Customer Reviews

Relentless [VHS]

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Sam Dietz (Leo Rossi: 'Halloween 2', 'Maniac Cop 2'), a cop from New York, has made detective grade. He is re-assigned to the Los Angeles Police Department, and his first assignment is to track down a relentless serial killer, who chooses his victims from the phone book.

Judd Nelson puts in the finest performance of his carreer, as Arthur 'Buck' Taylor, the disturbed maniac who harbours a personal vendetta against the police department.

Robert Loggia (Bill Malloy) is on top form as Dietz's older, and more experienced, partner. Loggia is an accomplished supporting actor, having played prominent roles throughout his carreer in films like 'The Lost Highway', 'Gladiator', and 'Scarface'. He is apltly cast in the detective duo role, and played a similar character alonside Martin Sheen in 'The Believers'.

William Lustig ('Maniac Cop' 1, 2 & 3; 'Maniac') is renown for his portrayal of maniacal characters, and has directed some excellent horror/slasher films in his time. 'Relentless' stands alongside 'Maniac Cop' as one of his most accomplished achievements as a director.

Sinister, edge-of-the-seat action.

Late night viewing recommended ... but don't answer the phone!

I watched this movie thinking it was just going to be another slasher flick. Boy, was I wrong. All of the actors are first rate, especially Nelson as the demented killer. Buy this movie now! Note: This film is not for the squeamish!

First time I had encountered Relentless was when I was at Hollywood Video sometime last summer, you know, since they had VHS clearances and this was one of the tapes that was up for grabs. So I decided to buy it and truth be told, I was not really expecting much, but after watching, I got a lot more than I expected.

The movie centers around Arthur "Buck" Taylor (Played by Judd Nelson in probably his best performance) who having just been rejected from the L.A.P.D. on psychological grounds, Buck decides to get even by selecting random people from the phone book with his first name in their names as well as people with his last name in their names, as a mean of trying to kill himself, and uses his police training skills to cover his tracks. Buck begins taunts the police with torn pages from the phone book with messages. When rookie detective Sam Dietz (Played by Leo Rossi), and veteran Bill Malloy (Played by Robert Loggia) decide to take the case, the two cops are drawn in to a deadly game of cat-and-mouse which ends in a deadly fight to the finish.

Overall, I think William Lustig (MANIAC COP) did an excellent job with the direction and I liked Leo Rossi's perfomance of Sam Dietz (Which he would reprise in the sequels) and I especially think Judd Nelson did a excellent and very creepy performance as Buck. I highly recommend this film to anyone who enjoys neo noirs, serial killer movies, or even fans of Lustig.

EXTRAS: A good widescreen presentation on the DVD along with trailers for "Trapped", "Panic Room", & "Secret Window".

Though not one of my favorites, Judd Nelson gives his best performance in Relentless,playing a serial killer. Director William Lustig has made several films about maniacs,but Relentless is one of his best. With a supporting cast including Leo Rossi and Robert Loggia, Relentless is superior to many of the mad slasher movies of its genre.

I've always liked Judd Nelson. Ever since THE BREAKFAST CLUB, I've looked for good Nelson movies. Alas, they seem to be few in number. RELENTLESS is one of his best. Buck Taylor (Nelson) is a sick and tormented soul. He's also a serial murderer w/ a desire to "help" his victims by brutally ending their lives. Taylor uses a unique method to carry out his vicious crimes, in that he allows his prey to join in on their own hideous deaths. Yep, Buck is dangerously deranged. He's motivated by his upbringing by his cold, unmerciful father. Leo Rossi (HALLOWEEN 2) and Robert Loggia (SCARFACE, INNOCENT BLOOD) play the cops who must catch Taylor and end his psychopathic spree. Meg Foster (and her dazzling blue eyes!) plays Rossi's wife. RELENTLESS is well worth owning...

"Relentless" (1989)- My favorite and the most solid of the series. Judd Nelson makes for a genuinley creepy and sadistic killer, and Leo Rossi as the lovably sarcastic Sam Dietz makes a fine team with the ever solid Robert Loggia. A bit predictable when events turn, but well worth viewing for Judd Nelson's performance, fans of cop thrillers and, to a lesser degree, slasher movie fans.

"Relentless 2: Dead On" (1992)- A weaker but still pretty decent sequel, this time starring the indomitable Miles "Ator the Invincible" O'Keefe as a hulking killer with a shady past, pursued by Leo Rossi returning as Sam Dietz, now in full comical sarcasm mode. Some aspects of the first movie are downgraded a bit from the first (ie the killer is less creepy, the death scenes are a bit tamer, Sam's family has less to do), but on the flip side we have a more interesting, complex plot, an interesting minor twist at the end, and Leo Rossi taking the reigns as lead character. Additionally, we get probably the best opening in the series when we are treated to a cool fight between O'Keefe and underrated actor/stuntman Sven-Ole Thorsen; good stuff! A good follow-up, but it didn't click with me as much as the first.

"Relentless 3" (1993)- If I had to choose one word to describe this movie, it would be "amatuerish". "Relentless 3" chugs along sluggishly with numerous scenes that just go on for far too long that, along with the film's near-lack of a musical score and its droning, uncreative dialogue, tends to just about eliminate any sort of true tension this may have had. Mix that up with Sam Dietz's newish personality (he's painfully serious this time around), along with even more sanitized violent content save for a suprisingly graphic death at the end, and this movie could have been dead in the water. I say could have been because this movie stays afloat due to two aspects: Willaim Forscythe, one of my favorite actors, plays arguably the nastiest killer in the series, and two, a loving aura of sleaziness is brought to the series, seen gloriously in scenes showing off dead bodies, as well as a rather intense and uncomfortable photo session. Regardless, this is easily the weakest in the series.

"Relentless 4: Ashes to Ashes" (1994)- This flick is a small but considerable step above the last entry. This time around Sam and a new partner head after a religious zealot bumping off people in seemingly random, odd ways. Not much to say about this one; it's the most unremarkable of the series, but at least this one has a more professional, well-made aura, as well as a more solid story, better characters (Rossi's character, though still a bit too serious, at least has more memorable people to bounce off), and a slightly bigger body count, though the deaths still remain a little too tame. Worth a watch or two, but it's not as entertaining as the first two, but at least it was less tedious and better made than the 3rd movie.

This crime story has some scary scenes, with an especially memorable one early on with a woman hiding in a clothes dryer. In fact, the first half of this is excellent but it peters out that point with two typical Hollywood clichés of crime movies of the period.

They are: 1 - the good cop (Leo Rossi as "Sam Dietz") going it alone despite the orders of his superior; 2 - the killer going to the good cop's house to kill his family. Without those standard scenes, I would have rated this four stars, instead of three.

By the way, what's with Meg Foster's eyes? It looks like they have no pupils. It's eerie to look at that woman's face.

This movie spawned several sequels and the sequels were better and better as they went along with the third, I believe, being the best.

Relentless was Judd Nelson's best film. Though it's not great at all, the kills are stupid, and so is the story. If you want a really good serial killer movie, buy The watcher with Keanu Reeves. This film was stupid and not at all frightening or grotesque like they said it would be. It could have been much better. But I give Judd Nelson 5 stars for doing his best in this film. Though the story and plot stunk.