Der City Hai

Don't be angry with me for only awarding "Raw Deal" 5 stars out of 10. It's a 'strong, almost a 6' 5, not a 'weak, barely above a 4' 5. If that makes any sense.

I think that part of the problem is that I saw this after I saw "Terminator" and "Commando", and it was a bit of a let-down. (And I might have been suffering from a bit of "Schwarzenegger-overexposure".) Arnold is a bit wasted here. It's as if someone mistakenly cast him in a role meant for someone like Chuck Norris. Let's face it, this is a smaller scale movie with a seemingly smaller budget; Dolph Lundgren or Rutger Hauer or Micheal Biehn or even that guy from "Eddie And The Cruisers" could have filled in for the S-man in this movie and you would hardly have noticed the difference, except for a few one-liners. Not to mention the director for "Raw Deal" seemed to be nowhere near Cameron's or Lester's class. Same thing goes for the cast (with all respect to Darren McGavin and Robert Davi). Kathryn Harrold is not a substitute for Linda Hamilton. She's OK, but she's a Ford Taurus to Hamilton's Corvette Stingray.

There are pacing problems, too. The screenwriter felt the need to include several filler sequences that are meant to advance the plot and fill in back story and give the other cast members something to do. But most of these sequences are pretty lackluster: a fistfight in a women's clothing store goes nowhere; a romantic confrontation between Davi and Harrold leaves no lasting impact (though it does let Harrold get off a good put-down line); and the 10 minute car chase scene where a crime boss winds up hamburger is an exercise in by-the-numbers padding if there ever was one (good sound design, though).

But the last 20 minutes serves as a payoff to the first part of the film, and it is basically one long bullet-fest. Arnold basically shoots everything short of LAWs and RPGs at the bad guys, and they obligingly miss with all their shots and fall over and die. None of this is staged with anything like the panache of the firefights in "Commando" or the desperate high speed run-and-gun highway fights in "Terminator". It's all very meat-and-potatoes stuff that wouldn't have be out of place in a typical Cannon/Golan-Globus production. But there's plenty of it, and the S-man is appropriately grim and indestructible, and any fan will be satisfied once the final bad guy goes down in the final hail of bullets.

After 3 viewings, I still don't understand why no one can hit the huge, slow-moving white guy when they shoot at him, but it's his movie, so I'll just attribute it to Arnold's penchant for bringing a Browning Automatic Rifle to a revolver fight, and let it pass.

And I don't discount this movie just because it was an Arnold vehicle - I felt that his follow-up "The Running Man" was a return to form (although still not as good as "Terminator" and "Commando").

Anyway, "Raw Deal" doesn't place in the top 5 (or even 10) Arnold films, but any Schwarzenegger completist will want to have it, and will probably find much to enjoy. And fans of "Crime Story" and gangster films in general will also find this to their liking.

Arnold takes on the entire Chicago syndicate run by mob chief Luigi Petrovita, Sam Wanamaker, with predictable results.

Arnold, Mark Kaminski, is canned from the FBI because he was too rough with the bad guys and told by his boss Baxter, Joe Regalbuto, to "resign or be prosecuted". Now working in a dead end job as a lawman in some hick town in North Carolina a friend of his from the FBI Harry Shannon, Darren McGavin, gets in touch with Arnold for help in the death of his son who was killed in a mob attack on a FBI safe house.

Harry tells Anold that there's a mole in the FBI's higher ups that's tipping off the mob on what the FBI has as informers and witnesses and where there being kept from the mob to live long enough to testify against it and is responsible for his son's death. Arnold goes undercover as a hood and joins the mob to find out who's working with them from the FBI and bring him to justice in this action-packed Arnold Schwarznegger vehicle; and just guess who the FBI mole is?

A must for Schwarznegger fans with Arnold, for the first time in his movie career, speaking whole sentences and showing some sensitivity in scenes with his love interests in the movie his wife Amy, Balnche Baker, to whom Arnold utters the movie best line " You shouldn't drink and bake at the same time". There's also Arnolds sexy mob girlfriend Monique, Kathryn Harrold, whom he avoids having any action with and has no idea that Arnold is an undercover lawman as well as a loyal and happily married man.

