Post by stefancrosscoe on Apr 8, 2018 12:17:55 GMT
"God forgives. The Brotherhood doesn't."
A street tough inner city cop named Joe Huff (Brian Bosworth) is more than fed up with seeing how the scum and filth of the criminal underworld are constantly getting away with their nasty and ruthless business, however all that might change when he is to be given an offer he just cannot refuse.
As an result, a deal is set up shortly after and with a little help of a certain "secret" agency, Joe is now more than ready go undercover and to be set loose upon the infamous biker gang known as the Brotherhood to do what he does best in life, which is to search and destroy!
I have always been wanting to see this one, or at least for several years that is.
Only heard good things about it and knowing that guys like Lance Henriksen and William Forsythe was included in the roles of the main baddies, I knew it was time to do something about it and when I found a dirt cheap, brand new 2016 "special" edition of the film, I had to pick it up.
Okay, so the "special" edition was really not that special as it did not include nothing else than a "play" movie option and that was pretty much it.
No special bonus material, no trailers or teasers, no subtitles or anything but it did come with a reversable DVD artwork/cover, that and a cool movie poster on the inside, still I was a little disappointed at how cheap this release seemed, but the picture was very good, sadly the sound was a bit off and on for most of the part and I prefer watching my action films (specially those with lots of loud music and noises throughouth the run) with some decent english subtitles as one can easily miss out on "important" stuff like great one-liners and so on.
Back to the film itself, it was one which I really wanted to like, kind of the same with Extreme Prejudice (1987) a while back, and since both seemed to be recognized as cult-films within the 80s and early 90s action genre, I went in with maybe a little too high of expecations to begin with.
I have never seen a film with Brian Bosworth before or so I think, but from what little I have read of him, he seemed to have two or three films that have a bit of a "following" in the action public, and where another one I have been wanting to see is One Man's Justice (1995), however Stone Cold seems to be the one most people brings up or names as his "finest" hour.
I really enjoyed the classic late 80s/early 90s action atmosphere it had going, which at times felt like it was almost a mix up of similar themed action films such as Raw Deal (1986) and Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man (1991) and also the gritty action/figthing scenes was a pleasant surprise and reminded slightly of the earlier work of Steven Seagal, or least to a certain part that is.
The combination of upbeat rock music along with the electronic/synth dominated vibe that of Sylvester Levay was also a nice touch, and in fact it felt a little close both in sound and scenery to the Miami Vice episode: Viking Bikers from Hell from season 3 and where Reb Brown was actually very similar in look and acting (well beside that Brown was the villain) to Brian Bosworth.
Anyway, I enjoyed watching Stone Cold last night, the action scenes were fantastic and lots of nice female "random" nudity as well which is never a bad thing, but I was still a little disappointed to see how the always great (or mostly good/memorable) William Forsythe went out far too soon, as I had hoped for a blistering fighting scene between him and Bostworth, however it was still a worthy way I guess to end things and he got himself a solid funeral as well.
But beside some familiar faces here and there, I thought the for the next 25 minutes that the film suffered from letting go off such a nasty villain as Forsythe had portray as Lance Henriksen's crazy second in command.
Speaking of Lance, he did mostly good here but did at times come off as little too "weak" physically against Bosworth and while he was of course a insane guy mentally, still I would have liked watching the hero go up against a more fierce villain than what we ended up with, as it seemed a little rushed and uninspired, but still it was fun seeing Henriksen again as a sleazy and nasty bad guy, but I think he did this far better not long after in Hard Target (1993).
All in all, a film which was surely enjoyable but still one that I think might benefit better from a second viewing, and in the meantime I am planning on trying to find a copy of One Man's Justice (1995) and watch them both back to back in a little mini-marathon.