Règlement de comptes

A customarily vanilla, but rather violent and tawdry action thriller joint with a colourfully explosive Wings Hauser performance as an ex-cop returning to Los Angeles to find the serial killer that murdered his friends' granddaughter. He's a rogue who believes the system doesn't work and would go about any way to get the job done ("Your crazy man!"). Because of this, he's not welcome by the local authorities, then there's the ex-wife and also the local criminals who he had a past with when he was a LA cop.

There's no surprises here, but it's well made in workman-like manner by director Paul Aaron ("A Force of One"). Fundamental is how you can describe the b-grade story, but it did somewhat change route in the back-end after what I thought was going to be your typical stalk and slash outing with a (ex-maverick) cop after a psycho serial killer. In away I probably would have preferred if stuck to that formula (something similar to Charles Bronson's "10 to Midnight"), then where it actually headed. Even the added love-interest with Joyce Ingalls's character felt like nothing more than padding. The narrative does have a scattered pattern going on, but everything is thinly examined when it comes to its finale. Pacing can be very uneven, but the action is physically tough and breakneck (as well as that pumping soundtrack)… but you end up wishing there were more extreme dynamics than what's produced. Also showing up in the cast is Paul Shenar, Al Ruscio, Lincoln Kilpatrick and Arlen Dean Snyder.

Middle-of-the-road entertainment.

"You leave L.A, I'll have your ass!"

"Deadly Force" has everything you would expect from a cop kicked off the force film, and that is the problem. Wings Hauser is the renegade cop investigating a series of apparently random homicides, committed by perhaps the least developed, and least interesting villain in screen history. The overly simplistic story really has nowhere to go, so it is well padded with gratuitous car chases and explosions. I will say however, this is the first time I have seen the game of "rat roulette" played, and it looks more interesting than the rest of "Deadly Force". This strictly by the book action film might be worth a look for Wings Hauser fans but others beware. - MERK

As said in my recent view for 'Vice Squad' (to me a very enjoyable film while not making me jumping out of my chair), if one looks at my other reviews, one would be very much forgiven if they thought that 'Deadly Force' wouldn't be my style or something that would typically be watched by me.

Once again, as said, actually my taste aims to be very diverse in film and television alike, spanning all genres and decades with a wide interest in actors, actresses and directors with no bias intended. There is certainly no bias against action crime/drama, there are some great films out there as well as some bad ones. 'Deadly Force', which was seen by me in the first place for Wings Hauser after such an amazing performance as one of the nastiest pieces of work in film in 'Vice Squad', is more a mediocre example than a bad one. It has its moments but its relative obscurity is understandable.

Starting off with the good things, Hauser while nowhere near as good as he is in 'Vice Squad' acquits himself well, he is very charismatic and gives his all. It is not his fault at all that his character here is not very interesting and is rather obnoxious, the blame lies squarely on the writing. The acting is mostly not very good, but two of the better performances come from Al Ruscio and Paul Shenar who also do a decent job making the most of their characters.

'Deadly Force' starts off reasonably well and is slick visually, although it does look a little too much like a made for television production. The rat roulette stuff is interesting.

Unfortunately, the rest of the cast don't make much of an impression. Joyce Ingalls is bland in a role that didn't strike me as particularly necessary with scenes felt like padding. On the other side of the acting spectrum, there is the very annoying Leon Kilpatrick in a role that is little more than a stock character spouting the oldest clichés in the book and the less said about Estelle Getty's truly bizarre cameo the better. The characters are not very interesting, ranging from the annoying (Stoney and Otto) and very sketchy (the villain/killer, and when one says sketchy they mean really sketchy).

The story is also a big issue. It's both overly simplistic and confused, while there is a lot of padding (especially the whole subplot with Stoney and Eddie which could have been cut out entirely because very little really is done with it and it was essentially padding) and the second half especially drags in a film that just doesn't have anywhere near enough content for the running time and often things happen far too conveniently. There is a lot of violence and action, but some of it is gratuitous and never that exciting or tense. It also comes at the expense of story and character development, while the climax is incredibly ordinary.

Editing can be chaotic and the direction is pretty sloppy. The dialogue is laughably cheesy, enough to probably not hold up that well in the 80s even. The music score just doesn't gel, constantly sounding like it was intended for another project entirely, and takes one out of the film, not even passing as a good score on its own because it sounds pretty cheap.

