However, one day I saw a VHS of this movie just lying around and seeing that it had an all star cast (according to me) I began to ponder why no one really talks about this movie at all. It had a typical early 90's cover as you can see above and promised explosions to me on the back cover. That is all I really needed to know in order to slap down the fifty cents required to purchase the VHS.
I am almost immediately greeted by James Tolkan in an eye patch whom you may know as that guy from Top Gun, who is cleverly named Patch. Also there is a mustache guy named Kutner who is played by Lee de Broux who I recognize as Tom from Pumpkinhead, and Sal from Robocop. So right away this movie is made for me. So in the showers of a prison are a couple of guys wearing their underwear to the shower. I guess everyone is in fear of being penetrated from behind in the prison, and for good reason because nearly a minute in someone is stabbed from behind and dies.
Meanwhile, a dude named Ike played by Brad Davis who I suppose you could recognize from Chariots of Fire if you wanted, is getting married. His bride to be is named Maria. Anyway, Ike is best friends with Ken Foree who if you don't know by now... well, sorry. Ken plays Billy, and during this wedding he drinks a lot, so we see he is a party dude. We also discover that Ike's name is actually Isaac.
The next day at precisely 7:00 am as the film tells us, guards come and get Kutner for his parole hearing. At this point I am aware that this movie has an unnecessary amount of text informing us of when and where stuff is going on. For example, shortly after informing us of that scene we see that it is four miles out from the prison on the interstate as some people are driving badly. Then at precisely 7:05 am Kutner arrives to his parole, um... meeting. We learn that Kutner is in jail for strangling an eight year old girl as well as possibly many others. Maria, who is a doctor of some kind recommends that he doesn't get parole.
Four minutes later by the info text's account the bad driving makes a truck of Toxic stuff explode. The Toxic chemicals are headed for the prison so they have to evacuate everyone. Kutner decides to escape and takes Maria hostage along with the help of his friend Patch. They steal a bus full of prisoners and end up in an old mining town of about 50 people. The prisoners go out and steal the towns weapons to prepare for a shootout with the police.
Meanwhile Billy wakes up with a hangover and Ike is cooking eggs. There is a knock on the door and it turns out that Ike lives in the town where the prisoners have gone and now have his wife ironically hostage there. The people at the door are Lou Ferrigno as Smitty and Lyle Alzado as Albert, and they have guns which is a pretty scary thought. It turns out they are not as strong as their physique would have you believe and are easily taken care of.
Meanwhile Kutner gets the police to back off by shooting a hostage, so the police call up the National Guard lead by Dr. Ron Shepherd from Xtro 2 himself, Jan-Michael Vincent as Colonel Johnson. He is a stereotypical dick and gets some people killed in a wild west ambush scenario.
Much of the movie at this point is kind of like watching a western thanks to the location. We discover that Billy and Ike were in Vietnam/insert other action stereotypes here etc. People die, Ken Foree is a bad ass and says one liners, and then the location changes to a run down mining facility. At this point it is just like any other lower budget action movie with similar lighting and filming techniques on display.
There really isn't much to say. Despite this, the movie made me like it early on and so I was willing to sit through the rest. Trust me it was worth it to see all the really bad one liners Ken Foree says. I wouldn't call this a good movie, but those who are used to seeing this type of movie, or better yet straight to home video releases of the 80's and 90's would probably sit through it easily. Where this movie shines is its cast of actors who are all pretty recognizable. All these people are somehow in a movie together so out of curiosity it might be worth seeing. I don't recommend this movie to the average viewer of film, those looking for a bad movie to laugh at, or those looking for some bad ass action though. I recommend it to people who can sit through a straight to video Steven Seagal movie, or Cage 2 however. It is about like watching something along those lines.
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