Scarecrow-88 Abysmal action garbage stars The Bos (Brian Bosworth) as a military sergeant who nearly dies from serious gunshot wounds in an attempt to protect his family from a drug-dealing scumbag named Marcus (Jeff Kober, as detestable as they come; this guy can play these cretins in his sleep). Marcus is associated with a drug kingpin (MC Hammer!!!) and gunrunning cop (Bruce Payne, in long hair with a nose ring, smirking his way through the movie as he kills one criminal lowlife after another; amazingly, it is hard to really cheer against the guy because those he constantly obliterates are worse than he is!). Bos wants to find Marcus and get revenge for the murder of his wife and little girl, but he also winds up having to rescue a young black kid (DeJuan Guy) from the midst of all the drug-dealing and gun-distribution that exists on the streets of sunny palm tree LA. There is just a plethora of loathsome human trash in this film, with Payne, as psychopathic as he is, almost a hero at times. It isn't like those he and his "cops" (using that loosely; he is part of the FBI, although his activities and behavior you'd think would be suspicious to the government he serves) destroy are innocent, upstanding citizens…if anything they are worse than Payne and his guys! There is even one scene where Payne keeps his men from killing Bos, questioning their scruples! Payne casts off this arrogance and his cold-blooded dispatching of victims just for the hell of it, seemingly for kicks, does set him up as a maniac destined to be knocked off his perch. Bos, bless his heart, gives it all he has to earn our sympathy, but he's not exactly cast for his thespian emoting. He tries, that I'll give to him. He's ultimately a softie who only fights when he must, even pulling away from killing Kober (and if anybody deserved to die a slow, painful death it is this guy!) when DeJuan is nearby…the whole "practice what you preach" as Bos had talked with the kid about his disapproval of hunting down and killing a street punk who killed a school chum. Willing to shock, there's even a scene where Payne threatens to drown DeJuan if he doesn't lead him to the man responsible for taking his guns! There's one scene Payne sets a gunrunner on fire using gasoline from a pump without giving it a second thought, and he purposely sells guns with blanks to Hammer's men who invade a cop baseball game believing they are responsible for the murder of the kingpin's accountant brother! The trick Bos goes to in order to break free from two agents associated with Payne using the ole "I need to pee" excuse (he was to be set up and tried for gun selling) agrees with the implausible plot shenanigans of this really dumb movie. Payne and Kober posit warts and all, let-it-all-hang-out performances, adhering to the requirements of providing the film with the vilest, most conscience-less villains so worthy of execution. Could be fun to non-discriminating action fans who embrace the unsavory elements of despicable people committing egregious acts to profit themselves no matter who gets hurt. Bos' fight choreography is shot carefully, allowing him to look like a million bucks. Payne is having a hell of a lot of fun, but Kober is equally repellent. The street locations are appropriate backdrops for the characters highlighted. DeJuan's little tough guy routine is laughable…but the plight of a kid influenced by his surroundings is real life. This film is just an over the top Z-movie action flick which takes that plight and exploits it for dramatic purposes that will make you cringe due to the poor performances of those attempting to convince us as unsettling depictions of LA gang life.

erin50325 Found on NETFLIX-had so many of my fave 'character actors': Bruce Payne, (WARLOCK 3, CHARMED, SWITCH), Jeff Kober, (everyone's fave bad guy!), MC Hammer, Neal McDonough (Desperate Housewives, TIMELINE, BOOMTOWN,) Robert LaSardo (Nip/Tuck, General Hospital) among others, just had to watch! Stayed interested; well paced. Though I still can't understand how Brian Bosworth ever became a movie actor, this is one of his 'better' roles and very believable. Don't agree with the goof-looks like one side of the windows exploded, then the others, which would make sense. Not too much blood, though lots of guns and kicks. If you like these guys, well worth the 90+ minutes!

dementomstie I haven't made it all the way through this movie yet, but I have to say that this is one of the best terrible movies I have ever seen. It's an almost standard "good guy vs. cop gone bad" story, but the level of "bad" that the cop has going for himself is ridiculous. The bad guy is so bad that in the first scene that I saw him in he shoots up a room full of drug dealers, then someone else comes in to shoot him and he shoots them too. Blood all over the place. Again, standard fair for a movie like this. The best scene in this movie was where the bad guy is talking to an informant while holding an ice cream cone. The informant doesn't give him the information that he wanted so out of nowhere the bad guy kicks him in the crotch so hard the informant throws up. I hadn't really been paying attention to the movie up until this point, and maybe it says something about my generation, but I couldn't stop laughing at that. It's like the script writers went "OK, he's bad sure, we've shown him smuggling drugs and shooting people and being in general a terrible person, but what can we do to make it clear that this is the bad guy? I know! Let's have him kick a guy in the crotch really hard! BRILLIANT!" Of course, the other possibility is that the actor was a method actor and this was an improved action on his part. If so, that is the most brilliant director in the world to allow it to be kept in, since that's not what's happening, it's still a really odd action movie.

The Beer Kids I saw this movie on HBO about a year and a half ago, and I absolutely loved it. I've never heard of Brian Bosworth, who seems to be the typical American action movie star (he's better than Jeff Speakman by far, though). The throwaway plot in this film deals with the not-so-accidental death of North's wife and child at the hands of a couple of street hoods working for a Disney Dollars counterfeiter or an herbal tea smuggler or something. Johnny sets off in pursuit of the dudes and is led to Karl Savak (Bruce Payne from Passenger 57), the aforementioned bad guy.There are some very well-done fight scenes here, and the story actually develops (somewhat) as North tries to lure his nemesis out of the woodwork by posing as another criminal, and is eventually offered a chance by Savak to avenge his family's death. The dialogue is laughable at points, mainly Bosworth's lines, but for the most part this movie is well-paced. Payne is right at home as the villain, and the showdown at the end is incredible. The supporting cast did well with what they had, also.If you find this one at the bottom of a sales bin, you would do well to pick it up. Hell, I'll buy it from you. No rental store around Chicago has this film.