2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Always Enjoyable, Rowdy Roddy Piper, April 11, 1999
By A Customer
What is this movie about? Here's a quick synopsis. Billy Blanks plays an undercover CIA agent, who after being badly beaten, is left unconscious. When he awakens, he finds that he is suffering from amnesia. Being hunted by hitmen who wish to finish the job, he seeks refuge with a good samaritan private investigator who likes to hit people, played by Rowdy Roddy Piper. The movie itself is very enjoyable. Piper's charisma really saves the picture which in itself is really just a rehash of recycled plot points from other action movies. He goes through the movie with a tounge-in-cheek attitude that keeps the movie fun. I also find it funny that somehow the creators of this film managed to turn every single scene into a fight scene. Even when Piper and Blanks are just sitting around the office, they find a reason to argue and then attack each other. The first ten minutes of the movie are horrible, so watch out. But after that you'll have a lot of fun with this movie. Check it out.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not Smart nor Dramatic, but certainly "Tough and Deadly", June 4, 2009
This review is from: Tough and Deadly (DVD)
As far as B-movie martial arts/buddy flicks go, the second team-up between ex-pro wrestling star Roddy Piper and seven-time world karate champion Billy Blanks ranks high as a thoroughly enjoyable time-killer. Swift-paced, ripe with hand-to-hand fights, and never taking itself too seriously, the film is a great example of how to achieve a fun time with only minimal resources and two talented, underrated stars. Fans of
The Perfect Weapon,
Showdown in Little Tokyo and the like will certainly find some level of enjoyment in this oft-forgotten little gem.
The story: John Portland (Blanks,
The King of the Kickboxers) is a CIA agent whose last mission ends in catastrophe due to internal corruption. Wounded and stricken with amnesia, he enlists the help of private investigator Elmo Freech (Piper,
They Live) in order to reclaim his past and eventually expose a case of drug-trafficking involving officials deep within the nation's security organizations.
Yes, the story is one for the dogs, but it generally plays in the background while Blanks and Piper bounce off of eachother in front of the camera. While I wouldn't list them among the great acting duos of cinema, the unlikely pair has definite chemistry that was evident in their previous venture (
Back in Action) and even more so here. Their charisma doesn't depend on situation and seems more sincere than any of the acting; I'd be very surprised if they weren't friends behind the scenes. Beyond this, however, there is not an abundance of great acting to be seen: the two stars carry most of the scenes on their own and their charm carries them, but seeing Charles Kahlenberg and James Karen (
The Return of the Living Dead) as good/bad FBI agents, Lisa Stahl as Piper's quasi-girlfriend, and Phil Morris (
Mission: Impossible) as an all-around bad guy isn't always very pleasant. Passable, perhaps, but not pleasant.
Luckily, we have a boatload of good action scenes to fall back on: there's only one short gunfight, but about ten assorted brawls split between the martial artist and the pro wrestler. Piper manages to keep his fisticuffs entertaining, but as expected, Blanks' encounters are the more impressive ones: he doesn't have any particularly outstanding opponents, so as with Piper, most of his fights are beat-'em-up affairs but nevertheless spiced up with some very impressive jump-kicking and nifty leg takedowns. There's a cool instance wherein he springs up from a crouched position to deliver a one-two kick to a fellow in a chair, before which he kicks a man out the windshield of a moving car. Two lackluster fights with the usually-awesome Richard Norton (
City Hunter) disappoint but don't ruin the film. The choreography is generally fine, providing good ebb and flow to the fights, and most of the encounters are shot without visual compromises or extensive post-production editing: it's all about what was gotten on the set and this is pretty good.
The limitations imposed by a DTV budget are covered up pretty well by director Steve Cohen (
Martial Law), so aside from some of the questionable dramatic performances, the only thing that works against the movie is its own god-given stupidity, but since you already knew you already knew weren't going in for anything intellectual when you bought this film, this oughtn't bother action fans. I can't speak for Roddy Piper's film career, but "Tough and Deadly" is among Billy Blanks' best movie outings. Fans of his definitely ought to own it, while action devotees in general shouldn't be disappointed in buying it blind.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
