Sudden Death

-Reviewed by Skunkape-

Directed by Sig Shore (1985)

Sudden Death is one of those rape/revenge flicks, it doesn't really stand out among some of the greats that we know and love here at TOG, like Lipstick, Rape Squad, Naked Vengeance, and certainly not I Spit on Your Grave, but it does have a few worthy moments of greatness. By "worth moments of greatness", I mean scenes of filth and carnage.

"Let's just have a romantic evening at home with a Deathwish marathon."

So how did Sudden Death show up on my radar? Glad you asked! I was watching the film Galaxy aka Battle for the Lost Planet. Galaxy's a super low budget sci-fi post apocalyptic space oddity directed by Brett Piper. Piper's an effects guy and you may know his work from Troma's Nymphoid Barbarian in Dinosaur Hell, he designed the Tromasaurous! So Anyway, throughout the feature I couldn't take my eyes of the female costar, Australian beauty Denise Coward. I had to see if she was in anything else worth watching and here we are, Sudden Death.

"Is that the Cash Cab over there?"

The movie opens with it's own cheesy title song Sudden Death, I love it when the song and movie title match!  Really pulls me into the film. Once the theme song fades out, Sudden Death wastes no time getting into the rape. While Valerie Wells (Coward) is at a travel agency planning her honeymoon with her future fiance, two criminals hijack a cab. When the couple parts and kisses each other goodbye for the evening, you'll never guess what taxi Valerie flags down. She hails the stolen cab, the two crooks pull her in to brutally rape and beat her, then she's left for dead on the sidewalk. This all in the first 10 minutes of the film and we now have a new Valerie taking shape as her rage builds inside. Her fiance tells her to try to forget about it, while still hospitalized and incentive cops ask her to answer embarrassing questions. Such as "Did they penetrate you? In the Vagina, rectum, or orally?" It's enough in my book for her to purchase a fire arm and start gunning down any sleaze ball that puts their grubby paws on her. And that's exactly what she does!

"I bet you'll start using Uber now!"

"Can I get more Jell-O please?"

"I''ll catch the bad guys and get some brownie points."

There is one cop, Detective Marty Lowery (Frank Runyeon) that feels for her and is on the case. He's tracking down these scum bags and won't rest until he catches them. It's quite obvious this policeman has the hots for this honey and wants to stay close to her. Valerie is also hunting for these creeps but who will find them first?

"You buy the General Lee replica horn and I'll get some of those rockets."

"Get this cause,
There Is No Place - No Time, When A Woman Alone Can Be Safe!"

Valerie hits one sleazy hot spot after another. One leather clad guy picks her up and instantly tries to force himself on her while back at his run down apartment, this results in multiple bullets right in his torso.

"This is my kind of safe sex!"

Her most dangerous encounter occurs when she's mistaken for a prostitute. A pimp and a really kinky john decide that they want to double team her in the back of a van. She barely gets to her gun in time, luckily shooting the two heathens.

"Aren't you going to buy me dinner first?"

The most surprising situation is when a legit cab driver takes her to a bad part of town and tries to inject her with heroin so he can give her his tip, and perhaps more! All these killings start making the local paper as well as the news. The bullets she uses for the gun are expanding bullets known as dum-dum bullets so she is known throughout the city as the "Dum-Dum" killer. She can't even catch a break and get a cool vigilante name from the press!

"You're no Judd Hirsh!"

Dum Dum the bullets, not the lollipops.

Even though Detective Marty discovers Valerie's the "Dum-Dum" killer, he keeps her secret safe and when he does figure out who the two rapists are, he sets up an operation to put them away, or is it "blow them away?", for good.
Sudden Death has the tagline "The First Woman Vigilante", and "ACTION GOES INTO OVERTIME", oh wait sorry, that's the Van Dam Movie with the same title. This also has another tagline, "Don't Mess With This Dirty Harriet", which is pretty good even though Valerie is clearly channeling about 80% Charles Bronson and only 20% Clint Eastwood. The Soundtrack is nothing short of pure 80's break dancing style segue way music. I haven't been able to track down the Sudden Death theme song by Bloodlines but there are some other decent tracks to be heard in this movie like New Order's Confusion.

"I didn't expect you to look that good nekid!"

What started out as a run of the mill rape revenge film, having a dopey made for television feel to it manages to sleaze it's way into my heart, with more than enough F'd up moments to make this a worth while watch.
Denise Coward gives a strong performance transforming from successful career woman to ass kicking scum bag exterminator. We don't ever really get to know her assault-ants to well but enough to know that they deserve what they get.
6/10 ON THE CULT-O-METER
SEE IT, if a fan of the genre.

