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Lethal Force (2001)

Purposefully hilarious, "Lethal Force" is a creative, well-executed spoof of cult action films. It's obvious here that we aren't supposed to really follow the plot. It's pretty simple. Hero Jack has had his wife and young son kidnapped by some evil-doer criminals. All they want is that he bring his partner Savitch to them. That, of course, is easier said than done.

Director Alvin Ecarma has an arsenal of creative and talented people to help with his film. Everything from cinematography to sound design is done quite well here, with much of this engineered to heighten the spoof. But the real important members of the team, perhaps even more important than the actors, are the special effects crew and action choreographers. Sure, sometimes their work leads to hilarious jokes, but more often than that, they are perfectly executed and make the film a real treat.

This film has more kick per frame than the most recent Hong Kong offering and more blood than Hollywood has been ghoulish enough to use since Schwarzenegger had a hit. There is decapitation, knives in hands, trepanning (drilling a hole in the skull for those of you who are unenlightened), knives in the chest, drills in the eyes, and blood blood blood. Through it all, the special effects are phenomenal. There is a drill bit going in a skull effect that I watched 3 times here and still I could not figure out how they did it!

Even better than all the goofy gore, are the quirky characters and costumes. Ecarma wisely dresses Savitch in a bright yellow shirt so that the more bloody things get, the more hideous his shirt looks. There is an African-American chick in the coolest green jumpsuit that surely came from the Pam Grier K-Mart collection. There's a wheelchair-bound villain. And then there are the minions. In a hilarious and cult quirk twist, there are seemingly hundreds of evil minions dressed in black body stockings wearing white masks. Now, any first year filmmaker can see the beauty in this. Using the same 4 or 5 stuntmen over and over in the same generic costume, Ecarma was able to make it seem like an extras cast of hundreds and hundreds. It's awesome, cool and funny as hell.

I only had one problem with the film and it was a minor one. For one reason or another, there's a pedophilia joke designed to delight every dumb fuck who has suggested we just castrate child molesters. I bet the audience will really whoop it up at that scene. "Lethal Force" satisfies that equally perverted bloodlust. The film features a plot that includes a child in danger which, of course, normally pisses me off, but here is done for laughs. I think it's wrong, but at least it's not a simplistic plot device designed to make you care for the character. The characters here are so purposefully one-dimensional that you could care less about any of them, child included.

Finally, something must be said of the actor playing Savitch. The actor is credited as Cash Flagg Jr. He also is a producer here. B-Movie aficionados will recognize that name (minus the Jr.) as the cinematic nom-de-film of Ray Dennis Steckler, a 50's and 60's schlockmeister who polluted drive-in screens with films like "The Incredibly Strange Creatures who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies." Whether his namesake here is truly related, or simply an homage to a master of the genre, it adds a delightful kick to the film.

"Lethal Force" is a particularly clever film; not because it spoofs cult action films (that has been done before), but because it does it so skillfully. And it will make you laugh out loud with it's hilarious special effects and visual jokes. "Lethal Force" is just well-made fun. I don't like bloody gory stuff usually, but I really dug this film. Surprisingly, its's no proverbial drill to the forehead, unlike many films you'll see at a film festival.

This Film Reviewed from the 2001 Austin Film festival!

Report Card

Script: A

Acting: B

Cinematography\Lighting: B+

Special Effects\Make Up: A+

Music: A-

Final Grade: A

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