TRESPASS (1992)

Two honky firemen (William Sadler and Bill Paxton) from Crackersville, Arkansas come across a treasure map showing the location of some stolen gold. Problem is the gold is hidden in a factory in East St. Louis which is long closed and now included in the stomping grounds of a violent gang led by King James (Ice-T). But, eh, they being normal peckerwoods and, eh, on a treasure hunt, well they were not going to let a gang of homicidal killers spoil the events of their afternoon. On a day out. It was a day out they were going to remember for a very long time.

TRESPASS is probably one of the most straight-forward 1990’s action movies of all time. There’s zero build-up, zero character introduction, zero flashbacks or side stories, zero sex, zero females, nothing. (Hell, goddamn DEADLY PREY had more story than this movie!) Not that I’m complaining. I actually found the entire wham, bam thank you ma’am (or mx or sir or sirma) approach to be amusing. The film kinda feels like reading a no frills, action-packed short story. I'm surprised there hasn't been a remake.

Solid acting, lots of dramatic pulling out of cell phone antennas (that actually might make a good drinking game), vintage slang, vintage cars and fashions, zero CGI, impressive lower budget stunts, zero nudity. TRESPASS isn’t the height of action cinema or anything, but the first two acts still hold up all these years later. The third act? Not so much. It falls off the rails pretty had during the last 30 minutes or so. Still, it’s always fun to watch Bill Paxton freaking out. That alone is worth watching the movie.

Recommended for all fans of older action movies. Double-feature with JUDGEMENT NIGHT.

Oh yeah, this has nothing to do with the review, but while looking for newspaper ads I noticed that this film was released on Christmas Day, 1992. Who the fuck thought that was a good idea? No wonder it didn't even make it's budget back at the box office.

Now this really, really has nothing to do with the movie, but I was curious about East St. Louis (yes, I know the movie was actually filmed in Atlanta and Memphis), so I started driving around East St. Louis on Google Maps and I found this legendary pothole. I just wanted to share. Imagine hitting that motherfucker late at night in a rain storm!

RED HEAT (1988)

Arnold Schwarzenegger is a Russian cop sent to America to accompany a wanted drug runner (Ed O'Ross), who was arrested in Chicago, back to Russia. Shit happens, the bad guy escapes and now it's up to Arnold and his wise-cracking American partner Jim Belushi to catch this asshole.

As far as buddy cop movies go, RED HEAT is disappointingly straightforward.  Arnold's character is too silent and Terminator-ish and Belushi's character, while he does get a few small laughs, is way too serious and jaded.  The whole thing would have been better if their partnership dynamic was more like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Tom Arnold in TRUE LIES.

Slow pace, needlessly complicated story, lackluster action scenes, boring ending, unfunny jokes about human rights violations, very little onscreen chemistry between Belushi and Arnold, limp topless scenes.

I wanted to like this film but it just wasn't my cup of vodka. Still, it's worth watching, just nothing to get overly excited about.

In the picture above (and below) the glass breaks before being touched.