Two Wrongs Make a Right

My review was written in April 1989 after watching a Unicorn video cassette.

Lean, low-budget actioner with a catchy moniker shapes up okay for home video release.

Directed in Indianapolis by Robert Brown for topliner-filmmaker Ivan Rogers, "Two Wrongs..." resembles teh blaxploitationers of nearly two decades ago, but has a cool, almost abstract tone resembling the policiers of the late French master Jean-Pierre Melville (especially his Alain Delon classic "Le Samourai").

Rogers is the low-key hero Fletcher Quinn, whose nightclub is shot up by gangsters when he refuses to sell. They also beat up his Asian-American girlfriend (Eva Wu) and soon the local cops also are on Quinn's case due to his vigilante tactics.

Rather flat during its middle reels, pic is competently made but could have used a bigger budget to provide more oomph. Technical credits are modest.

"Two Wrongs Make A Right" is without doubt one of the best movies I've ever seen from Indiana filmmakers - though it's also the ONLY movie I've seen coming from that state. It's a very obscure movie - I've only found it listed in one reference book, and it's very hard to find cassettes of it from its limited VHS release. Though if you were to sit down and watch it, you'd find out quickly why this movie has drifted into obscurity. This vanity project (star Ivan Rogers also wrote and produced) seems to want to be an '80s version of '70s blaxploitation movies, though it's totally lacking in color. Rogers will remind you of a soft-spoken and unfunny Richard Pryor instead of Richard Roundtree or Jim Brown. The movie is poorly shot, boring (even the so-called "action" sequences), and has no spark to it. Even the musical score is awful. I have doubts anyone else will ever look up this movie at the IMDb and read my warnings, but if you have seen this movie, leave your own review so I'll know I'm not alone in watching this obscurity!