Night Vision

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.

Fred Williamson, one of the two or three top blaxploitation stars. Cynthia Rothrock, one of the two or three top American female action stars. Imagine a film with these two together for the first time! Now imagine THE WORST film that could possibly be made with these two together for the first time. Welcome to "Night Vision". Of course, this movie was made in 1997 and they were both past their prime, but that doesn't mean they didn't have what it takes anymore - they just needed the help of good writing and direction. They got neither here. Rothrock does get to throw a couple of kicks near the end, but this film is so atrocious that you probably won't be awake to see them. (*)

The first clue that should tell you that "Night Vision" is not a good movie is that it was made by Texas filmmakers - Texas has made more than its share of bad movies. The second clue is that it has Cynthia Rothrock in its cast, and no (American) movie with Cynthia Rothrock is any good. The third clue is with Fred Williamson producing this movie, whose Po' Boy production company has made a string of bad movies. Yes, "Night Vision" is indeed a bad movie. In fairness, I will say that for a VERY low budget, the movie looks good. The colors are strong and there is some decent night shooting. And there are at least SOME production values, something you can't say for all Fred Williamson movies (such as with Williamson's "Black Cobra".) But most of the rest of the movie is pretty pitiful. It's a slow, sluggish movie, even in the action scenes. (And speaking of action, why cast martial arts actress Cynthia Rothrock when she gets to do almost no martial arts?) The atmosphere is sterile. Scenes seem to be missing. And Fred is seen in his underwear twice! And Robert Forster is wasted; he made this the same time that he made "Jackie Brown", and I hope he worked on this mess before making the Tarantino movie.

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.