Lethal
Force (2001)
Purposefully hilarious, "Lethal Force" is a creative,
well-executed spoof of cult action films. It's obvious
here that we aren't supposed to really follow the plot.
It's pretty simple. Hero Jack has had his wife and young
son kidnapped by some evil-doer criminals. All they
want is that he bring his partner Savitch to them. That,
of course, is easier said than done.
Director Alvin Ecarma has an arsenal of creative and
talented people to help with his film. Everything from
cinematography to sound design is done quite well here,
with much of this engineered to heighten the spoof.
But the real important members of the team, perhaps
even more important than the actors, are the special
effects crew and action choreographers. Sure, sometimes
their work leads to hilarious jokes, but more often
than that, they are perfectly executed and make the
film a real treat.
This film has more kick per frame than the most recent
Hong Kong offering and more blood than Hollywood has
been ghoulish enough to use since Schwarzenegger had
a hit. There is decapitation, knives in hands, trepanning
(drilling a hole in the skull for those of you who are
unenlightened), knives in the chest, drills in the eyes,
and blood blood blood. Through it all, the special effects
are phenomenal. There is a drill bit going in a skull
effect that I watched 3 times here and still I could
not figure out how they did it!
Even better than all the goofy gore, are the quirky
characters and costumes. Ecarma wisely dresses Savitch
in a bright yellow shirt so that the more bloody things
get, the more hideous his shirt looks. There is an African-American
chick in the coolest green jumpsuit that surely came
from the Pam Grier K-Mart collection. There's a wheelchair-bound
villain. And then there are the minions. In a hilarious
and cult quirk twist, there are seemingly hundreds of
evil minions dressed in black body stockings wearing
white masks. Now, any first year filmmaker can see the
beauty in this. Using the same 4 or 5 stuntmen over
and over in the same generic costume, Ecarma was able
to make it seem like an extras cast of hundreds and
hundreds. It's awesome, cool and funny as hell.
I only had one problem with the film and it was a
minor one. For one reason or another, there's a pedophilia
joke designed to delight every dumb fuck who has suggested
we just castrate child molesters. I bet the audience
will really whoop it up at that scene. "Lethal Force"
satisfies that equally perverted bloodlust. The film
features a plot that includes a child in danger which,
of course, normally pisses me off, but here is done
for laughs. I think it's wrong, but at least it's not
a simplistic plot device designed to make you care for
the character. The characters here are so purposefully
one-dimensional that you could care less about any of
them, child included.
Finally, something must be said of the actor playing
Savitch. The actor is credited as Cash Flagg Jr. He
also is a producer here. B-Movie aficionados will recognize
that name (minus the Jr.) as the cinematic nom-de-film
of Ray Dennis Steckler, a 50's and 60's schlockmeister
who polluted drive-in screens with films like "The Incredibly
Strange Creatures who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up
Zombies." Whether his namesake here is truly related,
or simply an homage to a master of the genre, it adds
a delightful kick to the film.
"Lethal Force" is a particularly clever film; not
because it spoofs cult action films (that has been done
before), but because it does it so skillfully. And it
will make you laugh out loud with it's hilarious special
effects and visual jokes. "Lethal Force" is just well-made
fun. I don't like bloody gory stuff usually, but I really
dug this film. Surprisingly, its's no proverbial drill
to the forehead, unlike many films you'll see at a film
festival.
This Film Reviewed
from the 2001 Austin Film festival!
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Report
Card
Script:
A
Acting: B
Cinematography\Lighting: B+
Special Effects\Make Up: A+
Music: A-
Final
Grade: A
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