Director – John S. Rad (If a Leaf Never Falls)
Starring – Coti Cook, Gorge Derby, and Bryan Jenkins (Riot)
Release Date – 1979/2005
Rating – 2.5/5
Blu Release – 3/5
Tagline – “The holy grail of holy fucking shit”
Back in January I decided to skip horror for an entire month and watch non-horror flicks that were sent to me to review from companies like Vinegar Syndrome and Impulse Pictures. This was something else I wanted to do again 6 months down the line. As July approaches I tried to squeeze out as many horror movies as I could before the month ended but one film I could not hold off any longer.
There was an action film I received several weeks back that I could not wait to see. That film, Dangerous Men, was sent to me to check out from MVD and was one that I could not wait to check out. It was said that the movie was films in 1979 and was not completed until 2005. This really intrigued me and my curiosity got the best of me.
**Spoiler Alert**The film begins with a young couple who are engaged to get married. One day they go for a walk on the beach and two bikers harass them. The man kills one of the bikers when things turn deadly forcing the other biker to murder him.
The woman plays her hand and asks the biker to take her with him. He agrees and they go back to a room where she kills him prompting a killing spree where she kills anyone that is dangerous. Now the police are after her while her soon to be brother in law, an officer, is out to bring down the biker gang that is responsible for killing his brother and sending his sister in law down this bloody road.**Spoiler Alert**
I love campy action films of the 70s and 80s. This love came about when my dad would continuously watchSmokey and the Bandit. I watched a lot of action films from this time and learned to appreciate the characters, settings, and the time period. As most of you know, I am a huge fan of 80s pop culture so anytime I can check out a late 70s or 80s action flick, I jump at the occasion. Dangerous Men looked like one of those films that was so bad it was good while embracing the time period similar to Miami Connection. Sadly, it was!
The acting in this one is horrible. The cast was given characters to embrace and they had no idea what to do with it. Some made campy, ridiculous characters while others were just too serious. They conflicted and made the film feel conflicted. If the film found a better balance between goofy and serious then it would have worked out.
The story for this one could have been fun but the way in which it was delivered was not that effective. The film feels like two stories going at once which pulls the viewer in two different directions. The segment following the young girl killing bad men was a bit of a waste. It felt like filler that did not progress the film along at all. The angle following the vengeful cop was fun but very cliched for the time. The film needed more of this than the killer window angle.
Finally, the film is full of action but the action is far from perfect. The fighting scenes are garbage. This has some of the worst choreographed fight scenes that I have ever seen. When I say they are bad I don’t mean bad enough to laugh at. These fights are so bad that I am embarrassed for everyone involved. Overall, Dangerous Menwas not the “so bad it’s good” film I was hoping for. I really wanted to see another Miami Connection but this was not it. The film is horribly acted, horribly written, and horribly edited. This is one that I can not recommend.