Great action sequences sprinkled all throughout the film with a tremendous and unbelievable shoot-out at the end of the movie to the explosive and thumping music score of "The Kaminski Stomp" which raises the adrenaline level of the theater audience to it's limits.

In Arnold's best period of his film career, it is unquestionable that Raw Deal is his worst film from that era. Sandwiched between two of his best action movies, Commando and Predator. Raw Deal is real weak by comparison. The film is a mess and it seemed that those involved with the production could not agree on what they were making. Also, it would appear that funds were too low for anyone's vision to get on screen. The editing and music for this movie is really poorly done. This film is definitely lacking in a consistent tone or focus. The action scenes seem out of place as well. Raw Deal was probably meant to be a low budget police thriller. Any way you slice it, this film is not a cohesive piece of work and is filled with plot holes. Arnold, at this point in his career had massive physicality and charisma. However, he was lacking in acting skills and was horrendous in the more dramatic scenes here. The supporting cast was pretty good for the most part. Even though this is not Arnie's highest quality production, it still remains fairly entertaining. There is quite a bit of funny stuff here(some intentional and some not). Also, there is plenty of Arnold one liners with one of my favorites, "You should not drink and bake". While Raw Deal is not a well made movie, it is not totally unwatchable and is still quite amusing and outrageous.

Raw Deal is saved from being barely a five out of ten, to a solid six literally by the last half of this film which turns in a typical, rather campy action, vengeance follow up that redeems the rather drab slow moving plot of the rest of the film. Say what you will about Arnold Schwarzenegger, the man's films have grossed well over two and a half BILLION dollars in an almost four decade career. Now I will grant that some bad actors pull off some lucky films but practically every film this man stars in rakes in the cash from the infamous and classic Terminator films to Jingle All The Way (which by the way grossed over 100 million dollars.) It's true that his acting range is limited but Arnold has two incredible things going for him...his personality both on screen and off and he is a bad ass. He's the perfect action hero, when someone says action hero, you think Schwarzenegger!! He's built like a brick wall, has the face of an angry man and that trademark voice. If he can't blow it up put him in an unusual situation so that it's funny (ie: Pregnant, Kingergarten Teacher, twin to a 4 foot high fat man) and you've got gold. Raw Deal isn't quite that gold but it still is during his high time as the action King.

Raw Deal is a stereotypical story of a former FBI man who goes undercover for a personal vendetta on behalf of his mentor and best friend. The story is a little slow and spends far too much time establishing all these supposed drama between the two warring mob factions, the Patrovita crime family, and the Lamanski crime family. This film isn't a drama and should have just been about the action but instead director John Irvin tries to make it more of a tale than it needs to be. Schwarzenegger's cover is ridiculous and they barely spend any time setting it up which is only noticeable because of the slow break in him KILLING THINGS!!! Plot holes are not noticeable if there lots of gory action especially in an eighties flick!! But finally Schwarzenegger has had his fill and goes on a rampage wiping out both families and getting his revenge. The acting from everyone involved in the film is sub standard and extremely campy. The film will always be a classic likely for it's campy special effects and downright absurd action scenes. Schwarzenegger sprays a machine gun like a bottle of windex. The explosions and gunfire is also done with campy goodness so fans of that type of film will love this. You can't help but watch Schwarzenegger, he's just fun...he always looks like he's having a great time. Raw Deal is not one of his best by any means but it's not bad and if you're a fan of the eighties action genre like I am or even just Schwarzenegger himself than you need to see this one. But if you're not a fan and you're just looking for an action film, steer clear of this one because there is far better out there. This one falls face first for most of it and only recovers in the later half of the film. 6/10

I have been soaking up a lot of vicarious aggression lately with Van Damme, Stallone, and Ahnuld. I bet a lot of Arnie's fans have missed this little gem. No, we don't look for quality here, but Schwarzenegger does a credible job of acting and he keeps throwing out these funny lines that keep you in stitches.

Nothing original here - failed FBI agent, now small town Sheriff (think Bruce Willis in Hostage or Striking Distance, Tom Selleck as Jesse Stone, or many others who are out in the cold because of their screw-ups or someone's evil deed - called to infiltrate the mob and bring them down.

You know Arnie's going to get the job done with muscle and firepower. He even manages a little romance - damn little - with Kathryn Harrold.

Paybacks are hell!