Coldfire

My review was written in January 1991 after watching the movie on PM video cassette.

Wings Hauser's debut as director, "Coldfire", tries to cover too much ground but emerges as an offbeat cop drama about the drug world. Film was released direct-to-video last summer.

Like his second recently released directorial effort, "Living to Die", this film displays Hauser's interest in character development rather than narrative. Chief among numerous subplots is the relationshp of young buddy cops Michael Easton and Kamar Reyes, each too gung ho for his own good.

They're working undercover at a high school as anrcs when a new designer drug from Russia, Coldfire, hits the streets. It turns out to be an isidious plot by renegate Soviet scientisht Albert Cutt to undermine America.

Hauser's own role, as an over-the-hill fellow cop, is relatively small. Behind the camera he coaxes quality performances from the cast, which includes Cynthia Brooks as a tough-nosed fellow cop and sexy Darcy DeMoss as Reyes' main squeeze; latter graduated to female lead in "Living to Die".

Easton is particularly impressive in the lead role and easily could be up for a co-starring assignment on a youth-oriented tv cop show. Addison Randall, also a director, has a fun time playing against the macho stereotype as a gay drug kingpin.

Both Michael Easton and Kumar De Los Reyes are beautiful in this movie, and the camera loves, loves, loves them.

Easton gives a decent performance, though lack luster when doing the Starsky "I'm a criminal" routine or playing drunk. Kumar gets 5 shirtless scenes, Easton unfortunately none. It seems he thought himself too thin (or others did) for the full beefcake routine at this time. Sad.

The drug plot is a little too involved, but a reasonably entertaining MacGuffin. (It's not just drugs, it is a Russian plot to undermine America.)

The lispy gay villain is a bit too much, but okay for its time.

All in all, a quite good example of it's genre, which is direct-to-video cop actioner/procedurals of the 80s/90s with a much much prettier male leads than most of these. Good work, Mr. Hauser, though not getting Easton's shirt off during this early stage of his career was a dick move.

This Hauser vehicle, no doubt directed by the master himself, who had already brought out the entertaining and sick "The Art Of Dying", has brought another entertaining flick, surprisingly long but surprisingly entertaining. There are some unintentional laughs and a nice set of bouncing boobies, near it's start, but on the whole, this not bad so cop drama, being a little amateurish at times (hey, but that's what makes B movies fun) may give you a high, as is the new killer drug represented by the movie. Hauser also starring, is right where we want him, a veteran cop, again cool and likable. We've have two young rookies, stealing the limelight, one a kind of William Baldwin lookalike, who starred, by not for long, in the other Hauser vehicle. He's a real smart arse, cocky, and very likable, where his Latino partner and buddy, a more serious cop, is showing a lot of potential in the department, and doesn't want to be brought down by his sidekick. These two provide most of the laughs in the flick. Violence is occasional here, if very seldom, but effective, an early scene seeing one cop who I really liked it, lose it. Even the best stress. It's our nice little unit of likable cops, versus the real nasty baddies in a b grade, which can only be described as bl..dy entertaining, and not bad, especially as the movie progresses. This one actually surprised me to be honest, where we spend more time with the cops, and really get into their troubles, but mainly I'm talking about our two young punks, the Latino overacting which gave cause for laughs. It as also fun, watching the young cocky punk, clashing with Hauser. We also see the drug up close, and it's effect on one buyer. Hauser fans, a definite watch.

Wings Hauser directs himself behind a desk while two rookie detectives deal with a new designer drug hitting the streets. Problem is, beyond the opening scenes the drug becomes irrelevant. It's reduced to just a thing in a case, the very thing the movie is named after could be anything or nothing at all. The pair of unconvincing detectives are matched by a couple of equally unconvincing bad guys, one has a peculiar voice while the other hams up every word of dialog. There are characters who just disappear or are abruptly removed, with little to no recognition by anyone, and moments that have no relevance or meaning beyond padding out a scene. The ending manages to step things up to something mildly entertaining, Wings finally shows up and does the bare minimum. The whole movie just feels unconvincing and at times borderline amateur.

The film is a ridiculous nonsense-filled badly acted caper, which doesn't hang together past the opening credits.

The drug ColdFire doesn't feature much in the film, and there's a totally unnecessary sex scene.

The acting is pretty bad, the soundtrack is something akin to a bunch of Vangelis B-sides, and the bad guy is too camp to be evil.

I thought the film was fantastic. By far the best rubbish film I've seen in a long time.

It also cost me the princely sum of &pound1.97 for the DVD from the local 'Game' shop.