Paul G. Volk Movies
The horror film Hatchetman centers on Claudia, a young woman who is working her way through law school as a stripper. Although she is nearing graduation, a serial killer has been knocking off many of her co-workers. She must expose the killer before he can kill her. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cheryl Burns
A criminal is forced to become a hero in this action drama. Max Hopper (Dean Cain) is a successful burglar who has decided it's time to leave his life of crime behind him. But Hopper is lured into pulling one last heist when he learns about a valuable new computer chip being created by a leading-edge digital hardware firm. Realizing the prototype chip could be sold for a fortune, Hopper comes up with a clever plan to get past the building's security team by posing as a fireman. However, his scheme becomes unexpectedly perilous when a disgruntled employee really does set the building on fire, forcing Hopper to become a real firefighter to save his life, as well as those of the others trapped in the building. Firetrap also stars Richard Tyson, Mel Harris, Lori Petty, and Steven Williams. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dean Cain, Lori Petty, (more)
What would you do if an attractive stranger asked you do go to bed with them? In this steamy thriller, David Hasselhoff plays a business executive who is killing time at an airport cocktail lounge waiting for a flight when he's approached by a beautiful woman (Yvonne Scio) who wants him to go away with her. Throwing caution to the wind, he agrees, but after he's seduced by the mysterious stranger, he discovers he's put himself into a perilous situation when he finds out she's married -- and her husband (Gregg Henry) has deadly plans for him. Layover also features Sherri Alexander and Tom Wright. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Hasselhoff, Gregg Henry, (more)
In this actioner, a secret group of citizens who want to take the law into their own hands do their best to convince an L.A. cop to join them. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- C. Thomas Howell, Ed Lauter, (more)
Set in a post-nuclear-holocaust future, this sci-fi western takes place in the frontier city of New Hope, the only place around with a working oil refinery. Ever since a megalomaniac general and his followers took over the place, life has been miserable. Then a stranger, a man-of-few-words, comes to town. A quick-drawing gunslinger, he first joins the conquerors. As time passes, however, it rapidly becomes apparent that he really sides with the townsfolk, and when the time is right, he leads them into a violent uprising. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1993
Star Wars saga costar Billy Dee Williams once more takes to the Great Beyond in Alien Intruder. The film is set in the future and the plot concerns a malevolent extraterrestrial virus which insinuates itself upon the Earth. Cleverly, the virus takes the shape of voluptuous Tracy Scoggins. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Billy Dee Williams, Melinda Armstrong, (more)
This martial arts actioner stars former light heavyweight World Kickboxing Association champion Don Wilson as a lawyer who loses his wife and son at the murderous hands of drug dealers when the two accidentally find themselves in the midst of a drug deal. Decker, the lawyer, was also there, but is suffering from a form of amnesia and cannot recall the names or faces the police need to make arrests. Repeated trips to a therapist do not help, but then Decker runs across another drug deal in progress and kicks the crud out of the dealers. The violence triggers a dim memory and he discovers the more drug-dealers he beats up, the sharper his memory. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Don "The Dragon" Wilson, Shari Shattuck, (more)
A vengeful FBI agent wages a one-man war against a powerful drug cartel that has kidnapped his family in this action thriller from producer/director Joseph Merhi. The White Hand is a feared drug cartel run by the five most powerful crime lords in the business. When The White Hand takes FBI agent Jeff Douglas' family hostage, they will face an army of one more powerful than any military force, who is ready to make the ultimate sacrifice for the safety of his family. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
In this Ring of Fire sequel, Don Wilson and Maria Ford play an enduring couple who survive all sorts of interference from rival kickbox gangs in their effort to put a little romance in their lives. When Ford is kidnapped and taken deep into the subterranean womb of an enemy gang hideaway, her lover must come to her rescue. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Don "The Dragon" Wilson
Mafia hijinks provide the basis of this violent crime drama. The trouble begins the night before an uneasy truce between the warring Malucci family and the Diamonds is to begin. A volatile gang member starts it all when he launches a dirty surprise attack upon the Maluccis, thereby breaching the code of honor. Among the dead is the fiancee of Dino Diamond's chief arm-breaker, aspiring fighter Fist Sullivan. After Sullivan is framed for the killing by a corrupt cop working for double-crossing Dino, he vows revenge. But he is in jail. One of the Maluccis busts him out. Now working for the enemy, Sullivan, and his turncoat surrogate daughter Alex, who witnessed the fiancee's murder, sets out to avenge the death of his beloved. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1991
- R
Set in a strip club, and stylistically bearing more than a passing resemblance to Flashdance, this drama attempts to show the peelers as people who consider stripping an art form and therefore do all they can to find new and aesthetically pleasing ways to take off their clothes for a leering, drunken group of aficionados. Much of the story centers on the attempts of one stripper to use her experiences at the club to hone her dancing skills so she can win a dance contest and get a scholarship at a prestigious school. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeff Conaway, Michelle Foreman, (more)
In this thriller, a free-lance photographer is falsely convicted of possessing cocaine and is sentenced to jail time and 400 hours of community service. For the latter she must work with the LAPD and take favorable pictures of them doing their jobs for a public relations campaign. She willingly does this so she can regain custody of her young son. The trouble begins when she snaps a picture of Officer Eddie Martin, the cop who got her falsely arrested, killing a pimp. Unfortunately, the corrupt cop catches her catching him and now her life and the life of her son is in terrible danger. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Wings Hauser stars in this direct-to-video thriller as John Saxon, an L.A. cop who learns that the head of a counterfeiting plot is the same man who rescued him from certain death in Vietnam. Also titled Blood Money. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wings Hauser, Karen Black, (more)
Wings Hauser both stars in and directs The Art of Dying. Hauser plays Jack, a vice cop who tries to unravel the mystery behind a series of murders in which each of the corpses has been found with stage makeup on its face. Turns out that the killer is Roscoe (Gary Werntz), a demented movie-maker whose overwhelming desire for realism has resulted in a variety of horrible deaths for his unwary actors. Each victim is dispatched in a manner evoking a famous film: one is killed in the shower, another dies while playing Russian Roulette a la The Deer Hunter, and so forth. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Cycle-flick habitue William Smith is top-billed in Emperor of the Bronx. Virtually wall-to-wall violence, this is the story of homicidal street gangs and their noxious, mob-connected leaders. The film makes a few tentative stabs at social relevance, but this obviously isn't its reason for being. So much mayhem occurs in the first 80 minutes that the bloodshed in the last reel is almost anti-climactic. As always, the ubiquitous Smith rises above his material. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1988
In this made-for-video sequel, an undercover policewoman (Pamela Dixon) hunts a serial killer stalking nightclub dancers. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
Ex-football great Jim Brown co-stars in this blood-filled police actioner with former Welcome Back Kotter "Sweathog"Lawrence-Hilton Jacobs. In the story, Jon Chance (Jacobs) is a police detective with a very active fantasy life, who must be spurred into action by his captain (Brown). The case at hand involves a super-violent drug-dealer who is giving the police the run-around, and Jon's task is to bring him in. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jim Brown, Kevin Benton, (more)
- 1987
In this straight-to-video Las Vegas-set thriller, a choreographer's attempts to kick his drug habit and clean up his act are thwarted by Mafia-connected pushers, and dogged G-men. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
