Customer Reviews

Slayground

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

 

 

Stone, a professional criminal(Coyote) with a high standard of ethics, recruits a young getaway driver to drive for him after his own driver gets killed. But the kids inexperienced, and during the daring getaway, kills the daughter of a wealthy businessman. The businessman, in a fit of revenge, hires a sadistic hitman to track down those he believes responsible for the girl's death. And so begins a nightmare ride that Stone will never ever forget. A tale of relentless pursuit and savage revenge. END

What an outstanding film this is. I saw it in 1984 when it released on VHS. Glad it's out on DVD after 20 years. Peter Coyote is excellent as STONE an armed robber with his own style of non-violence shall we say ? Unfortunately when a routine robbery goes out of hand and an innocent young nine year old girl is killed by accident, the father of the young girl seeks out his own brand of revenge to bring down STONE and his members. Brilliantly filmed director Terry Bedford shows a fine flair for directing films of this genre. Watch out for the spectacular suspense filled climax. Wow ! Watch this one immediately.

The SLAYGROUND of this picture is a not-so-amusing Blackpool, England funhouse.

This mediocrity stars Peter Coyote, which kinda nutshells the whole story.


SYNOPSIS--
A wealthy vengeance-seeking man sets a behatted assassin upon Coyote after the getaway car he was a passenger in collides with another vehicle and the man's daughter is killed.

Peter (as the rather vague 'Stone'), who has shrapnel in his spine from a previous injury that may soon leave him a paraplegic, goes to England in search of old friend Terry Abbatt (Smith). He and Abbatt's girlfriend visit his buddy's grave, yet Stone refuses to believe the man is dead. Turns out he's right-- Terry shows himself but is soon croaked for real by the hitman, who's followed Stone from America.

A a noise-filled but tedious climax in the shadowy fun house follows. The killer maniacally cackles in a "you can't hit me" way as Stone takes wild shots aimed at his voice. The screen blurs briefly in an attempt at psychotic nightmareism, but all this filmic falderol falls flat. Two guesses who kills who. Roll credits, drop the popcorn box, hit the exits.


The only surprise here for this viewer was seeing Mel Smith, who is so amusing as cabbie Rocco Melonchek in the Zucker Bros. 1992 tribute to the Marxes, BRAIN DONORS. The surprise is that Smith decided to get involved in this turkey.


Parenthetical number preceding title is a 1 to 10 imdb user poll rating.

(4.1) Slayground (UK-1983) - Peter Coyote/Mel Smith/Billie Whitelaw/Philip Sayer/Bill Luhrs/Marie Masters/Clarence Felder/Ned Eisenberg