Review of Death Warrant (1990) by Bobby L — 03 Jan 2010

So, this came out in 1990, when he was still making solid to fantastic films (The Quest was 96 and Timecop was 94), but this is the sort of schlock that would bring him down. His way of acting, which is more akin to emoting as opposed to fully on acting (excluding JCVD) does him no justice here.

The script has some of the worst dialogue for an action film I have heard this side of Street Fighter (this is just coincide that he's in both, as I consider SF to be one of the worst action films of all time).

The plot of him being undercover in a prison isn't terrible, but the prison is filled with every sort of cliched prisoner/ warden type you can think of, but this still wouldn't be too bad. The biggest killer here is the investigation by his allies/ liaisons, which involves the a teenage "computer wizard" who doesn't want to miss Star Trek hacking his way through the prisons files.

Then when it all comes full circle and the whos/whys are revealed, it's laughably handled and ultra-cliche, with a very anti-climatic ending to that scene. The fights aren't well shot or lit, and the director has no sense of timing, pacing, or knows how use an effective musical cue, of which I started a few fits of laughters at a couple of times at the awfulness of song choice vs.

timing.