Campus

School newspaper editor and pool boy living in a warehouse with his drunk dad gets recruited by the cool kids to join their vigilante group called The Sentinels. His pal Kruger, a punk metal head smells trouble but he doesn't listen and things get ugly with bodies and fights and smashed cars.

This movie looked great, had a great 80s soundtrack, and was nearly great, but the story is mangled and the ending rushed as heck. There could have been some real drama and suspense but it was just sort of bungled into a rapid stop. One part most dangerous game, one part High school movie starring people who all looked 30. But the style was on point!

A group of right wing jingoism students terrorise the lower class classmates.

Director Albert Pyun (known for sci-fi and fantasy films) in a wave of 1980s teen delinquent films offers a teenage murder yarn in the vain of The Brotherhood of Justice and 3:15 The Moment of Truth (1986) also released the same year.

It befits from a seemingly on location small town shoot. At times stylishly filmed (with that MTV feel, flashbacks, cars, beaches and VHS shenanigans) but it's slow paced, meandering and plodding along in the adolescent world where our clever lead can't figure out what's really going on with his class mates. It heats up a little in the heavy handled last act.

It has a notable staple soundtrack including Robert Palmer, Depeche Mode and more. Pyun offers wall to wall 1980s nostalgia, with a load of familiar faces including John Stockwell (Christine, Top Gun), Carey Lowell (Licence to Kill), Tom Mathews (Return of the Living Dead) Dede Pfeiffer to name few.

Overall, worth watching if you're a 80s nostalgia hound.

"Dangerously Close" is one of those silly flicks that are almost enjoyable as it knows how to give us some tension while treating issues revolving safety during high school years. It talks about a troubled prep school that uses of its own student body to enforce laws on reckless students who destroy school property, vandalism and robbery among classmates. But it's a very obvious film where you know exactly where the threat comes from, therefore all the tension required disappears in thin air and you keep on waiting for its end just to confirm your predictions and ease the pain after the painful misery of everything.

One-dimensional characters from the start, which is acceptable to audiences who like those kind of devices. J. Eddie Peck plays the nerd-looking and responsible good guy who is torn apart from his punk rebel friends as he's invited to join the security group formed by John Stockwell character, one of those rich kids who likes to cause controlled mayhem in order to enforce law and order. Truth is that the group runs secret attacks on the "undesireable" students after school hours, late at night, where they make a trial mockery, convicting those rebels and teaching them some hard frightening lessons.

It's not like all students like a fascist kind of security enforcement, there's opposition even from a teacher, and Peck's character (editor of the school paper as well) is used by the others to present a less negative view of the infamous group. Doesn't help much, as their obscure attacks becomes more and more dangerous, and when students start disappearing from view, our hero becomes intrigued.

Everything is so obvious with "Dangerously Close" that it's annoying. While I liked the limited acting of everyone involved, but they're all playing a formula (the good guy is good and without flaws; the bad group is bad but it comes with a redemption; the punk friend is only there to cause riot and bring a humorless humor; and the pretty girl is there to cause a rift between the new buddies). Kudos to Stockwell for picking the most "challenging" of the roles, but he's also one of the screenwriters so he knew what he was doing and it's a nice way to see him outside of "Christine" (1983) or "Top Gun".

But I couldn't stand each and every action and fighting sequence. Abrupt and ugly editing cuts where it's hard to tell why a beaten character is up and without injuries when there's change in the shot, or why they move to a different direction; the head of security (or school director, the movie wasn't clear about his function) can physically assault a student without consequences; the local police was a joke; the series of bizarre things makes it all look weird and slightly funny to follow.

Besides the "entertainment" parts, was there an actual good discourse while dealing with how students can secure their own environment and help themselves and the community? Not really. The adults in the room were so absent in this utopic dream that I guess it only proved that teens shouldn't be allowed to enforce anything but their proms. It was basic a clear case of right versus left, and it's easy to tell apart who's right and who's wrong, and the only thing missing were the uniforms. 4/10.

Things are going very wrong at the high school attended by crusading newspaper editor Donny Lennox (J. Eddie Peck). There's a student group there named The Sentinels, ostensibly formed to act as something of a security force. But now the group is out of control, and is bent on eliminating any individual whom they deem "undesirable". Now people are actually dying.

Give these filmmakers credit for at least *attempting* to deal with serious subject matter in a reasonably sincere way. Director Albert Pyun works from a script co-written by leading actor John Stockwell. Stockwell ("Christine", "My Science Project") plays unofficial Sentinels leader Randy McDevitt. The movie features some of the trappings of the period, namely, fashions and the hip soundtrack of artists ranging from Robert Palmer to Fine Young Cannibals to The Smithereens. But it's fairly stylish and slick, and not gratuitously gory. The story is entertaining and provocative enough to draw the viewer in, and there is a potent theme about the danger of blindly following somebody's lead.

An array of recognizable faces play roles big and small: Carey Lowell ("Licence to Kill"), Don Michael Paul ("Heart of Dixie"), Bradford Bancroft ("Bachelor Party"), Madison Mason ("Dreamscape"), Thom Mathews and Miguel A. Nunez Jr. from "The Return of the Living Dead", Gerard Christopher ("Tomboy"), Carmen Argenziano ("The Accused"), Dedee Pfeiffer ("Vamp"), Karen Witter ("The Vineyard"), Angel Tompkins ("The Teacher"), and Rosalind Allen ("Ticks"). The performances, much like the movie itself, do earn points for sincerity.

Only a last minute reveal involving the Krooger character genuinely annoyed this viewer. Overall, this is a decent 1980s effort waiting to be discovered or rediscovered.

Seven out of 10.

Not a good movie. Not a bad movie. Kind of a non-movie. Had to give it a shot being from the 80s. First up we get some nearly inaudible exchange between a father and son at a kitchen table, then some hot rod punker blazes his way to school in a loud car, then some panty waist talks about the dangers of something or other, then there's a shooting at a party, then I stopped the tape. Plotless, cheaply photographed, surprised even a head honcho at Canon read this script and said "Yeah, this is up to our standards". C'mon, guys, you made much better "junk" like "American Ninja" and "Invasion USA". Film also features the oldest looking high school students in film history. Not even the fast forward button can save you here.