If you scan reviews for 'Parole Violators' you'll quickly see two camps. The first know it's a low budget flick, but welcome it's camp style, effort and laughs (mostly unintentional) while the latter see it as a big waste of time. Honestly this works best if you're up for a pic that doubles as trashy fun & a modest vanity project from the Donahue father (director) & son (star) team.
Ex-cop Miles Long (Sean Donahue) flexes his brand of vigilante justice by recording criminals in the act and busting them up for his "Parole Violator" tv show. Then hardened criminal and child sex offender Chino (Rey Garcia) a man he once put behind bars gets out and quickly falls into old habits, revenge. Chino and his thug posse kidnap the young daughter of girlfriend Tracy (Pamela Bosley) who is a cop herself.
The name of the game here is extreme physical pain. Numerous fist fights, Miles tumbling off rooftops, hills, outta windows, over trees, freefalls, vehicles hitting him. The fact of the matter is he gets put through the ringer start to finish. He dishes some out, but also gets the brakes beaten off of him. There is also the requisite gunplay near the finale. In between you get some cringe but funny dialog, scene where a certain someone certainly doesn't know how to make spaghetti and a simplistic synch score. Of course, some poor acting too.
'Parole Violators' has it's moments, but I wouldn't go as far to say it's "downright charming" to watch. There's a level of kitsch like an IA cop obsessed with writing in his notebook. Story, villains are kinda hokey, but with a 80 min runtime and funny bits not all is lost.
