I volti della vendetta

Also known as Viper, I hired this one night, not cause of Lamas, well may'be a little bit, but because it was R rated. As having had enough of him in Falcon Crest, and surviving him in Body Rock, that razzie nomination, well deserved, I thought I'd give this one ago. I would snub a lot of the Lorenzo flicks on the shelves, including the Snake eater's, cause I knew too well, it wasn't gonna be Oscar watching night. But with this one, wellllllll.... I was pleasantly surprised, not by Lamas's acting, that is 40 percent standard, but because of all the spectacular action, and some nice sex scenes, involving the blonde hottie, Lorenzo's doing. Lamas, used to be a cop, but was thrown in prison, for destroying evidence, that would put baby brother in prison. Now working as in a salvage yard, yeah he really sunk, and playing the piano, that's at least better than his acting, he's called upon by a messenger. The girlfriend employs Lamas to help baby brother Franklin, out of another rut, as owing a great debt to some really bad people. Personally I'd let the loser rot, but if I did, I wouldn't be guaranteed all this action in plenteous supply, but really I don't understand why idiot Lamas feels obligated to help the brother who's just gonna keep f...ing up. The real baddie, an Asian fatty guy, does Lorenzo's girl in both definitions of the word. He doesn't mind killing kids either, and also doesn't like it when you mess with his camera. John P Ryan (Bound, Breathless) at least adds real acting support as Lamas's ill father. If it's actin.... sorry if it's action you want, and heavy violence, you'll get it here, believe me. I know the main star is bad, but just overlook that. Lorenzo actually improved in that very slowwwwwwww moving show, The Bold And The Beautiful.

Lorenzo Lamas once again displays all the sensibility and emotion an actor should be able to show. This film is a great homage to the trucker world. Every trucker should thank him for that, because they are at last shown under a different light. Superb work, Lorenzo!

Lorenzo Lamas stars as an ex-cop who reluctantly goes into one man army mode to protect his louse of a brother, after said brother rips off mobsters a big amount of green. The brother also stole Lamas' girlfriend and despite all this, Lamas sees to it, that said brother doesn't sleep with the fishes. The action sequences are overly choreographed, one sided and in general unexciting, but the main problem with the Lamas loser is simply the question of why. And by that, why is Lorenzo Lamas willing to protect his idiot of a brother? The brother openly endangers family members, love interests (Including Lamas' new girlfriend) and through out the whole film is openly lying about not having the money. Said brother is a smarmy, dull and arrogant jerk in need of bullet therapy. Ergo, by having such character be the reason for Lorenzo Lamas jumpkicks and jumping over fireballs, none of it seems to be really justified. Lorenzo Lamas is no better or worse than he usually is, once again his movies were more made toward female action fans, as he is there to strike Fabio poses and bare his chest, but the problem is that there is no rooting interest in anyone. John P. Ryan shows up as Lamas' father, but alas, is completely wasted in a nothing role. This guy was a great bad guy in Death Wish 4, Avenging Force, Runaway Train, Bound and gave the perfect Patton impression in Delta Force 2. As Bad Blood's running time went on, I wished I was watching those films instead, and that about sums it up.

* out of 4-(Bad)

As of now, this is the third Lorenzo Lamas movie I've seen as well as the TV series Renegade. The other two being CIA 2: Target Alexa and the absolutely abominable Gladiator Cop. Keeping in mind that from what I've seen of him, he's one of the least charismatic and most wooden "actors" in the genre, I wasn't expecting much from this. I wasn't let down in that aspect as it didn't exactly deliver much but unlike Gladiator Cop, it didn't leave a bad taste in my mouth either.

The plot is standard genre stuff, pretty thin but nothing more or less than I would expect from this stuff. It's not paced particularly well either, and there's a couple of pointless sex scenes which last for several minutes and are only an excuse for some nudity and to extend the runtime but at the same time, it's rarely boring. As for Lorenzo Lamas, there's nothing much I can say for him other than "wooden". There's no better word than that, he's just wooden. As far as acting goes, he simply reads his lines and that's that, without showing any form of emotion or varying his tone. Although I didn't find him as annoying as say, Michael Dudikoff, or Jalal Merhi, he really is poor. Giving him minimal dialogue may have worked better, but unfortunately he is given more than I would have liked to have heard from him.

What saves this from the bottom of the barrel heap is generally good production values and the action scenes that are there are well handled. The fight scenes were better than in other Lamas movies I've seen, and were generally quite entertaining. The villains are suitably despicable, so at least I wasn't longing that they'd just blow away Lamas and that would be the end of it. The climax IS entertaining, and ends with a high bodycount and a large amount of explosions and sparks flying.

Overall, this was a cut above what I'm used to from Lorenzo Lamas, but I still can't recommend it. Overall it's a pretty average direct to video action movie. If there's nothing better on TV then give it a go, but there are many better movies which do pretty much the same thing with much better acting and pacing, so I wouldn't bother recommending you to buy or renting it unless you've already seen most.