Warren McLean Movies
- 1993
- R
Director Cirio Santiago plays a cameo in his own Fast Gun. Contrary to expectations, the film is not a western but an espionager. An ex-CIA "spook" -- a man assigned to infiltrate enemy strongholds -- becomes unhinged when the department lets him go. Arming himself to the teeth, he takes over a small town. Only one man is willing to stand up to the former spy, and that man has a history of his own.Kaz Garas is the most recognizable name among the cast members of Fast Gun. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1988
- R
In this sequel, a trusting private serving with U.S. forces in Vietnam becomes friends with a Vietnamese girl. When he discovers that she is being used by someone in the military in a prostitution ring and has become addicted to drugs, he tries to find out how he can blow the whistle on this abuse of power. He doesn't know that the person he has come to for help is himself the chief culprit. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ken Jacobson, Ronald William Lawrence, (more)
- 1987
- R
The makers of this '50s monster-movie throwback must have greatly enjoyed the Wisconsin-lensed Bog -- since this film lifts that regional clunker's premise in its entirety and merely transplants it into a pleasant Polynesian locale. Yet another prehistoric terror from the deep (i.e. diver in cheap latex suit) rises from its eons-long nap after being rudely awakened by boozy, dynamite-fishing locals, slinking among the swaying palms to snack on unsuspecting tourists. That is, until the local Sheriff (of course) teams up with the owner of a popular resort to stand around and talk a lot... and eventually put an end to the beast's bloodthirsty rampage. There's even a convenient reptile expert on hand to kick around pseudo-scientific nonsense and pad out the film's runtime with even more inane dialogue. For more Italian variations on the same tired theme, masochistic viewers may want to seek out Up from the Depths (from the same director, no less!) and Devilfish. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- 1987
In this actioner, a pair of ex-Green Berets use the skills they perfected in 'Nam to save the Pope from an assassin's bullet in Central America. The trouble is, the hit man is the veterans' former commanding officer who was captured in Asia and outfitted with a special microchip that lets him take orders directly from the Kremlin. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Max Thayer, John Dresden, (more)
- 1986
- R
This action film from prolific Filipino director Cirio Santiago stars Cec Verrell as tough cop Jennie ("Silk"), who works for the Honolulu police. A series of murders has the police baffled, so Silk is called in to help uncover the culprits. Her sleuthing leads to several shoot-outs and evidence that incriminates one of the cops. Connected to the deaths are gangland figures and the ugly business of selling fake identities. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cec Verrell, Bill McLaughlin, (more)
Oliver Stone's breakthrough as a director, Platoon is a brutally realistic look at a young soldier's tour of duty in Vietnam. Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen) is a college student who quits school to volunteer for the Army in the late '60s. He's shipped off to Vietnam, where he serves with a culturally diverse group of fellow soldiers under two men who lead the platoon: Sgt. Barnes (Tom Berenger), whose facial scars are a mirror of the violence and corruption of his soul, and Sgt. Elias (Willem Dafoe), who maintains a Zen-like calm in the jungle and fights with both personal and moral courage even though he no longer believes in the war. After a few weeks "in country," Taylor begins to see the naïveté of his views of the war, especially after a quick search for enemy troops devolves into a round of murder and rape. Unlike Hollywood's first wave of Vietnam movies (including The Deer Hunter, Apocalypse Now, and Coming Home), Platoon is a grunts-eye view of the war, touching on moral issues but focusing on the men who fought the battles and suffered the wounds. In this sense, it resembles older war movies more than its Vietnam peers, as it mixes familiar elements of onscreen battle with small realistic details: bugs, jungle rot, exhaustion, C-rations, marijuana, and counting the days before you go home. This mix of traditional war movie elements with a contemporary sensibility won Platoon four Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director, and a reputation as one of the definitive modern war films. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe, (more)
- 1986
- R
Following a nuclear holocaust, Alaska is turned into a desert ruled by a cruel tyrant. This sci-fi actioner chronicles the attempts of rebels to usurp him and free up water and other resources for others. Essentially, this is another knock-off of the "Mad Max" films. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Norton, Corinne Wahl, (more)
- 1986
- R
US air force lieutenant Lisa Echhorn is determined to prove her mettle by taking a grueling escape-and-evasion course. Along with several other trainees, Echhorn is parachuted to a remote island where she is to be tracked down by the "enemy". Reluctantly teamed with major Tom Skerritt, who has been injured in the jump, Echhorn successfully reaches the "safe" goal she's been assigned, only to learn that she has been dragooned into a far more deadly training program than she'd expected. Put to work in a hard labor camp, Echhorn is subjected to various and sundry humiliations by master sadists Anthony Zerbe and Richard Roundtree. What started out as mere "war games" ends in dead seriousness as Echhorn is forced to face her tormentors alone. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Skerritt, Lisa Eichhorn, (more)
Meant to be a parody of the martial arts genre, this weakly plotted story centers around a kidnapping in Manila engineered by two terrorists to obtain the release of a political prisoner in the Middle East. In order to save the busload of tourists that are being held hostage, the U.S. Embassy summons three international agents: Spike Shinobi (Sho Kasugi) who, inspired by Kojak (Telly Savalas' TV detective), puts a lollipop in his mouth in-between fights, Steven Gordon (Brent Huff), and Jennifer Barnes (Emilia Lesniak). The trio are up against the deranged German Alby the Cruel (Blackie Dammett) and the sadistic lesbian Honey Hump (Regina Richardson), the terrorists holding the tourists. Wild exaggeration in-between the karate action is meant to bring humor to the proceedings. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brent Huff, Emilia Lesniak, (more)