On the whole, has its moments and there are certainly far worse films that have more exposure but the film's title is not an appropriate one for one that lacks force. 4/10 Bethany Cox

My review was written in July 1983 after a Times Square screening.

Filmed late last year (with an alternate title of "Fierce Encounter", "Deadly Force" is a nondescript imitation of "Dirty Harry" mad by the team responsible for "Vice Squad". Unappealing lead players and a ho-hum script make for a desultory action picture, due for a short life in hit-and-run saturation release.

Episodic format introduces devil-may-care gun-for-hire Stoney Cooper (Wings Hauser, the maniac from "Vice Squad"), juggling New York and Los Angeles assignments. In latter locale, his trackdown of a mass murderer is obstructed by his ex-associate on the police force, Otto Hoxley (Lincoln Kilpatrick), while Cooper fortuitously makes up with his estranged wife Eddie (Joyce Ingalls), at newshen who is also covering the murder case.

Fitting by default in the B-picture category, "Force" lacks the unusual plotting or colorful gallery of characters which once distinguished this form of filmmaking. Key plot twists, particularly the identity of the power behind the killer, are telegraphed so that the audience is at least two reels ahead of the slow-witted leads. Aimed at the action audience, picture features many minority players but casts them in stereotyped roles, except for Lincoln Kilpatrick as the de rigeur tough policeman, making a strong impression in an otherwise undistinguished front line.

As the oversize, toothy lead, Hauser likewise made an impression as the nut terrorizing Season Hubley in "Vice Squad", but the attempt to convert him into a recurring Eastwood-like (or rather a B-level Robert Ginty-like) hero fails. Manhandling lowlifes throughout the film's poorly-knitted episodes. Hauser plays his new role as if wer still essaying a violent maniac, eliciting no sympathy in the process. While in Don Siegel's "Dirty Harry" the hunt and confrontations with killer Andy Robinson were carefully dominant over the episodes of routine Eastwood business, here the mad killer plot has no impact or urgency and differs from the subplots and fille along the way only in terms of body count.

Supporting Hauser in a stock role originally announced for Cindy Pickett, Joyce Ingalls delivers bored, monotone readings. Laying in a noisy musical score fails to ide the unexciting, "let's wrap this one up" nature of Paul Aaron's direction, which loses all credibility in the final reel when Hauser battles the main villain in comic strip "unkillable" scenes. Tech credits are okay.

What we have here is a typical run-of-the-mill eighties crime/action/thriller from the somewhat lower budget regions. The plot involves a (very active) serial killer running amok in L.A. One of the apparently random victims, being killed at the very start of the movie, is the granddaughter of an ex-thief. Granddaddy then calls in the help of Stoney Jackson Cooper (Wings Hauser), a former hard-boiled cop from the L.A. police force who doesn't like playing by the rules. When he arrives in L.A., the authorities, local criminals as well as his (soon-to-be) ex-wife are not too happy with his return. But Stoney doesn't care. He's got a job to do and a promise to keep: track down the vile killer and put a stop to his activities.

The story bounces to the left & the right at an uneven pace, but still manages to be quite coherent and even turn in a twist at the start of the third act (albeit one you'll probably see coming). Wings Hauser is in top shape in this one and pretty much owns the movie. One scene has him relaxing in a bath tub, and then going after the killer butt-naked after the whole loft has been shot to pieces during the killer's surprise attack. Even a pretty decent but obviously very standard climax is added to the mix (Wings vs. the killer, after his true identity is exposed). Other forms of entertainment, aside from shooting & killing, are included also, like a soft-core sex-scene (Wings & Joyce Ingalls) and an obligatory car crash/explosion. Yes, "Deadly Force" does its best to play it right.

Sadly, one of the worst aspects of "Deadly Force" is the musical score. The main theme - if you can call it that - doesn't work at all. It's too rocky & funky and is used too often & inappropriately (even during the climactic fight & chase scene at the end). It gives the film a much sillier & dated vibe than it should have. A more gritty & tense analog synth score would have worked wonders, I'm sure. But in the end, "Deadly Force" is much more entertaining than it's poor rating on here would lead you to believe. And it's mainly thanks to Wings Hauser and a typical B-movie script that at least tries to make things work.