpoint and Low Blow—as an ex-military wacko who steals a nuclear weapon and Henry’s dishonorably discharged ex-Navy Seal gets a chance to redeem himself.

The Patriot is a low-budget ‘80s action movie from Crown International. Now for the younger readers new to B-cinema: that may not mean anything. So just go into this not expecting “explosive,” but mediocre action and you’ll have a fun time with this dependable Frank Harris work. You’ve seen worse from the rip-off reels of ’80s Italian and Philippines cinema.

The film’s soundtrack is composed by . . . well, is there any chance you’d be familiar with . . . well, with today’s state of narrow-playlist repeating American FM classic hits and classic rock radio stations, you may not be familiar with the hits “Thunder Island” and “Skakedown Cruise” by Jay Ferguson. Further back, he was a member of Spirit, which has the ‘60s progressive FM radio hit “I Got a Line on You.” The Patriot is one of Ferguson’s many soundtrack works, which includes The Terminator and A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child. He currently composes the music for CBS-TV’s CSI: Los Angeles.

Screenwriter Katt Shea’s writing-directing resume includes the direct-to-video potboilers 1987’s Stripped to Kill, 1992’s Poison Ivy starring Drew Barrymore, and 1999’s The Rage: Carrie 2. She most recently directed 2019’s Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase. (As an actress, Katt starred in 1985’s Barbarian Queen.)

Editor’s Note: Mill Creek is back one more time with this Leo Fong and Frank Harris two-fer — and we love it! This review originally posted on March 8, 2020, as part of our Explosive Cinema 12-Pack reviews. And you can also get it on the B-Movie Blast 50-Film Box Set (Amazon) which we’re reviewing all this month.

Frank Harris and Leo Fong! My head is swimming. Where do I begin with this review?

Well, first off, you can get both of these Crown International releases on Mill Creek’s “Explosive Cinema” 12-pack (along with Scorpion, Skydivers, and 9 Deaths of the Ninja). Second: You also get Troy Donahue (Omega Cop), Richard Roundtree (Q: The Winged Serpent), and, say what? Cameron Mitchell (Space Mutiny) appears in both?

Harris. Fong. Mitchell? Sign me up!

What’s that? Harris also did the post-apoc romp Aftershock and the cop actioner Lockdown (1990; trailer) with Richard Lynch from Deathsport and Ground Rules? What? No way! And Fong did Showdown (1993; full movie) with Lynch as well? Rock on! Richard Friggin’ Lynch. Rock on, Ankar Moor, you post-apoc bad ass.

Frank Harris

Writer, director, producer and cinematographer Frank Harris got his start as a reporter for a small California TV station. But his true love was film. He got his start in the movie business courtesy of the fifth film from Asian action star Leo Fong, 1976’s Ninja Assassins (aka Enforcer from Death Row), who hired Harris as a cinematographer. (I have wonderful memories of my older cousin, Bobby, who studied martial arts and was ready to go into the military, taking me to the Drive-In after seeing the film’s commercial on TV. Yes, I rented it when it came out on VHS.)

After putting one more cinematography gig under his belt with the 1984 actioner Goldrunner (trailer: race cars, motorcycles and kidnapping), Fong hired Harris to not only serve as the cinematographer, but as the producer, director and screenwriter for his eighth film as an actor: Killpoint.

Then there was Harris’s directing gig with 1996’s Skyscraper, an awful attempt to turn famous-for-being-famous ex-Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith into—not only into an “actress” and not only into a “leading lady”—an “action star.” Anna Nicole as a hot, corporate helicopter pilot who goes “Die Hard” when terrorists take over her employer’s office tower? Huh and W.T.F. It’s one of those movies where you simply can not turn away. And let me make this point perfectly clear: there’s a lot of people to blame for it, but Harris isn’t one of them; he was just a director-for-hire. (Watch the full movie at your own peril; the trailer might even be too much to bear.)

Killpoint (1984)

Cameron Mitchell returned from Ninja Assassins, this time as Joe Marks, an illegal arms dealer who robs a Californian National Guard Armory with plans to sell the weapons to L.A’s street gangs. Lt. James Long (Fong) a bitter, troubled L.A detective still dealing with the rape and murder of his wife a year earlier, gets his chance to go “Dirty Harry” —well, “Jackie Chan,” actually—when he discovers Mark’s sidekick, known as Nighthawk (professional ex-boxer Stack Pierce; worked on several of Fred Williamson’s Blaxploitation films), was responsible for her death. Teamed with FBI Agent Bill Bryant (Richard Roundtree), they bring them to justice.

Of course, while Fong was already a major star in the Eurasian marketplace, he was an unknown commodity in the States. So while Roundtree’s part in Killpoint is a minor one, as you can see from the below poster images, that didn’t stop the distributors from highlighting Roundtree’s contribution—and giving Leo Fong the short shift on the U.S Drive-In and video campaigns.

Low Blow (1986)

Karen Templeton (Patti Bowling; her only film role) is a young, wayward Patty Hearst-type heiress brainwashed-kidnapped by the Church of Universal Enlightenment, a Jonestown-styled religious cult run by Cameron Mitchell’s Jim Jones-inspired Yarakunda.

After seeing Joe Wong (Leo Fong), a harried ex-San Francisco detective take down a couple of thugs who mugged an old lady, Karen’s tycoon-father (Troy Donahue) decides Wong is the man for the job to rescue his daughter. So Wong recruits a Vietnam vet and ex-pro-boxer (Stack Piece is back!) to get her out. Once inside, Wong fights the cult-camp’s ninjas and world-renowned martial artist and Tae Bo exercise program guru Billy Blanks (Tango & Cash, Lionheart) in his first film role.

