Arma mortale

My review was written in July 1989 after watching the movie on TWE video cassette.

"Deadly Weapon" is a failed attempt at a high-concept picture from Charles Band's late fantasy factory, Empire PIctures. Story of a bullied youngster who goes high-tech for revenge went unreleased, inherited, as a video, by TWE.

Debuting helmer Michael Miner exhibits technical skill but does not establish a consistent tone for this mishmash. Rodney Eastman is Zeke, a 15-year-old in the small town of King Bee, Arizona, who thinks he's a visitor from Outer Space, waiting for the Mother Ship to come for him. He finds an anti-matter pistol belonging to the army, lost in a train wreck nearby.

Zeke proceeds to blast his enemies (including his mean daddy) with the formidable revolver and comically rounds up the town preacher, sheriff and mayor, locking them up in the car trunk as he goes joyriding in the thrill-seeking Kim Walker's pink Cadillac convertible.

While the army mobilizes to carefully put Zeke out of commission (the gun's power source can explode like a 200-kiloton bomb), pic turns maudlin en route to a tragic finish.

Eastman displays convincing angst in the central role, with Walker, a beautiful blonde who was one of the "Heathers" in the recent New World release, making a solid impression in an underwritten part. Special effects and other the credits are fine.

Initially I also was reminded of Joey From Nightmare on Elm street part three but having seen it it was pretty good. I guess the movie was moving to me because I myself was a rebel when I was a kid. With the obvious exception of picking up a high powered plasma gun and blowing away all the bad guys, I was quite a bit like the main character in the movie. A definite two thumbs up, a must rent at least once.

Like many other people, I only bought this movie because Joey (Rodney Eastman) of A Nightmare On Elm Street Part's 3 and 4 was the lead in it. And, erm....It totally sucks!! Occasionally you can get some pretty good "b" movies, but its movies like this wich make all "b" movies look crap.

Lets start of with "the gun". What the hell was its cable lead made out of? Tin foil??! It was extreamly fake looking and looked like a rejected quazer lazer gun.

And the acting was terrible! I'm sorry Rodney fans, but this movie is deffanitly made for you. There is no other reason to watch it unless you like Rod. Its very badly written. I wish I didn't buy this junk! Whoa, really. If Rods reading this (hmmm, a bit unlikeley) but I'm sorry man, the movie bites. And youve been in way better.

DO NOT EVEN RENT THIS MOVIE

In a small Arizona town, 15 year old Zeke Robinson (Rodney Eastman) is a target of casual abuse from educators, bullies, and his abusive stepfather who often escapes into fantasies of being an extraterrestrial waiting for the mothership to return. Near the river, Zeke finds a crate that has gone missing from a U. S. Army transport and inside is a special backpack worn laser pistol that he takes home. After his stepfather flies into a drunken rage and kills Zeke's dog, Zeke in turn kills his stepfather and he embarks aimlessly around town intimidating those who bullied him as the military closes in seeking retrieval of the weapon.

Deadly Weapon is a 1989 direct-to-video sci-fi film from producer Charles Band and written and directed by Michael Miner. Band had initially intended to make a sequel to the 1978 film Laserblast, but when the budget requirements proved unfeasible the idea was reworked into a standalone film. Miner wanted to make a more psychological film taking inspiration from Terrence Malick's Badlands in terms of thematic content with the aesthetic approach of WarGames. While Deadly Weapon doesn't iron out all the kinks of its premise, it's a much more successful execution of the concept that Laserblast tried and failed to do ten years prior.

With Deadly Weapon, the film has two strong assets at play in that it has a much more structured script and a much more appropriately cast actor. While Laserblast was often very confusing in its establishment of characters with Billy Duncan not really projecting the "outsider pushed too far" the filmmakers tried and failed to do, Rodney Eastman feels like much more appropriate casting and coupled with his voiceover narration and the vivid fantasy sequences he has of "the mothership" it makes him much more of an unreliable narrator and makes us question as to whether any of this is actually playing out as we're seeing or if it's just a vivid delusion of someone whose finally snapped. In many ways you can see Deadly Weapon is attempting something that's as multilayer and satirical as RoboCop, and while it doesn't quite reach that point it has more effort than you typically associate with this kind of production.

Deadly Weapon is honestly a pretty decent film considering it originated as a sequel to the not very good Laserblast. If you can find a convenient way of watching it's well worth checking out.

The only reason I rented this flick, was because it starred "Joey" from "A Nightmare On Elm Street 3 - Dream Warriors", as well as "Heather Chandler" from "Heathers". And that is the only reason to watch this crud. You want to see an actor do their worst job, then rent this one.