Le trésor de San Lucas

Prolific film-maker of low-grade cheapies Albert Pyun provides the audience with a tolerably haywire, if blotchy little action adventure escapade with "Down Twisted" aka "Treasure of San Lucas". A billionaire art collector hires some international thieves to steal a religious artifact the crucible of San Lucas where they would switch it with a replica and fly the real one back to Los Angeles. However they find themselves being double crossed. Suddenly a waitress finds herself caught in the middle and being abducted when her roommate confesses that she and her boyfriend have gotten themselves mixed with these smugglers. This grungy low-rent Cannon fodder by Golan Globus might be remembered for Courtney Cox's debut performance, where she gets a bit of screen time in a throwaway part. But outside of that distraction, this is an agreeable outing with flavoured Mexican locations and amusingly fine performances by some Pyun regulars. Charles Rocket plays it suave as ever, still with a clumsy edge with the amount times his character gets knocked out. You know, for comedy purposes. Thom Mathews sticks out as the bleached blonde thief with a killer instinct and so does Linda Kerridge as a fellow partner in crime. Carry Lowell's unlucky waitress character Maxine who just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time might have gotten on my nerves at times with her constant wailing, but no wonder with the amount of times she asked about the key that she doesn't have. Also showing up is Norbert Weisser and Nicholas Guest. Pyun's style is not fancy, but sturdily achieved with some hip touches as the eventful story's framework is a twisty chase formula with a contemporary noir quality and a snappy soundtrack back it up.

"Oh, the deal's going down... but it's going down twisted."

Cannons take on Miami Vice mixed with Romancing the Stone and James Bond

The film starts off with a fun chase sequence set to Oingo Boingo's Dead Mans Party. We then meet our main heroin in a series of scenes almost barely different from our introduction to Sarah Connor in Terminator before she gets involved with a drug deal gone bad where her roommate is killed and she finds herself hi-jacked en route to San Lucas with a seemingly bumbling insurance salesman. But all is not as it seems...

Seeing the cannon logo and Albert Pyun's name you'd think the rest would be a cheesy action thriller. But Down Twisted aka Treasure of San Lucas has almost zero action scenes after its opening bit. Instead we get a lot of plot twists set to a fun theme. Thom Matthew's has a fun role as a hitman who leaves too soon. I'd really only recommend this film to cannon aficionados as there's not a whole lot here for the casual viewer. The music is easily the best part, and it ends with a very long cover of Suspicious Minds by Fine Young Cannibals that plays over a character montage that was 100% meant to have each actors name on screen during their part but somebody forgot to add the titles(!)

OK, so you probably already know it's not on the leader board for best movies of the decade. But, really, it is a fun movie. If you like campy comedies you will really like this one. Sure its a bit predictable, sure it doesn't have a-list stars, sure it requires willing suspense of disbelief, but come on, if you look at the cast and director, what more can you expect. Charles Rocket does a fine job as the bumbling hero and everyone else fills in the necessary protagonist and antagonist roles. Give it a chance. You remember Evil Dead? Stakeout? Big Trouble in Little China? As long as your expectations aren't too high you won't be disappointed.

Well, you expect it to be bad, and this particular Pyun movie is no exception. About the best that can be said about it is that the photography is somewhat improved, and you can occasionally see signs that SOME money was spent. Though it was clearly still an economic shoot, considering the number of close-ups and scenes that seem to have been very quickly set up.

The rest of the movie is a dull slog through the ugliest Mexican locations Pyun could find, and a story that's particularly incoherent. In his defense, there are signs that the movie was cut up from a longer version, since some stuff that occurs in the movie seems to come out of nowhere.

"Down Twisted" was apparently geared as a major release, but it seems that Cannon dumped this directly to video (or, at the very most, gave it a release in one or two cities.) For one thing, about THREE YEARS passed between the year it was made and the year it appeared on video.

Albert Pyun.... Please, please, PLEASE stop making movies! You can't direct! You're an awful director (and screenwriter)! You're the Ed Wood of the 21st Century. Well, I'll take back that last remark, because as bad as Wood's movies were, he at least made them entertaining and easy to sit through!

Trapped in the convoluted aftermath of a double cross, kindly, overworked waitress Maxine's (Carey Lowell) decision to assist her sketchy roommate Michelle (Trudi Dochterman)rapidly descends her ordered life into a chaotic maelstrom of increasingly dangerous incident! B-maestro Albert Pyun's laudably energetic, downward spiralling crime thriller Down Twisted, while not often mentioned, happily remains a fun, quick-fire 80s time killer. Carey Lowell's naïve, yet plucky hard luck protagonist Maxine is hugely sympathetic, and the amusingly unsavoury group of ne'er-do-wells she brusingly encounters are frequently choice. I appreciated the film's zippy pace, Lowell's charming personality, and the splendidly boppy new wave'd synth score!