Leo Fong

Leo Fong is still going strong at the incredible age of 91. He starred in three films in 2018: Hidden Peaks, Dragon to Dragon, and the most recent film: Challenge of the Five Gauntlets. And he has four more films in various stations of filming and pre/post production: Pact of Vengenance (with Jon-Mikl Thor!), Asian Cowboys, Runaway Killer, Hard Way Heroes, and Junkers. You catch up with Leo and his Sky Dragon Entertainment at LeoFong.com.

Other films in the Harris-Fong oeuvre include 24 Hours to Midnight with Cynthia Rothrock (1985; clip), Hawkeye (1988; full movie) (seen them on VHS), and the direct-to-DVD releases Brazilian Brawl (2003; trailer) and Transformed (2005; full movie) (honestly, never heard of them or seen them; I need to change that).

You can watch the TRAILER and the FULL MOVIE for Killpoint, the TRAILER and FULL MOVIE for Low Blow, and the FULL MOVIE of their first film, Ninja Assassins, on You Tube.

This is another one of those public domain ditties that I don’t recall as playing in theaters, but seeing after the fact as an early HBO programmer. And yes, it was on the home video shelves, but I didn’t need to rent it, as result of its incessant cable airings.

You’ll notice the Death Wish* plug that, sadly, didn’t pack ticket buyers into the theaters or drive-ins, thus the film’s quick appearance on pay cable. Death Wish, as you know, was a best-selling 1972 novel by Brian Garfield turned into the 1974 Charles Bronson-starrer. Garfield’s other book-to-screen successes that you may not know about include 1971 western Gun Down, which became 1976’s The Last Hard Men (the book was reissued under that title as a film tie-in) starring Charlton Heston, and the 1975 spy-thriller Hopscotch, which became a 1980 film of the same name starring Walter Matthau and Sam Waterson (one of my favorite actors, with films like Capricorn One and Warning Sign).

For the younger, modern audiences: you’ve seen Garfield’s official Death Wish sequel, 1975’s Death Sentence, turned into the 2007 James Wan-directed and Kevin Bacon-starring film of the same name (but the film does not pick up the Death Wish-film timeline, nor follows the book’s plotting). And you know the quintessential, crazy dad flick, The Stepfather (1978) and its sequels in 1989 and 1992: those began with an unpublished story turned into a screenplay by Garfield. And again, I remember the newspaper and TV ads for The Last Hard Men and Hopscotch — and seeing both in theaters — but not Fleshburn, which was based on Garfield’s 1978 novel, Fear in a Handful of Dust.

What we have here is a survival thriller that, based on the theatrical one-sheet, looks like we may be getting a post-Max Max apoc flick or a Wes Craven The Hills Have Eyes imprint — of which Fleshburn is neither. What we do have here another outdoor revenge thriller akin to John Boorman’s Deliverance (1972) and the Peter Fonda-starring Open Season (1974). And the apoc confusion — in spite of the B-Movie-ish theatrical one-sheet — is also the result of Fleshburn somewhat pinching a highly-influential film we name drop often within the context of B&S Movie reviews: Richard Connell’s 1924 short story “The Most Dangerous Game,” which became a 1932 film of the same name — a film that inspired several, ’80s Italian-Euro apocalyptic films**.

While Steve Kanaly, then hot-off-CBS-TV’s primetime soap opera Dallas as Ray Krebbs gets top-billing, the star-antagonist of the film is actor-stuntman Sonny Landham; you know him as Billy Bear in 48 Hrs. (1982) and Indian tracker Billy Sole in Predator (1987). Landham stars as Calvin Duggai, an ex-Vietnam vet who escapes his wrongfully-committed mental institution imprisonment to kidnap the four psychiatrists who committed/treated him — and their family members. He dumps the emotionally blind and relationship-troubled city slickers deep in the desert and spies on their struggle for survival.

Sound like a pretty decent tale so far, right? Well. . . .

Considering being ripped as a “soap actor,” Kanaly is really good in his role as the most resourceful of the bunch (he should have transitioned as fellow soap actor Ray Liotta) courtesy of his having giving up psychiatry to become a park ranger. Sadly, this is a Crown International Picture production, a studio where exploitation and sensationalism is marketing de rigueur. So, instead of having the deep, psychological character study of Brian Garfield’s Fear in a Handful of Dust, we have, well, a pseudo-copy of Wes Craven’s The Hills Have Eyes after all, with a bunch of bickering, can’t-get-their-shit-together city folks who illicit no sympathy as kidnap victims and deserve a desert “fleshburn” comeuppance. If there is a message-plot twist to extract, it would be that Landham’s Indian — a spiritually free man who lived on and off the open land — was, figuratively, abandoned in the “desert” of the white man’s institution; now Duggai has taken the spiritually blind city folks and dumped them his “desert” to survive.

Sadly, since this is a much-distributed public domain title in the digital age, the DVDs — both grey-market and not-so-grey — are from the edited TV prints that negate the film’s original R-rating that played on HBO and was officially issued on VHS.

Criticisms aside: While Fleshburn could have been so much better, I enjoyed this movie a few times over, courtesy of its HBO replays, and during my revisit this week. Even with the TV cut, this still comes highly recommended. We found a ripped-from-VHS, R-rated copy to enjoy on You Tube. And you can have your own copy as part of Mill Creek’s B-Movie Blast 50-Film Pack.

* Be sure to check out our “Death Wish Week” of reviews.

** Be sure to check out our month-long, two-part post-apoc homage with our “Atomic Dustbin” round-ups. The big kahuna of the genre is, of course, Elio Petri’s 1965, sci-fi pop-art “human death sport” romp, The 10th Victim.

About the Author: You can learn more about the writings of R.D Francis on Facebook. He also writes for B&S About Movies.