Missione antidroga

"Catch the Heat" tells the story of top narcotics cop Checkers Goldberg - no kidding, that's really what they call her, played by Tiana Alexandra. After a bust she and her partner Waldo Tarr (David Dukes) get the name of a major drug supplier, Jason Hannibal (Rod Steiger), who doubles as a talent scout. They travel to Buenos Aires to take Hannibal down as well as any other criminal scum with whom he associates. The movie, incredibly, was written by Oscar winning screenwriter Stirling Silliphant, who was married to the Saigon-born Alexandra at the time and wrote the movie basically as a vehicle for her. It has a knowingly tongue in cheek, cheesy quality about it, which may satisfy some B movie lovers, but the truth is that "Catch the Heat" doesn't offer much that people haven't seen in numerous other B action movies. Still, it's not without its moments. Just witness as Checkers, in a fury, decides that opening a door by twisting the door knob isn't nearly as much fun as kicking the door down. The dialogue is often pretty priceless, and one has to believe Silliphant was parodying the genre at times. As a vehicle for Ms. Alexandra, it works well enough; whatever she lacks in acting chops is made up for with her spunk and sex appeal. (She looks cute and sexy wearing various revealing outfits). Dukes's performance is positively goofy, but Steiger ends up wasted in a rather boring villainous part. Still, it's fun to note the number of familiar faces in supporting roles: Brian Thompson, John Hancock, Brian Libby, and Professor Toru Tanaka. None of this is ever particularly exciting, but it manages to be oddly watchable just the same. The location shooting is one asset, and the obligatory pop theme song is good for some chuckles. One would have to be a pretty undemanding and easygoing genre fan to really dig this, especially as its ending isn't all that satisfying. Overall, it's not exactly "good", but not all that bad either. Six out of 10.

Yet another of those not so brilliant films about the life of a female cop. This one however, is Chinese but American raised, and she is known as something of a Kung-Fu expert (originality!). Her latest mission is to pretend to be a singer from Hong Kong called Cinderella-Poo (!) in order to infiltrate a gang of drug smugglers who hide their stash in women's breasts and pretending that they're silicon implants (!!). This bizarre plot is further complicated by the fact that one of the criminal gang has been arrested by our heroine before, and shock, horror! Her commanding officer is secretly in love with her! How will all this be resolved? Does anybody care?

Well, 'Feel The Heat' is noteworthy for one thing. It features the worse use of pigeon English I've ever heard, when Miss Poo puts on her act of being an illiterate foreigner for her undercover mission. Nobody with an IQ of more than a single digit would be fooled by this pathetic facade, but these so-called professional crooks fall for it hook, line and sinker. This isn't the only situation where suspension of disbelief is essential, as our 5'5 cop policewoman starts felling huge bad guys with just one kick, and people can run for ages despite being shot in the leg and stomach.

But of course, we can overlook all that nonsense if it was actually entertaining. Sadly, there's nothing here you haven't seen a million times before in better action movies, with budgets of more than a few thousand. The gunfire, the explosions and the martial-arts fights will just inspire a distinct feeling of deja vu which will last till the ending credits roll. I can only recommend it if you've already seen every other movie in the genre ever made. And just how likely is that?! 3/10

If you're a fan of movies of strong and beautiful women and also enjoy a taste of the 80s, this is a must.

I don't understand all of the negative reviews. This is a typical action flick of its time with nothing at all wrong with it.

Storyline: Undercover police woman has a task to figure out how drug smugglers and murders are getting away with their crimes. There's a nice romance subplot between her and her partner and their growth is endearing.

Tiana Alexandra-Silliphant plays the police woman. It's the only action movie she ever stared in and it's a shame because she's an excellent and realistic martial artist.

What I mean is that unlike other movies where it's kind of obvious the woman would lose the fight in reality, Tiana's fights are believable. And often, the big guy she's fighting overpowers her and her ways of winning the fights are believable.

Quick pros and cons: I really liked how the writers used realistic fight sequences. As a fan of 80s music, that was okay, too.

However, the guns scenes were a bit ridiculous.

Everyone had machine guns and used them like toys. This movie is not a gun movie though.

Every scene with Tiana was charming and her character was adorable and fun. As a fan of movies with women who can fight, you should watch this and you won't be let down. It's free on YouTube. Just look up "Catch the Heat 1984" there. Also, give this a thumbs up if it helped you, or down if you're an Aussie (I know that means "like" to you people).

At some point in the 1980's I guess the Shoot 'em up genre was considered to be guaranteed box-office gold. That fact must have been on the minds of the producers of this horribly made 1987 action movie. Instead of gold what we have here is pure Hollywood hokum. At its best, it is an extremely dated, nonsensical, wholly unappealing movie with the flimsiest of plots. At worst, it's downright racist with the female's lead stereotyping Asian women and their 'in-abilitee to no-talk-ee good EN-grish.' Rod Steiger does nothing to help, sleepwalking through his role as a South American drug smuggler / talent scout (yes,...really). The inane "A-Team" style, rock 'em - sock 'em, kung-fu action interspersed throughout the film does nothing to salvage this sinking ship. Neither does the attempt at a love story between the male lead and his Asian co-star. Even a hot, kung-fu kicking babe can't save this rambling, boring, beast of a movie from the weight of its own lumbering storyline, painful dialogue and grindhouse acting. Don't waste your time.It would be more entertaining to go down to the local Chinese deli and spend the evening watching the clerk clean the meat slicers.

A tired-looking Rod Steiger was given top billing for this predictable action movie although his screen time is relatively brief. The story is unoriginal and most of the budget seems to have been spent on an exciting beginning and climax - what comes in between is extremely dull.

Unusually for its day, much of the action is handled by a woman and the film, despite all its faults, is popular amongst femfight devotees for the concluding scenes in which the sinuous but deadly Tiana Alexander, clad in skintight black leotards, uses martial arts to dispose of numerous opponents.