Avenging Force

The hell?! Not only is this Hard Target seven years before Hard Target, it might also be the only Cannon actionfilm I've seen with blatantly left-leaning politics. And yes, I realize that a) Hard Target is just a variation on The Most Dangerous Game and b) no one would ever call this woke, but still- This was a pleasant surprise. It's clumsier than two hamsters fucking in an empty pillow case, but that's how I like my 80ies action, gosh darn it!

God bless Cannon Pictures in the 80's. There's a scene where Michael Dudikoff is rescuing a small child and escapes via upstairs window onto the roof. He gets shot and drops the kid who cartwheels his way down three flights of roofing, well a mannequin of the kid cartwheels down 20 feet. Sam Firstenberg is the king of mannequin usage.

Some abnormally gratuitous violence and some crappy acting didn't keep me from enjoying this for some reason. Sometimes this junk just hits the spot.

Michael Dudikoff beats the hell out of racists and there's an amazing stunt dummy fall. Cannon at it's action best here!

This movie is incredibly stupid and insanely fun.

One of the better films Dudikoff made for Cannon. It suffers quite a bit from killing off James before the climactic hunt, but this is largely made up for by John P. Ryan's nuttily wonderful turn as the leader of the villainous group. This isn't a subtle film ... the villains dress up in silly masks and S & M outfits for the climactic hunt ... but it's a decent low budget bit of action fun.

We get the best/worst of both worlds here: its subject matter and cynicism provide the shock value of an exploitation film, but its production value and performances turn it into top-shelf camp.