Customer Reviews

Private Wars

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In my opinion Steve Railsback is one of the most underrated American screen actors of his generation - in a way his style is similar to that of fellow Texan Tommy Lee Jones. Unfortunately, his talents are used only too rarely. In this movie he plays a down on his luck ex cop who must save the neighborhood. His performance in this movie is very good (he has a lot of screen time, often to himself) and compensates for a lack of quality in other fields. The story is not bad basically - people try to defend their neighorhood against an investor who wants to realise a big project there. So there are many scenes on location - and an excessive use of firearms. The bad guy is played by Stuart Whitman, another actor I really like to watch.

Jack Manning (Steve Railsback) is an ambitious cop. So ambitious, in fact, that he is framed by a corrupt superior officer (Michael Champion) and thrown off the police force. Eight years later, he's an alcoholic private detective. He is contacted by his old friend Mo (Dan Tullis Jr) who needs help cleaning up his neighborhood, which is plagued by street gangs, on orders from a corrupt businessman (Stuart Whitman) who wants the neighborhood in order to demolish and rebuild it.

"Private Wars" is a low budget direct-to-video movie. It looks cheap and has the type of soundtrack that only low budget movies have. But all of this is redeemed by the kind of over-the-top fighting scenes and action you don't find in most big movies as well as good performances by Steve Railsback and Stuart Whitman. Recommended for fans of brainless action movies who don't mind the low budget feeling. Those looking for a similar plot but a bigger budget, try "Death Wish 3".