Night Vision - Der Nachtjäger

Silly, routine, Texas filmed B action picture stars Fred "The Hammer" Williamson as Dakota "Dak" Smith, an ex-detective who's ended up as a motorcycle cop, thanks to his problems with the bottle. One day he's pursuing a serial killer known as "The Video Stalker" (Robert Prentiss), a crafty sicko who delves into the lives of his victims and films his crimes. Dak screws up big time, so what happens to him is that he must switch a motorcycle for a car and be partnered with a young female cop, Kristin O'Connor (Cynthia Rothrock), who's also in hot water.

Die hard fans of the stars and the genre may be forgiving towards this ridiculous movie, which is funny often enough to make one think that producer / star Williamson, screenwriter Michael Thomas Montgomery, and director Gil Bettman had their tongues in their cheeks to some degree. Still, this is pretty inept, overall. The action is uninspired, and those viewers hoping to see Rothrock doing what she does best will have to wait until the story is almost over. A mild sex quotient, mostly consisting of bare breasts, might satisfy some people, but as for the violence, this isn't all that graphic.

Williamson and Rothrock do seem to get along alright. Robert Forster, the third star attraction, is typically likable and adds some much appreciated levity to the proceedings. Two other performers that one might recognize are veteran character actor Frank Pesce, as one of Daks' colleagues, and Rodger Boyce, who later turned up in "No Country for Old Men". Prentiss is an amusing villain and gives the best performance in this thing.

If you're like this viewer, and watched this on the basis of the star trio, you're advised to keep your expectations VERY low.

Four out of 10.

The sheer awfulness of this movie is difficult to fathom. To start with, the plot is almost non-dimensional: a skid row cop teams up with a tough female rookie to catch a serial killer who video tapes his victims. The killer rides around in space-age comfort in a night-black van, and tasers his victims so that he never has to leave his TV monitors which can seemingly see into any bedroom in the city. In an attempt to expand this tiny plotline, we discover that the killer has an accomplice on the police force! Who could it be??

It is difficult to find the entire point of this movie: It's not a sex movie, as there is about 20 seconds of bosom in the whole film. It's not a fighting movie, as Cynthia Rothrock (famous for various Jackie Chan-style films throughout the 80's and 90's) delivers about 5 kicks throughout the whole movie. The acting in this film is awful, so I suppose it's a good thing that no-one attempted to develop any of the characters. The technical aspects and realism of the film fall flat in so many places, from Cynthia's "computer knowledge", to the killer's video monitoring system, to the 40-bullet shootouts where no-one gets hit or runs out of ammo.

Oh, and one more thing: what does anything in this movie have to do with "night vision"??

It is truly difficult to believe that a movie this bad was made in 1998 - it is remniscent of the bad cop movies of 20 years ago. I would recommend watching water evaporate before I would recommend this movie to anyone. I gave it (barely) 3 out of 10.

Unlike most of the reviewers of this particular movie, I'm really not the much of a Cynthia Rothrock fan, to say the least. However when I saw that the movie had Fred Williamson and Robert Forster (both great actors), I just had to watch the film. Williamson is a Dakota Smith, an alcoholic cop who is demoted to scrubbing toilets with a toothbrush and even worse having to team up with Cynthia at the behest of the captain (Robert Forster). Forster is always watchable, it's just a crying shame that the movie itself is so damn trite and clichéd. It also features one of the least terrifying villains ever to be committed to celluloid. Williamson would return to the Dakota character in a few more films, the next one being "Down N Dirty"

Eye Candy: Nina Richardson shows some T&A; Mary Kapper goes topless

My Grade: D

Where I saw it: Showtime Extreme

This movie is great for the brilliantly choreographed chase scenes and the invigorating soundtrack. What Gil Bettman has here is a cinematic masterpiece. The sex scenes in this movie are not gratuitous like other films, but are important to the storyline. The classic one-liners will go down in history as some of the greatest ever, especially the "holy f***" line in the church. Cynthia Rothrock shows off her incredible rear end and also her finely tuned acting chops, comparable to the late Audrey Hepburn. A highly underrated classic for the ages.

You may wonder why - but on the other hand with a main cast like that, does it really matter? Fred Williamson and Cynthia Rothrock .. that sounds amazing in and of itself. Of course as other already have pointed out: do not get your hopes up. On paper or rather the idea of those two sounds awesome - what you get in the end though ... well maybe not so awesome after all.

That being said, it is not like this is a bad movie alltogether. Not bad in the sense of not good - no pun intended. No the movie is mediocre - it has some highlights but also feels like it is dragging on at times. The two main actors seem to have fun though, so maybe that helps you enjoy the movie too. Action/stunts are decent I'd say, nothing to get too excited about either.