10 TO MIDNIGHT

10 TO MIDNIGHT (1983)

Directed by J. Lee Thompson

Screenplay by William Roberts

Story by J. Lee Thompson

RECOMMENDATION BY

JUSTIN HUGH DICKINSON

In one of the seemingly endless cop thrillers made by that '80s dream team that was Charles Bronson and J. Lee Thompson and produced by Cannon Picture cousins Golan & Globus, this has all the basic ingredients of these types of films. Charlie plays his usual cynical, bad-ass role, (that by this time he could play in his sleep). As Leo Kessler, he is teamed with his new by-the-book partner Paul McAnn (Andrew Stevens), and is trying to be a good father to his grown daughter Laurie (Lisa Elibacher from Beverly Hills Cop). Of course, there's a psycho-killer, Warren Stacy, (Gene Davis) on the loose in the city murdering women.. Naturally, this gives Kessler no choice but to break police procedure in order to catch him. Obtaining evidence in an unorthodox fashion against the killer allows Stacy to walk. Now Stacy plans on getting back at Kessler by targeting Laurie.

This killer's M.O. adds an interesting touch to this well-worn formula. During the day he appears to be someone you would not give a second thought to, but inside he wants to kill. He makes obscene phone calls to his would-be victims using a fake Latin accent that is reminiscent of Don't Answer the Phone. At night he dresses in Member's Only jackets, jeans, cowboy boots, and goes hunting after pretty women. The aforementioned "interesting touch" is that once he finds his prey, he takes all his clothes off and chases after them. He doesn't even wear shoes.

A neat touch is the scene where Stacy is following a specific girl to kill. The girl is with a friend and they go to a movie. Stacy shadows them carrying an extra pair of clothes that he stows in an air vent. He watches the movie, then when the girl gets up to go to the restroom, he kills her, switches clothes, and returns to his seat making sure people saw him enter the theater when the lights went down and when they went up again. Pretty good alibi. I might be a bit hazy on parts of that segment but that is the gist of it.

There is plenty of nudity and blood in the film, such as when a girl is being chased through the woods you see bush and I am not talking the surrounding foliage here. (Don't you miss the sex, violence, and rampant female nudity of non-watered down '80s movies?)

The acting is not as bad as one might initially suspect. Of course it helps to be a Bronson fan going in. He has played this type for so long by this point, but he seems to be having fun with it saying lines such as "I hate quiche." , "Cole slaw makes me sick." Stevens is fine as well, though on a couple of occasions I expected the veins on his forehead to pulse like in The Fury. Lisa Elibacher is gorgeous as always and does a good job with what little there is for her to do. As the killer, Gene Davis came off as a bit stiff, yet ultimately believable. In fact the first time I saw this I thought Davis' acting was so one-dimensional and wooden that he was horrible in the role. The second time I watched it, I picked up on the fact that he was playing this character completely in a screwed up way, dislocated from everything and everyone in his mind. I saw what he was doing and I think his acting portrayed that. Watch his delivery and see if shades of John Amplas' performance in Martin do not come to mind.

Perhaps the wildest scene comes at the end when Bronson's daughter is being chased down the street with the naked killer running after her American Psycho style, sans the chainsaw and trainers.

All in all, this is one of Charles Bronson's more watchable Cannon films. Not his sickest or nastiest (such as The Evil That Men Do or Kinjite), but a cool movie filled with 80's nostalgia that packs a bit of a punch for its off-the-wall weirdness. Also appearing are Wilford Brimley, Kelly Preston, Ola Ray, and Geoffrey Lewis

This is a film fit for a lazy Saturday/Sunday morning. And definitely is essential in any Charles Bronson marathon that one plans to hold.

Blastfighter (1984)

Directed by Lamberto Bava

A Recommendation 

This very entertaining backwoods revenge movie was to be a futuristic, post-apocalyptic flick by Lucio Fulci. Problems intervened, the original story was scrapped leaving only the title that, while very cool sounding, make

BLASTFIGHTER (Italian, 1984)

s very little (if any) sense. Nevertheless, director Lamberto Bava managed to make a fun and nasty action film with a few touches of Ted Kotcheff’s First Blood thrown in for good measure. 

American actor, Michael Sopkiw (2019: After the Fall of New York, Monster Shark, Massacre in Dinosaur Valley) is Jake “Tiger” Sharp, a disgraced cop who has just been released from prison after serving an eight year sentence for killing those responsible in his wife’s murder. Upon emerging from jail, Tiger is met by a benevolent cop who shows him this outlandish gun that can just about destroy anything. Interested, Tiger takes the monster mayhem maker and heads out to his cabin in deep woods to finally be at peace. Once he pulls into the small town, Tiger is all but immediately frowned upon by the degenerates at the grocery store, whose only pleasure they get from life it seems comes from harassing out of towners, drinking a lot, and poaching deer. 

Tiger lets their taunts wash over him and gets to his cabin. In the distance he sees some hunters killing a deer. So he tries his own hand at hunting with his new mega gun, but once he has a deer in his sights, Tiger holds off and spares its life. Eventually, Tiger comes across a fawn and takes it back to the cabin to care for it. He drives into town for supplies with the fawn riding shotgun and when he comes back with his purchases,  the fawn’s throat has been slit courtesy of the rotten good ol’ boys. One of said boys, Tom, played by George Eastman (a.k.a. Luigi Montefiore) tries to hold back his “friends” from being the complete monsters that they are, but says that they are going to do what they want. (Even though Eastman is taller than all the other guys put together.) 

Tiger has no problem with him and Eastman tries to be as diplomatic as he can, but it just will not work. All that Tiger wants is to be left alone, but the baddies just keep at it, eventually hunting Tiger and his heretofore long-lost daughter Connie (Valentina Forte) who somehow found her dad in a secluded cabin in the middle of nowhere. The scumbags take to raping Tiger’s daughter. And if enough wasn’t already enough, watch out when Tiger finally unleashes the super powered gun. There’s blood, explosions, and there are even some attempts at having your heartstrings tugged at no matter how superficial. You want to see Tiger take down the whole nasty lot of villains and that is what you get. 

Filmed on location in the beautiful wilds of Georgia, I would definitely count Blastfighter as one of Lamberto’s best. Certainly the best in that he did not have Argento producing and co-scripting for him (that would be the original Demons). The music is by Guido & Maurizio De Angelis and I really dug the synth music and the honky-tonk country theme. All said, if you are an Italian genre fan, do yourself a favor and check it out. Note: Michele Soavi (Director of Stagefright (a.k.a.Aquarius, Delirium, Bloody Bird), The Church (La Chiesa), The Sect (U.S. titleThe Devil’s Daughter), and Dellamorte Dellamore/Cemetery Man), has a small role in the film as Pete.

Justin
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