Der eisige Atem des Todes

THIS IS A SEXY FILM WITH A CAST OF UNSCRUPULOUS CHARACTERS. IT DEPICTS CORRUPTION, DECEIT, AND REMORSE. YOU KNOW THE CHARACTERS ARE CRUEL WHEN THE ONE WITH THE MOST SINCERITY IS THE "HITMAN". BEN CROSS NAILS HIS ROLE AS A HITMAN, LADEN WITH GUILT OVER A HIT GONE WRONG, THROWN INTO ANOTHER HIT INVOLVING A CORRUPT BUSINESSMAN, HIS EQUALLY NASTY PARTNER AND THE WIFE WHO IS INVOLVED WITH BOTH MEN. CROSS'S PERFORMANCE SHOWS RANGE AS THE COOL CALM OF A HIRED, PROFESSIONAL KILLER, THE ORDINARY FAMILY MAN WITH ORDINARY MARITAL PROBLEMS, AND GUILT RIDDEN MURDERER AS HE DEALS WITH THE REALIZATION THAT PEOPLE ARE NASTY, AND SOMETIMES THE INNOCENT GET HURT.

Though she gets third billing, "Cold Sweat" is unmistakably a Shannon Tweed movie—so much so that the generic title could just as well be changed to "Yet Another Shannon Tweed Erotic Thriller." At first, though, it appears to be the story of a hit man (Ben Cross) wrestling with his career choice. Sure, killing people for cash enables him to provide all the comforts of suburbia his family enjoys, but he's lately become haunted by one of his victims (spunky Lenore Zann), who seems to appear whenever he wants to put some lovin' on his wife. Though he wants to take a break, he agrees to one last hit, arranged by a rollerblading drug dealer (Adam Baldwin) for one of his clients, a floundering businessman (Dave Thomas). Tweed is the businessman's wife, and she's not only banging Baldwin, but also Thomas's business partner (Henry Czerny). It should be noted that in this movie, the impotent hit man is the good guy.

"Cold Sweat"'s story offers enough potential that in more ambitious hands it could be a pretty effective thriller—possibly even a good one—but since it's a Shannon Tweed movie screenwriter Richard Beattie and director Gail Harvey are only interested in fulfilling the bare requirements of such an endeavor. Viewers get an appetizer of those bare requirements in the form of Zann as Cross watches her and her boss go at it, the amorous couple seemingly oblivious to the fact that the office in which they're rutting is essentially a big glass cube. But it's Tweed's body that's "Cold Sweat"'s raison d'être, and the movie soon gets down to the business of displaying it when Tweed takes on Czerny (who's got a better body than one might expect) and then Baldwin within the same day--though not at the same time--in some lively, hard-R sex scenes. While these scenes are titillating, they're probably only going to get people in the mood to surf the Web for some of the hardcore stuff. In short, the sex scenes aren't hot enough to make viewers forgive the movie's mediocrity. However, if fans of Baldwin, who went on to become a member of the Whedonverse in "Firefly" and "Angel," and Czerny, currently in the prime time soap "Revenge," are curious to see *more* of the actors, as it were, this is the movie to watch.

For what it's worth, the acting is OK. Tweed isn't a great actress but she's better than she's given credit for, a fact no doubt attributable to her starring in cheap direct-to-video erotic thrillers like this one. Baldwin, Czerny and Cross—whom I suspect spent his days on the set of this movie staring forlornly into the distance, mumbling: "A decade ago I was the star of 'Chariots of Fire'…"—are all adequate in their roles, no more. Standing out like a sore thumb is Thomas, who is not only unable to make us forget his "SCTV" past, but unwilling to try, turning his role as the heavy into a cartoon. But I guess Thomas' hammy performance doesn't really matter. After all, it's only a Shannon Tweed movie.

Decent entertainment for an evening, with today's standard themes of business conflicts, greed, betrayal, and murder, and, of course, Shannon Tweed cheating on her husband with two different affairs. I thought Baldwin's performance was the best among the men, tho maybe because his character was the least distasteful, but it at least added a little humor and elan to the generally sordid overtones. Cross was somewhat stiff, and his character was a little hard to swallow. (A hit man with later moral conflicts brought about by a ghost?) The ghost of the murdered woman was OK, but this had no blend with the main plot. In any event, male watchers are treated to steamy scenes with Shannon Tweed, even one with whipped cream, and there will be few objections to these.

Family man Mark Cahill (Ben Cross) has a secret life as an assassin for hire. He is haunted by his last victim. Beth Moore (Shannon Tweed) is cheating on her jealous cold husband Larry (Dave Thomas) with Mitch (Adam Baldwin) and Larry's business associate Sean Mathieson (Henry Czerny).

This is an erotic thriller. The erotic part is basic sexploitation. There is a fun little guessing game as to who will hire the killer to kill who but the movie has nothing after that. Ben Cross is a pretty good cool assassin. I don't like any of these characters. There is no rooting interest whatsoever. I couldn't care less if they all died in a blaze of bullets. At least, that would be more fun. The story gets convoluted. I don't understand their individual actions. As a thriller, I'm not thrilled.

Mark Cahill as a cunning hit-man who decides to take another mark against his better judgment as his former kill has been haunting him at the most in opportune times. However the money's right so perhaps he can do this last job before his newfound conscience gets the better of him or his wife finds out thus ruining his pretty good family life.

But anyways, I digress, this crime drama film had enough twists, turns and titillation to earn a thumbs up from me. One of the very few serious roles Dave Thomas embodied and still he manages to be oddly funny. I find it a bit weird that a Shannon Tweed film this good has only had 3 IMDb reviews (4 counting mine) However I won't dwell on it.