Bullet Points: Viper aka Bad Blood
Sometimes I look at the now dozens of reviews we have up on the site and look for some action stars we may not have covered yet. And one such star was the Renegade himself, Lorenzo Lamas.
So using the search feature on my Roku device, I came across Lorenzo Lamas in Viper (also known as Bad Blood in some circles) streaming on Popcorn Flix.
Viper is the type of action movie that going into it, I pretty much knew what to expect and that’s exactly what I got.
This is not a bad thing. In fact, some action movies that try to get too cute and experiment with a winning formula more often than not fall flat. Although I will say I was surprised about the character Lindee Kincaid, so it wasn’t 100% predictable.
- The Premise: Travis Blackstone (Lorenzo Lamas) was a cop who destroyed evidence to get his brother Franklin (Hank Cheyne) off the hook. It cost Travis his badge and prison time. You can imagine his disappointment when he gets out and he learns from his ex-girlfriend Rhonda (Frankie Thorn) that Franklin is once again in trouble (he embezzled money from the mob) and he needs Travis’ help… also, Franklin and Rhonda are now an item. So that makes the Blackstone boys blood brothers AND Eskimo brothers.
- The Cast: Besides those that I mentioned above, the cast includes the father of Travis and Franklin, John Blackstone played by one of my favorites, John P. Ryan. As I mentioned in my Death Wish 4 review last week, whenever I see Ryan in a movie where he is a “good guy”, I fully expect him to go rogue at some point in the film and I spent a good portion of this movie waiting for him to turn on his sons. Then there’s the main bad guy, Jimmy Chang (Joe Son). He’s most known for his role as Random Task in the original Austin Powers movie. Beau Starr is also in this movie, he plays Bo (big stretch) another of the movies baddies and a guy I always confuse for the jerk cop in Murphy’s Law. Which reminds me of Lindee, played by Kimberly Kates, who I fully expected was just there for some added T&A, but again I was wrong, so good job movie!
- Boob Content: But speaking of T&A, there’s a good percentage of it in this film. One more scene with nudity in it and this could have potentially been in the Cinemax After Dark Line Up.
- Lorenzo is Legit: Lamas holds his own as an action star and is always believable in his action roles. Although I’m not sure I believe he could have jumped over that car that was trying to run him down, but it was a pretty awesome scene none the less, probably my favorite in the film. One problem I did have is the choice of villain. Joe Son (aka Random Task) is a short man at 5’4″. Then there’s Lorenzo at 6’1″ tall. The size disadvantage should be on the hero, not the villain. It just seemed like a poor casting choice to put Joe Son in as the main villain. At one point he throws a pen at Lorenzo, honestly who throws a pen? Then I remembered this…
- Joe Son is Legit: The actor Joe Son is a legit criminal. He is currently serving a life sentence in prison after being convicted or torturing a woman back in 1990. So Michelle Guillermin, you did a brilliant job casting Joe Son as a bad guy. Once again, good job movie!
If you are craving some 90’s action goodness, you could definitely do a lot worse than Viper. I enjoyed the movie and it is one that I would watch again.
I’m sure Lorenzo Lamas fans have already seen it, but if by some chance you didn’t, this is definitely a movie for you.
Here’s three more Bullet Points before we wrap this one up…
- Details: You may look at the picture above and wonder, is Lorenzo’s character a Buford Pusser wannabe? No, the reason Travis Blackstone was armed with a baseball bat when he went to confront the thugs who were harassing Rhonda in a parking lot was because Lorenzo was coaching a kids baseball team… so the attention to detail as to why Lorenzo had a weapon with him when he saved the day is good. But one has to wonder how many parents would be upset knowing the coach of the little league team was a convicted criminal.
- HLA: If you ever wanted to see Random Task wearing some American flag boxer shorts while watching two women make out with one another, then this is the movie for you.
- End Credits: Unless my eyes were deceiving me, John P. Ryan was listed as John T. Ryan in the end credits. Another point of interest in the end credits, security was listed as Starr Security. Was Beau Starr moonlighting as set security with his brother and fellow actor, Mike Starr, when he wasn’t in front of the camera? Or is this simply a coincidence?