Dans les griffes du crime

What a dog this one is! Poorly staged action sequences, lousy acting, terrible dialogue - and it's racist to boot. A ridiculous simplification of the political turmoil in Lebanon in the 1980s, this film would also have us believe that one American high-school basketball coach can defeat a whole army of Lebanese terrorists!!! And we are also meant to believe that the US Government would recruit this same basketball coach (and his friendly Lebanese taxi driver!!!) in an operation to rescue American hostages - a four man operation against hundreds of armed-to-the-teeth terrorists. The resulting rescue scene is almost as funny as the opening scene of "The Naked Gun". This sort of nonsense certainly does nothing to help US relations with the Middle East - and, as this was an Israeli-American co-production, it does little to help Arab-Israeli relations either.

On the plus side there is some excellent male eye-candy. Lorenzo Lamas, an even worse actor than his father (if such a thing is possible), is pretty easy on the eye. But even better we have no less than two Michael Pares - he plays twin brothers, and neither brother seems to be too fond of wearing shirts! It's a shame that Pare ended up in this sort of z-grade rubbish, particularly after such a promising start in "Eddie and the Cruisers".

With the hunk factor so high, maybe you could watch "Killing Streets" with the sound turned down, put something sexy on the stereo, and simply admire the view!

This is one of those low budget action movies that appear very late at night at cable TV. I like action movies (when they are done well - duh) and I had a bit of insomnia problem , so I decided to watch it.

This is a 90's action movie that is set in the 1980's Lebanon. Don't expect and thoghtful insight on the political turmoil. This is 100% clean action/thriller straight-to- VHS /DVD quality. It was made for the undemanding action junkies and only they will have some kind of fun with this movie.

Will they ? The movie is definitely overlong . There is relatively little action and only at the end it gets to be at least passable. The plot is ridiculously implausible, the dialogues are lame , the acting is lousy beyond belief and the characters could only live in the imagination of the screenwriter (the INCREDIBLY helpful taxi driver is my favourite).

There is a scene here that uses a dribbled basketball as a dramatic sound effect. You read that right. That scene is a poetry of bad movie making. Try to find it on YouTube . It's so bad it's good.This is also the only scene in the whole movie that is memorable. Well , it is an action movie where the main hero is a high school basketball coach who saves his twin brother from terrorists. Propably the lamest hero in action movie history.

This is a movie for masochists or people looking for male eye candy (Michael Pare almost the entire time of the movie is shirtless ! ) . I give it 1/10.

This is the fourth Paré flick I catch, the others being Bad Moon(a crossbreed of Lassie and your typical sub-par werewolf story), Deadly Heroes(that reuses part of a so-so car-chase in this, and is pure camp) and Village of the Damned(where I must have been basically fine with him, as I don't recall him standing out as poor). Here, he's playing two(I think; it is difficult to determine, as the only thing that sets them apart... *at all*... is that one has a patch of blood over his left eye, as evidence that he's been tortured) identical cousins(they walk and talk alike)... no, wait, twins. Yeah, they feel each other's pain(well, once, when it's required for this thing's excuse for a plot)... has that *ever* been a compelling idea? Whether or not such a thing is just a little bit realistic, it is corny as all hell. Anyway, where Double Impact had split-screen shots, we don't even get *that* here. Chris Brandt wakes up one morning, certain that his brother(in Lebanon, engaged in the conflict) is alive(he dreamt it, you see; at this point, the producers remind the writers that they are, in fact, not currently doing a script for My Little Pony). There is relatively little action, and only near the end does it get to be at least decent. This is one of the stupidest protagonists I've encountered. For some reason, he sure can fight, in spite of being a mere basketball coach. This is not that exciting or entertaining. There is hardly any tension. It is definitely a B-movie, with the acting "talent" to match. The score is fine, nothing special. Same goes for the dialog, with the occasional exception that is concentrated pain in audio form. As another person already put it, this is put together by Americans and Isralies, and offensive to everyone but those groups. There is a little sexuality/eye-candy and moderate, bloody violence in this. Flat, one-sided, and will probably give you constipation... similar, I suppose, to a pizza, albeit without the appeasing scent and taste. Yeah, watch the JCVD film instead. I recommend this solely to those looking for a fix in the genre. 4/10

Typical propagandist plot of the "good USA" and the "middle eastern terrorists". The "honorable" US soldier, or civilian being kidnapped by the middle eastern "terrorists" and the hostage being rescued!

The true version of the story is that tyrant USA attacks or triggers war against countries which do not submit to US tyranny and control... a tradition of every presidential mandate. Except Trump. The middle east is so bad for not submitting to US control of their oil! So the true story is exactly the way around. The USA commits countless crimes around the world (see covid pandemics bioweapon). Some more originality in the story by shifting around the "good" and "bad" guys would have been nicer. I much prefer "Good Will Hunting". The answer of Will to why not to join the NSA was great! It´s the type of answer that makes me think: "this is what I call an educational movie"... which I cannot say about "Killing Streets" and all the other (USA) State propagandist movies.

Stephanie and I joined our friends, Mr. and Mrs. Shade, in a game of "let's test our threshold of pain" as we got together to watch the malodorous waste of celluloid known as "Killing Streets." As soon as Lorenzo Lamas appeared on screen with a HORRIBLY FAKE Southern accent we knew it was go time. "Whatchu doin' here, boyeee?" The moment he uttered his first line all four of us burst out in laughter. It was beautifully awful.

I must say this is one of the best "high school basketball coach travels to Lebanon to save his twin brother" movies I've ever seen. Oh wait, it's the only movie of that nature I've ever seen. Can you believe it?

I'm sorry to say that my plot description is completely accurate and not a figment of my imagination. This movie is all about originality! Honestly, how many other movies can you name that involve a high school basketball coach and his Lebanese cab driver taking on a huge armed-to-the-teeth terrorist group? What's that? You can't think of any? Yeah, that's what I thought.

I could go on and on about the aimless action, the stupid car chases, the implausibility of it all, the one-note "lead" actress whose function is to make out hot and heavy with the hero, but it'd be a waste of our time. I think a description of the end of the movie will sum up everything quite nicely:

One of the terrorists is holding a grenade in one hand and Paré twin #1 in the other. All of a sudden we hear the sound of a basketball being dribbled in slow motion. You read that right; there is actually an "action" movie out there that uses a dribbled basketball as a dramatic sound effect. Paré twin #1 then drops to the ground and Paré twin #2 blows away the terrorist. When Paré twin #1 asks Paré twin #2 how he knew which way he'd duck, Paré twin #2 (the basketball coach) responds with, "In basketball you always fake left and go right." Yeah.

THE GIST

If you're a masochist that, for some unknown reason, likes movies about high school coaches literally outsmarting a whole country full of Lebanese terrorists, then you might actually enjoy this movie. Otherwise, this is strictly for bad movie marks who want to get four or more friends together and create their own Mystery Science Theater episode.