Post by lostinlimbo on Feb 25, 2017 9:01:13 GMT
"Fuck the bonus!"
When one of the worlds most wanted terrorist leaders, Malak Al Rahim (Gene Simmons) decides to set off an bomb in downtown L.A. City, killing hundreds of people. The CIA sees no other choice than by bringing in the only man that Malak truly are afraid of, Nick Randall (Rutger Hauer) professional bounty hunter and former CIA agent.
When you have established yourself as one of the best and menacing villains of the 80s, it was always going to be a tough call to try convince your audience that you also could play do more heroic type of characters, and Rutger certainly had more to offer than just being the intimidating psycho, as proven with films such as The Osterman Weekend (1983), Ladyhawke (1985), Blind Fury (1989), The Blood of Heroes (1989), Wedlock (1991) and Split Second (1992). But I think that he never did a better job as the action hero lead, then as Nick Randall.
The film is far away from being perfect, as I remember the second part of the film being a bit of a downfall, still entertaining though, no question about that, but I felt it did not live up to the first half.
Gene Simmons had played the baddie in the underrated sci-fi action film Runaway (1984) but he was not really that convincing as an bad guy, here however as Malak Al Rahim, he is one evil bastard. Right after Malak plants the bomb at the cinema, he turns to this little cute girl, and slowly touches her face gently, smiling at her, then walking away leaving them off to their brutal fate.
I guess Rutger as a hero did not fit that well in with his fans or the movie going audience, as he later on continued doing far too often very cheap made-for-TV appearances, but even then he did a good job.
Had my hopes up for a great comeback around 2005 when he appeared in both Sin City and Batman Begins, but sadly since then, most of his films have been far below the standards that I hoped he would settle for, but Hobo With A Shotgun (2010) was a nice surprise.