Kill Crazy

An 80's action survival flick with obvious ties to 'Rambo', 'Deliverance' and 'The Most Dangerous Game', 'Kill Crazy' is 90 minutes of cheese. Some quite funny, some not so much in an obvious vanity project for actor / writer / director David Heavener. If you don't believe me you'll soon find out. Lots of closeups of his face, 3 songs sung by him within the first 10 minutes (including the rock ballad title track). Then self serving dialog, tortured acting 101, a cliche romance.

Puckett (Heavener) is amongst five ex-Vietnam Vets taken from the Veterans hospital for a camping trip into the remote hills. Soon a wacky paramilitary group led by Mallerd (Bruce Glover) wants to hunt these ex military men down in twisted war games. Puckett is forced to jump off a cliff and presumed dead, but very much alive. Physically & emotionally traumatized does he find love with female campers (Rachelle Carson, Danielle Brisebois)? Can he save his fellow patients, end the madness?

The 80's and dtv flicks of that time loved to use the Vietnam trope and it's put to heavy use here. Of course, don't think about it too deeply. It's only meant to play up the star who gets to have awful flashbacks, act his heart out having horrible dreams and then gather his courage to kill all the baddies who deserve it in the campy action finale. That's before he finds the ladies who nurse him back to health of course. They tie a headband around him and he's playing the guitar, singing once again. I kid you not.

Stupid bad guys, a ridiculous "hero", cavalcade of running thru the wilderness and more than one piece of poorly shot action. A cornball ending completes 'Kill Crazy'. Some female nudity, but also racism and two rapes. The star going around bare chested as much as possible and bum one liners meant to be tough. Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, Burt Ward play fellow Vets. Come for the laughs or don't come at all.

The Most Dangerous Game meets Rambo via One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. Now, those are all good films, (yes, even Rambo), so that might give you the impression I was intimating this was also a good film.

Well, you would be wrong. Not good, but definitely entertaining. But for all the wrong reasons.

This is a hilarious low-budget actioner, to be enjoyed while in the thrall of a few adult beverages. The plot is quite minimal: insane asylum inmates are hijacked in the woods for a real life hunt by lowlife scum. Quadruple-threat (writes, directs, stars, composes/sings the title theme song) David Heavener (and I chose the word "threat" carefully) is a budget Rambo fighting and killing to save the noble loons. There's even an A-Team type "Time to Weld" sequence. Best quote: "When you kill a man, you better make sure he's dead."

A few items not mentioned by the other commenters that add to the film's allure: Not one, but TWO former Sweathogs (that's from the TV show Welcome Back Kotter, you young'uns), Washington and Epstein. (What, you thought Travolta was in this thing????) DJ and voice over legend Gary Owens has a very brief role. And, most importantly, Danielle Brisebois is topless. In the water. That will surely attract some additional viewers to this lovable mess.

I would suggest an amazing double feature: this film first, then followed by the best/worst Die Hard rip off ever lensed, Anna Nicole Smith in Skyscraper. You'll thank me later, as long you continue drinking throughout both films. You'll need to.

My review was written in September 1990 after watching the film on Media Home Entertainment video cassette.

Actor-filmmaker David Heavener gets some more mileage out of the Vietnam War experience in "Kill Crazy", a direct-to-video release.

He plays a battle fatigued soldier in a V. A. hospital who's out on a camping trip with fellow nutcases. The vets are grabbed by a nuttier group of right-wing survivalists led by messianic Bruce Glover, who wants to use the soldiers as "the most dangerous game" for target practice in some weekend war training. Switch here is that the guinea pigs are given rifles rather than let loose in the woods unarmed.

Heavener, of course, turns into a one-man army by the end of the film and rescues his baddies while wiping out the neo-Nazis. A rather extraneous subplot introduces a romance with cute Rachelle Carson. Well-billed Danielle Brisebois disappears from the film abruptly after contributing her requisite skinny dipping in the local pond scene with Carson.

Heavener is okay as the bewildered hero and contributes a few songs including the rather silly ballad "Is It Over Now?" he warbles over the end credits. "Laugh-In"'s announcer Gary Owens pops up in an unusual bit of casting as the sheriff.

i bought this movie for $0.99 for my best friend in the used VHS bin at a local Blockbuster, and I don't know if I could have spent my 99 cents any more poorly. Well, I recant. This movie has provided my friends and me with an endless source of laughter, amusement, and sheer pleasure over the years. I must say, this movie is well worth your time. The soundtrack is inspirational; the special effects, particularly the authentic combat structures, such as pillboxes and springboards, are breathtaking, to say the least, and the plot will make even the best of men quiver with awe and Angst. The "Action Star of the 90s" does not cease to demonstrate his nocuous eptitude. It is supremely difficult to put into words the existential, dermatological, and lexicographical euphoria which sets in upon one's consciousness after having viewed this film.

No spoiler, No need, Movie spoiled by Heavener when he wrote the thing. I wanted to see it, because a friend at work said it was good, I now suspect that same friend thinks that "Plan 9 From Outer Space" is a classic. What a waste of 2 hours, but I guess I knew I was in trouble when I read the back of the video cassette box, ie: Directed by, Written by, Music composed by, and Lead Actor is....Guess who? Heavener. Egomaniacs seldom make good movies, and this is no exception. I have seen a lot of movies with the Writer/Director the same person that were awesome! But 2 good example's came to me right away, George Lucas knew that some one else should play Luke Skywalker, and Steven Spielberg didn't think HE would play a better ET. It looks like Mr. Heavener tried to make a "Rambo" movie with "feeling", that was a mistake, it's been done already, THAT movie was called...Guess what? Rambo. This movie had no "Heart" for our vietnam vet's, it portray's them as weak sniveling dope-smoking crybabies, and I found that part of it very insulting, however...... There was one point in the movie that Mr Heavener did PERFECTLY! It was at the the end, when he was singing the song he wrote, and as I listened to the word's.. "Is it over now? I hope it's over now!" I looked at the tape counter on my VCR, and I was thinking EXACTLY the same thing. dismenot