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Skunkape@TrailersPU

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Fighting Back

Fighting Back (Death Vengeance, Street Wars, Philadelphia Security) Directed By Lewis Teague, Starring Tom Skerritt (1982).

It's been forever since we've reviewed a non-horror film, with lots of action and "horrific" elements. The last one I can think of was The Evil That Men Do. Tonight's film is underrated and I never would've discovered had it been for a random late night search on Netflix. Before it was available everywhere to stream, it was scarce even on VHS. It was also known as Death Vengeance, I mean there's a Bronson-esque dude as the enforcer and you've got a Chuck Norris vehicle called Forced Vengeance (the only Norris flick to include a rape scene). Needless to say this impressive knock off, was soon forgotten, but thankfully now people can check it out away from the stigma of just being another DW copy.
   Loud mouth wanna-be politician John D'Angello (Tom Skeritt) loses his mind after some street jerks snip off his mothers ring finger with garden shears in a robbery at his Italian deli in Philly.

I could've used a snub nose in that tunnel with a certain H.R. Giger beast

   This is a good ripoff of Death Wish and Skeritt is more jovial in his psychotic ness than Charles Bronson (who doesn't really act, so much as show up and do the job he was meant to do). I like Teague's directing style and Alligator, is one of my all time favorites, which really convinced me to see this. He also made Cat's Eye, Cujo and The Jewel of the Nyle which are all fun in their own right.

I'll just take that delicious grandma finger bone for my soup

   D'Angelo and his wife are pretty stupid--how stupid are they-- how about yelling at a pimp while he's slapping his bitch; the "bitch" tells them to fuck off and then they all get in a car chase! Now some people would say, that's not cool, a dude slapping around his lady product (or commodity), but sometimes you just don't get involved, even Frankie Dunlan from Combat Shock knew better not to chase the pimp. This car chase ends up causing Mrs. D'Angelo played by Patti Lupone (Corky's mom from Life Goes On) to have a miscarriage. It's all handled in a completely ridiculous way as they collide into each other on the front lawn and hop out, guns drawn at each other's noses.

Just kill me instead, I don't want to face the humiliation of buying my mom maxi pads

   The helplessness of crime and the corruption of the justice system is the same narrative used in Vigilante (which came out a year later). Fighting Back takes the JFK assassination and other shocking Mondo footage as an example of the disillusion of society against this new breed of ruthless criminal. The media, led by the guy who played Sledgehammer (David Rasche) is out searching for someone to make an example out of and John becomes the perfect fall guy. So you can't really say that the Bill Lustig film took any plot points, because it was a reflection of a fed up victimized society and both films were sending out the same message. Vigilante in my mind is an untouchable perfect film.

Holy Shit! Philly's own Noam Chomsky just breezed on in for a lecture!

This film is not as well known as others in the genre, it was written by David Zelag Goodman who also penned Straw Dogs and Logan's Run.   

   There's an abnormal amount of famous people for this vigilante flick. And unlike the Death Wish series, females aren't rape targets or stupid idiots like they are in all the Cannon produced classics. They really amp up the revenge fuel during a scene where the family dog is strung up and covered in blood! John's chicken shit cop brother is played by Michael Sarrazin (They Shoot Horses Don't They)?

Man, that dog in Gremlins got off easy!

   The always riveting Yaphet Kotto shows up to tell Skeritt (who abruptly interrupts his dance class) that he's a racist. He gets into another scrape with the same black pimp who insults him by saying he can't control his woman or his bowels! He's not actually racist and never chokes back any prejudice expletives like Bronson in Kinjite yelling at Chinese people to go back to their own country! He has one black friend played by standout actor Jim Moody from Bad Boys (1983). 

Ted Ross who played the lion from The Wiz, has one of those strange long mustaches that looks like a bristly caterpillar, accuses him of racial profiling but he has no evidence. It's almost as if they'd taken out all the rape scenes in most other vigilante films and replaced it with this bit of social commentary on racism.

We only wanted you to teach us how to Jazzercise!

   Things get bizarre for the D'Angelo family as one of his middle school age kids shoots up heroin and is caught nodding out at the dinner table, he bought it from a guy that runs a fast food joint called Capt. Chicken!!

I hope they never figure out our 11th secret herb and spice which is meth

   There are many explosive scenes with D'Angelo snapping and quickly getting enraged. He's a complete idiot and with his street team of brainless thugs do more harm then good, kind of like a more inept Guardian Angels. They basically start a minor race war between Italians and the African American Pimps. During one jaw dropping moment he has a vicious brawl with the chicken franchise manager who peddles heroin. A fight ensues and the boss defends himself with a small medieval axe!

