Lockdown (1990)

Lockdown (1990)-**

Directed by: Frank Harris

Starring: Chris DeRose, Chuck Jeffreys, Joe Estevez, Mike Farrell, Gary Kolpakoff, and Richard Lynch







Ron Taylor (DeRose) and his partner Maguire (Jeffreys) are detectives in southern California. Using a San Jose chop shop, Valley Auto Dealers, as cover, a new criminal mastermind is causing all sorts of havoc: Garrett (Lynch) is a ruthless killer and car enthusiast who uses his intimidating presence to get what he wants. When he frames Taylor for murder, Taylor is sent to prison, separating him from his wife Monica (Kaitan) and his young daughter. Maguire is pulling out all the stops to try to clear his partner, but now Taylor must survive on the inside. Shanks (Kalpakoff) is the jailhouse baddie, but Taylor makes friends with his cellmate Dieter (Estevez). Will Taylor get revenge and clear his good name?

This is the fourth Frank Harris movie we’ve reviewed, and while it may be one of the more decent ones, it still has plenty of cliches, is kind of on the slow side, and suffers from many of the common trappings of low budget movies, such as some stodgy acting and editing. But that being said, this is a fairly solid, if dumb, prison movie/cop actioner.

We think Harris may have even used some of the same cop extras he did in Killpoint (1984). DeRose makes an okay mulleted, fairly meathead-y hero, and Chuck Jeffreys out-Eddie Murphy’s Eddie Murphy. We always like seeing him. Of course, Taylor’s cellmate is none other than Joe Estevez (how would you like to walk into your cell and see that?) - actually, this is the best Joe Estevez performance we’ve seen to date. But the real star of the show is Richard Lynch, who makes an excellent bad guy. He does a great job as the charmingly evil mastermind (as he usually does). As great as Lynch is here, it’s not enough to overcome some of the slower aspects of this movie.

Actually, the fact that the main hero is trapped behind bars hampers the movie. It needed more action, and if the main hero is in prison, it can’t really be a full-throttle revenge movie. While the filmmakers were probably trying for something a little different, they painted themselves into a corner with that scenario.

So despite the fact that the warden is like a corrupt Santa Claus, the prison sequences are a bit dull (it should have been played by Cameron Mitchell). Lockdown is similar in structure to Cartel (1990), but Cartel is the better movie.

Lockdown isn’t really that bad, especially for its drive-in style, and it does have some standout moments, especially the song by Seymour Duncan and Friends (with vocals by Gregory Hansen).  So it’s kind of a mixed bag.

Comeuppance Review by: Brett and Ty

Best Of The Best 4: Without Warning

Best Of The Best 4: Without Warning (1998)-***

Directed by: Phillip Rhee

Starring: Phillip Rhee, Ernie Hudson, Jessica Huang, Chris Lemmon, Paul Gleason, Art LaFleur, Sven-Ole Thorsen, David "Shark" Fralick and Tobin Bell






Tommy Lee is back! Not the Motley Crue drummer of course (in the press he’s always Rocker Tommy Lee, and he’s called that so often he should just legally change his first name to Rocker) - It’s Phillip Rhee, and this time he teaches martial arts to police officers. He has a young daughter, Stephanie (Jessica Huang), and life seems good.  All this ends when a gang of Russian-type mobsters, working out of an abandoned warehouse (where else?), begins a large counterfeiting operation. The details of this illegal activity are on a disc, and Tommy inadvertently ends up with it.

Now on the bad side of criminal mastermind Slava (Bell), as well as his many goons, including Boris (Thorsen), he entrusts Stephanie to a priest (Gleason), so he can go off on his own and fight the baddies. But while he has some friends on the force, notably Jarvis (Lemmon), he also butts heads with the hard-line Detective Gresko (Hudson). Can Tommy Lee stop the counterfeiting agents, rescue his friends and daughter from imminent doom, and clear his own name in the process?

Some people might think about the Best of the Best series, “there are FOUR of them?” While it may seem puzzling and hard to justify, this fourth entry in the series was solid fun and worth seeing. Phillip Rhee is a very talented guy - he stars in the film, he directed it, co-wrote it, and he’s a gifted martial artist and worked on the choreography. He’s also likable. Rhee does seem to have well-rounded skills, and because of this, his name should be more well-known outside of die-hard action circles. He’s so badass, he doesn’t turn off his lights at night using a lightswitch like a sucker, he JUMPKICKS his lights off.

Supporting him is an impressive array of B-movie names. Tobin Bell puts in an understated, low-key villain performance, which was a welcome change from the frothing-at-the-mouth baddies we usually see. He pulls off a tricky balance - be subtle but not be boring. He does a great job, and, interestingly, there’s some pre-Saw torture he’s involved with. Coincidence? Or did the makers of the unending Saw franchise see this movie and picture him as the ultimate torturer? And speaking of people who probably saw this movie, there’s an American Beauty (1999)-like fantasy sequence one year before that film. Is it possible the American Beauty people saw this movie and thought, “If we rip this off, no one will know, because we don’t share any of the same audience”?

Hudson plays the BYD (instead of Black Yelling Chief, here he’s a detective) and there’s even a fight scene between him and Rhee where Hudson attempts some Hudson-Fu on him. Chris Lemmon’s not in it that much and resembles Joe Piscopo. It’s no Firehead (1991) for him. Paul Gleason, Art LaFleur and Sven-Ole Thorsen round out the cast of familiar faces, and someone who’s been turning up a lot lately, David “Shark” Fralick (Deadly Reckoning, 1998, Executive Target, 1997 Inside Edge, 1992) is on board as well.

A highlight of the movie is a combination stickfighting/fencing fight scene. We don’t believe we’ve ever seen that before. While the movie falls prey to a cliche we see often “We’ve got to get the disc!” - a movie about a disc - Best of the Best 4 has a lot to offer in the pure entertainment department. Regardless of how you feel about the other Best of the Best movies, you should see this one if you love that implausibly-plotted-but-who-cares-let’s-have-fun action style pioneered in the 80’s.

Comeuppance Review by: Ty and Brett