Best Revenge

"Best Revenge" would best be described as an ethics and loyalty test for drug dealers. The set up is this, John Heard's friend asks him to broker a big drug deal in Morroco. When he declines because it's too risky, the buyers resort to putting the squeeze on Heard. The Morrocan police seem just as corrupt as the growers, with routine payoffs of officials greasing the drug exportation pipeline. After some double crosses, the film rushes to a somewhat surprising and somewhat unsatisfying conclusion. The realism of "Best Revenge" cannot be denied, and the acting is solid, but the overall entertainment value does not quite live up to expectations. - MERK

The main reason why I saw this is because it's one of Michael Ironside's first movies but he appeared for only one minute as a man seated on the couch of the lead that suddenly leaves. Well this wasn't a problem because it was still a good thriller that surprised me because the lead is... John Heard! Yeah, the one that everyone knows as Kevin's dad of HOME ALONE but in most of his more than 100 movies doesn't notice him because of his supporting roles. But here, at the beginning of his career (when he looked a bit like Judge Reinhold) he proved that he could have been a competent lead given the good material.

When the story begins Charlie (Heard) is at home before a trip to Spain with his best friend Brett. Once there Charlie and Brett can't help but admire the beauties of Spain and the next day trouble begins; they both end involved in a drug deal and after two days (the movie never specifies it) Brett is kidnapped. But Charlie won't stop at nothing for save Brett and make all the dealers arrested and it will end with the police arriving at a warehouse (well, it doesn't happen just in Chuck Norris movies).

The score of 4,5 and the fact that it was filmed in 1979 but not released until 1984 doesn't exactly mean it's a bad movie. In fact I liked it very much and couldn't believe that only one apart me gave it a 8. First the cast: apart from Heard that proves to be a good lead and Ironside in a role where he doesn't say anything, we have also John Rhys Davies, Stephen McHattie as Brett and two regulars of Ironside movies of those years: August Schellenberg and Hrant Alianak. Second, the locations in Spain were great to see tho they changed a lot since 1979. Third, the story becomes great after Brett is kidnapped and the ending makes you feel on your spines.

Overall, one of those few delayed movies that doesn't deserve the hate and negative reviews because it's just enjoyable for what it is and that's what movies are for sometimes so give me a break.

Wobbly-1 above has it right. This is one of my favorite dope smuggling films.

For viewers who appreciate this type of film, it's worth checking out just for the undoubtedly authentic hash making sequences. It's a 27 year old film, therefore the production techniques, and the pace of editing are not up to modern standards. But the authenticity of the location sequences more than make up for that. The cast stars John Heard as Charlie, (recently seen as detective Makazian in "The Sopranos", Levon Helm (the Drummer for "The Band"), Alberta Watson, and Jon Rhys-Davies(seen as Indy's Arab friend in "Raiders of the Lost Ark"),and Michael Ironside as "The Dealer".

The scenario isn't exactly what's outlined above. Charlie is an American, a former drug smuggler desperately trying to go straight. The Dealer,(Ironside), takes a friend of Charlie's hostage when a drug deal goes bad. Then forces Charlie to complete the deal, as he is the only one familiar with the overseas contacts necessary to complete the mission. Charlie has to travel to Spain, then Morocco, to meet old associates and put together a multi-hundred pound Hash deal. Of course there are problems, and double crosses involved. And you end up rooting for the smugglers to complete their run. This film is unique in the sense that, unlike all other dramatic films about this topic, the Hash manufacturing sequences are obviously the real thing, it's like watching a true life dope documentary seamlessly weaved into a dramatic film. It certainly adds to the authenticity of the film when the marijuana plants, and piles of Hashish, are not an art director's plastic vision, but the real thing.

Director John Trent film seems to be a muddled film for it never really has any action scene or any serious shootout as the video box made it look like. Keith Emmerson's original score is not all there, as the new theme song "Best revenge" music is heard throught the film. Familar cast (Heard, McHattie, Watson,Davies and Helm) seems to give the worst performance, and Mike Ironside has a nothing role. Drug smuggling could be a exciting movie, but Trent made this one a talk-a-thon. See it if you are curious about it the film.

This film is slightly reminiscent of Midnight Express in that it involves Americans and hash smuggling. For the most part, though, that's where the similarities end. Where "Midnight Express" was pretty much relentlessly dark and brutal whose main msg seemed to be "Middle Easterners bad, Americans good", "Best Revenge" has many friendly, trustworthy, admirable Arabs, and three or four absolutely irredeemably treacherous, amoral Americans.

"Best Revenge" has some great acting, w/ all of the characters well-drawn and believable. This is the first movie in which I'd ever seen Rhys-Davies, and he is completely convincing in his role as the "broker"- the contact man who makes all the arrangements for the Morrocan part of the caper, who ends up taking on a much more hands-on, personal role than he'd bargained for.

There's great action, complete w/ a harrowing, extended car chase scene over treacherous, unpaved mountain roads in an old VW bus. There are plot twists galore and one of the best surprise endings I've ever seen. There's great, on-location camera work. All of the "extras" seem to be simply the locals just going about their lives, naturally and unaffectedly. There's even a scene done in the "packing shed" where they go to pick up the hash that just about had to have been the real thing; the workers quite obviously can't speak English and can't seem to help snatching a short glance or two at the camera, smiling shyly when they realize it's pointing at them, there are rolls of cheesecloth here and there in the room (used to wrap the product before it's pressed into "cakes"), and the "hash cakes" stacked in the room just look too much like real Moroccan hash to be anything that prop makers could come up with.

Great plot, great acting, great scenery, believable characters, suspense, intrigue, genuine human emotions, and a surprise ending. Don't know what those folks that rated this flick so low could have been thinking about.

Probably narcs.