I like some Jazz and a cheap basketwine while I'm chasing the dragon

There's a very special brief cameo by the mayor of Tromaville and the heavyset no guff takin' necrophile from Street Trash; the always like able Pat Ryan. The community activism starts to get out of control, on the danger level of Death Wish territory (we don't get a neighborhood armed with bazookas, yet but it's on the way)! Actually the clownish patrol car full of idiots in hats and sunglasses reminds me of the one in Repo Man. 

Oh no, someone snuck in Tenafly Viper, stupid poetic justice.

   This pimp from the beginning played by Pete Richardson (who has hardly any resume on IMDB for some reason) just won't let John D'Angelo skid by without him causing animosity. He gets burnt alive in a Cadillac fire set by John. The news media finally rewards D'Angelo for all this senseless violence and during his inauguration as councilman, they play the most overtly offensive "Goomba tunes", like the pizza pie song. It all abruptly ends as if they ran out of script or wanted to save some for the sequel that never came along. I think this film demands to be seen more than once, at first it registers as a weird TV movie drama, but then later the social commentary seeps into your subconscious, see it more then once to get the full effect.

Don't you hate those Right wing gypsy cabs?

I'm the cowardly lion with more razzamatazz

I hate drumming for the Tangerine Puppets 

The Evil That Men Do

The Evil That Men Do Directed By J. Lee Thompson  Starring Joseph Maher (1984)
   This is one of my all time favorite Charles Bronson flicks! It's got everything, terrorism, genital torture, swingers, Miguel "Puma Man"Angel Fuentes and a talking fish! Bronson and J. Lee Thompson (10 to Midnight, Happy Birthday To Me) have worked together on so many great projects that only this man could convince Chuck to push the envelope in the manner that he does in this juicy role!
   Bronson sleepwalks through all of his roles and this film is no different but I'd expect nothing less than prime Chuck dishing out punishment and brutality, he's an expert craftsman in this forum! So leave the acting range to Deniro and let's get moving! 
   Bronson is Holland, a retired CIA assassin lounging out on the tropical beaches of the West Indies and chatting about his worries and fears with his fish pal, Quasimodo (I swear this really happens in the flick, go watch it now)!

I dropped a little acid in the ocean for my fish pal

   Dr. Molloch, a maniacal surgeon is torturing captives and making people eat their own intestines and broken glass! He's played deliciously by Joseph Maher, who I know as the drunk guy who rudely leaves his dog Farfel with Jerry Seinfeld. The contrast of unassuming vicious terrorist portrayed by mild mannered type of guy is some inspired casting! He's a vicious criminal and along with his sister they are butchering people and generally committing indecent acts of sex and violence. So Holland comes out of retirement and goes back to dealing with this type of worm-ridden filth the best way he knows how. Rhiana Hidalgo (Theresa Saldana) and her kid tag along on this mission, posing as a makeshift family and are later used as bait. 

Talk or I'll tell more stories about my dog Farfel

   One of the best moments in the film happens during a bar fight as Miguel Fuentes, the Puma Man star with gigantic features goes to manhandle Rhiana and is met with the clutches of Chuck Bronson's leathery hands squeezing the life out of his dick!!! This painful display drops him to the floor like a sack of potatoes, it's one of the funniest and most alarming scenes in film history.
  Molloch's black henchmen Randolph meets Holland in a bar and they both talk about setting up a sleazy hotel party  with an interracial threesome between them and his fake wife. Holland's CIA use of training seems to always involve dirty tricks and as soon as Randolph arrives at the room, all keyed up for some debauchery, he is met with a blade hurled directly into his neck and is dragged into the bathroom and cut-up like a pig carcass. This is the last straw for his fake wife Rhiana and she leaves. 

Does this mean no threesome?

   Later on a crucial tape recording of Molloch's sister's voice is made and used against him during a cave scene. Molloch and his sister are dealing in human slavery and cocaine trafficking, they deserve what they get. The sister character seems to be the only human Dr. Molloch has any compassion for. One random coke dealer is strung up by a fire hose and tossed out a high rise building by Holland. Also watch out for an inspired cameo by John Glover (52 Pick-Up, Gremlins 2).
  Migrant workers that were exploited and tortured by the evil surgeon show up to enact revenge and chisel their way through his limo with their tiny hammers! Don't let them fool you, these weapons wreak a serious amount of damage! See the uncut version only though, but now-a-days this isn't really a problem and censorship is incredibly laxed. Gun nuts looking for constant firepower might be disappointed, but to quote Happy Goldsplat "Fuck Em!" Holland uses his Macgyver style skills of ordinary household items to bring down this terrorist surgeon bastard!

Small hammers do alot of damage

  This is a non Cannon release and comes off like a more sadistic Death Wish sequel with some political intrigue thrown into the mix.Highly Recommended!
 
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