This
year I’ve decided to track the film's I've seen, so far, and
remember it's still only January, i've watched a total of 27 films,
out of those 27, 22 of them are first time viewings, i've seen a lot
of awesome flicks including the one i'm about to review. The film
that will accompany this minor opening paragraph is a 1991 action
flick starring Brian “Boz” Bosworth and Lance Henriksen. Today's
macho movie pick is STONE COLD.
I
know what you're thinking, “how have you not seen stone cold yet
pete?, it's an awesome film!”, and I totally agree with that
statement, I don't know how i've never seen it, it's one that has
always passed me by, but now, I can cross it off my too watch list as
I watched it last night and it fuckin' ruled. Anyone familiar with
the action genre will recognize the name Craig R. Baxley, Baxley and
his family are Hollywood stunt royalty and Craig is probably the best
known. Baxley's stunt work as a co-ordinator can be seen in
everything from Shampoo to Predator but more people will be familiar
with his work as a film director. Baxley's directorial feature debut
was with the action packed Carl Weathers flick, Action Jackson, he
followed up that with Dark Angel aka I Come In Peace and Stone Cold,
he has also dabbled in Stephen King adaptations such as Rose Red, the
brilliant Storm Of The Century and Kingdom Hospital. Baxley isn't a
director of actors so much but a director of action, being a stunt
co-ordinator and second unit director, the man knows how to shoot a
fast moving manly picture. Stone Cold is one of the manliest films
I’ve ever seen. What we get is 90 minutes of explosions,
Motorbikes, muscles and gunfire. And it's those elements that do
indeed make this film awesome.
Lets's
look at the plot. Now this is just another in a long line of late 80s
early 90s action movie plots. A cop goes undercover with a bike gang
with the aim of taking them down for the FBI. So far so generic
action movie plot, almost the same plot as Raw Deal, but while the
plot is oh so familiar, it doesn't take away from the film. Brian
Bosworth plays Alabama cop-on-suspension, Joe Huff, a man built like
a WWE wrestler from the late 80s with a bi-colour mullet to match. He
has the number one arrest record in the state for Biker related
crimes so the FBI blackmail him into going deep cover into a New
Orleans biker gang called The Brotherhood. Changing his name to John
Stone, Huff makes his entrance into the Brotherhood. Full of bikers
with silly names like Ice and Gut, it's lead by the ruthless Chains,
played effortlessly by Lance Henriksen. But Ice smells something
fishy, he knows that Stone is a cop. Stone needs evidence to take the
Brotherhood down, so sets up an elaborate plan to catch Chains and
the gang in the act, that goes tits up but he over hears someone
saying they were going to kill a DA or some one high up for the
incarceration of a fellow Brotherhood member, leading to a beat down
of epic proportions in a courthouse.
Awesome
is too weak a word to use to explain how amazingly bad ass this film.
The
acting talent is on point for this kind of flick with solid work from
Henriksen and William Forsythe as the main mean bikers. Forsythe went
through a lot of these late 80s early 90s action flicks kicking butt
as villain, most memorably for me as psychotic Richie Madano from
Steven Seagal's excellently brutal actioner, Out For Justice. I'm not
going to talk about Henriksen because we all know he usually makes
films ten times more watchable, as Chains he totally kills it. He's
very badass as the lead biker and his final showdown with Stone is a
corker. Now onto former NFL linebacker, Brian “The Boz” Bosworth,
a rather imposing figure of a man, like a cross between Steven Seagal
and Vanilla Ice with the body of, ironically, WWE wrestler Stone Cold
Steve Austin. He has a cheeky charisma that works with this kind of
character. He's not at all a bad actor either, holding his own with
pro's like Henriksen and Forsythe. It's a shame that he never became
a bigger star but ended up in the direct-to-video market with films
like One Man's Justice and Phase IV (not the movie about killer Ants)
starring Dean Cain. The same goes for Jeff Speakman, a man who made
an excellent action film for Paramount in the very early 90s called
The Perfect Weapon, he went straight to the DTV land of movies which
damn shame because like Bosworth, Speakman too was a good screen
presence for this genre.
Baxley's
eye for action is what truly makes this film one of the most bad ass
films of the 1990s, from the opening supermarket scene, the bike
chase through heavy traffic and the final helicopter/gun battle in
the courthouse, the action never really lets up. Action films always
benefit from a seasoned second unit/stunt co-ordinator at the helm
because they know what to put on screen, Vic Armstrong was
responsible for making Joshua Tree look spectacular action wise and
Baxley does the same with this.
To
round off this review, Stone Cold was awesome, action packed, good
performances and some really well staged set pieces. I do highly
recommend this if you are a fan of the action genre, it won't let you
down and you'll enjoy the shit out of it.
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