True Blood

This is an amazing movie. Albeit a little "warriors" for a random made for TV movie it is worth checking out! A hidden gem, and an accurate portrayal of gang life in NYC at the time.

Predictably, the good guys are spunky and the bad guys are ugly. Ray looks tasty in tight denim, but is so one-dimensionally good that you lose interest. Donny is rougher and therefore more exciting. Guess what happens in the end.

I only watched this because I have my DVR set to record any Sherilyn Fenn movie (I met her at a TWIN PEAKS Comicon thing once), but it wasn't as bad of a movie as I was expecting. I remember this movie from my video store days, but I never bothered watching it. I've always had a soft spot for Jeff Fahey (BODY PARTS, SILVERADO), and here he plays a street gang member who's framed by rival gang leader Spider, Billy Drago (THE UNTOUCHABLES, THE HILLS HAVE EYES). Time jump many years later with Fahey released from prison and discovers his little brother, Chad Lowe, is now working for Spider! Some cops still remember Fahey from his gang days and have it out for him and he also befriends artist Fenn. It's a completely stupid melodrama, but the cast gives it their all, though I have to admit my favorite part was dirty cop James Tolkan (the bald-headed principal from the BACK TO THE FUTURE movies) wears a wig in the opening scenes before Fahey goes to jail, and that was just about the most hilarious thing I've seen in a long long time.

I can watch anything that features Billy Drago as an over the top psycho who barely lives in the real world. His performance and vocal delivery is truly creepy. I like Jeff Fahey and he did a creditable job in the lead roll. Chad Lowe was plain irritating as Ray Trueblood's younger brother. Sherilynn Fenn and James Tolkan's roles was ok but unrealistic. The supporting cast was acceptable for this type of low budget,gritty" action film. I was kind of put off when a boom mike showed up in one scene but that's part of what makes low budget film making so great! 5 stars because of Billy Drago's lunatic performance.

This movie is like the material S.E. Hinton was writing in the 1970s and Copola was adapting to the screen in the early 80s, and, had Trueblood actually been a product of either, the results might've been much better (especially in the acting department). Instead, we get a rather so-bad-its-funny piece of mediocrity.

Jeff Fahey plays Ray Trueblood, a former street rumbler, I suppose is the accurate description. This was in the days of action movies that used guys in their 40s and mid30s and dressed them up in greaser threads or some kind of more effeminate selection of gang garb and they fought to lousy 80s music. Nonetheless, Ray is the lone caretaker of his younger brother, Donny (Chad Lowe in a part where he screams a lot), who he is forced to leave behind inexplicably in a train station when, on the run from the cops, he is nabbed and forced to serve time in the Marines. Flash forward to present day and Ray is back in town and looking for his brother who has also become part of the street gangs, although in a gang that was Ray's adversary and now old scores must be violently settled (and again, cops must be dodged and this time, a lady's honor defended in the action film sense) before Ray can carry on life at normal pace with his brother, Donny.

For the most part, the film is quite ridiculous. For me, most of this has to do with far too much overacting, although not by Fahey or Sherlyn Fenn who plays the waitress he befriends. The guys in the gang and Lowe himself seem to do quite a bit of needless exaggerated as New York street toughs. Although, the bigger hang up is recycled plot lines and perhaps a kind of movie that was well past its prime as a product of 1989.