Streets Of Darkness (1995)

Streets Of Darkness (1995)- * *

Directed by: James Ingrassia

Starring: Vincent LaRusso, Armand Cassis, Jerry Babij, Jennifer Cole, Patrick Barry, Christine Jackobi and Peter Gaines as Fat Sal 

Danny DeStefano (LaRusso) is a young (?) street tough who has just finished his jail bid and returns home to the STREETS OF DARKNESS - Miami, Florida. He makes a vow to himself to go straight, but after his mother is assaulted by a Cuban drug lord named Hector (Cassis), he gets sucked back into the underground world of gangsters and crime, especially after mob boss Carlo Farello (Babij) likes the cut of his jib and wants Danny to come work for him full time. Danny asserts his independence as whatever he is (a contract killer?), but things get complicated when a love triangle blossoms between Danny, the boss's daughter Tina (Cole), and a woman inexplicably named Diabolique (Jackobi). After certain people get whacked, Danny has to decide what to do with the rest of his life. Will he walk the straight and narrow, as represented by Father Shea (Barry), or will he continue down the road of gangsterism, as represented by Big Tony, Fat Alex, and Fat Sal?



Danny DeStefano/Vincent LaRusso does not like sleeves. He steadfastly refuses any extraneous cloth on any part of his arms. At a more formal social function, he wears a collared sleeveless shirt. His toughness as an ex-con and gangster is undercut somewhat when he wears a neon pink, button-down tanktop with the buttons unbuttoned, with a necklace. All this when he's not shirtless. We could talk about Danny's wardrobe all day, but suffice to say that Streets of Darkness is a labor of love from writer/producer/star Vincent LaRusso. It takes a lot of cojones to make your own version of The Godfather trilogy, Goodfellas (1990), and Scarface (1983) with no budget whasoever, shot on video, that runs 107 minutes. We give him and director James Ingrassia, and all the cast and crew, kudos for actually pulling that off and getting the movie into stores and streaming services.



Despite the title, box cover, and the image of LaRusso shirtless (naturally) with a gun, this is not an action film. It is a gangster drama - dare we say epic? - that plays by its own rules. Streets of Darkness was a film caught in time in between two poles. By 1995, it was too late for Miami Vice, but too early for The Sopranos. The movie was a victim of its own timing, and has elements of both swirled up in its SOV stew. In the last scene of the film, Danny is dressed as pure Crockett, with a pale blue T-shirt under a white jacket (one of the only times in the 107 minutes where sleeves are extant, perhaps it's a sign of Danny's character arc), but there are also a panoply of gangster characters like the aforementioned Big Tony, Fat Alex, and Fat Sal, among others, which presages The Sopranos. LaRusso was either after his time or before his time. Maybe both. Plenty of underlit scenes prefigure Boardwalk Empire and other "no lights" movies and TV, so maybe we can err towards the latter.


While we appreciate LaRusso's ambition, the film has serious pacing issues. There's a scene where Danny and Diabolique go to see a Gipsy Kings-esque concert and stay there. The dialogue is also unbelievably repetitive. Danny says almost everything at least twice. The runtime of the film would be 50 minutes if he only said things once, like a normal person. He starts every sentence he says in the film with either, "Let me tell you something", or "Listen carefully", and ends every sentence with, "You understand me?", which is by far his most repeated line of dialogue in the film. He's constantly asking everyone in sight if they understand him. This could be representative of Danny questioning his place in the world and looking for meaning in a chaotic universe. Or it could be that Danny is an inarticulate, unlikable lout. You be the judge.


That being said, we do appreciate that LaRusso seemingly thought that this was his big chance - his moment in the Miami sun, if you will. So he gives it his all, cranking up the intensity of his performance to Tom Cruise-levels, perhaps in the thought that this film could be like a demo reel for a potential Hollywood career. It seems his life didn't pan out that way, but that's okay. We have Streets of Darkness, and that's enough.


A late-stage highlight occurs when the aforementioned Fat Sal (Gaines) arrives. He steals the movie with his bizarre voice and mannerisms. It seems like he may be trying a Marlon Brando impression. He either succeeds or fails, it's impossible to tell. Streets of Darkness would probably have been a five-star movie if Fat Sal was the main character instead of Danny DeStefano.



Streets of Darkness has a homemade, local feel to it that will appeal to some but turn away most. Again, it's not really an action film but a few elements are there. It's too long but there is nudity and a synthy score, which helps. More than anything, it is a showcase for Vincent LaRusso, a time capsule of 1995, and an exemplar of the alchemy of the shot-on-video revolution meeting the ambition of a man whose reach exceeded his grasp.

Comeuppance Review by: Brett and Ty

Jungle Heat (1985)

 

Jungle Heat (1985)- * *1\2

Directed by: Jobic Wong

Starring: Sam Jones and Mei Sheng Fan

In the waning days of the Vietnam war (presumably around 1975 or so but it's never said specifically) the American forces evidently need truck drivers for supply runs. Maybe it's because of all the previous casualties, but they can't find any drivers. So a ragtag team is assembled and quickly trained. The head of the New Truck Driver Training Unit, which is presumably what this endeavor is called, is Gordon (Jones). After some training, which is brief by Army standards but lengthy by movie-viewing standards, the guys are sent off into the deadly jungles of 'Nam. Many obstacles are thrown in their way, but none are more challenging than the head baddie (played by Mei Sheng Fan of Story of Ricky and Attrition fame), a sadistic torturer. Some kidnappings, shootings, blow-ups, truck chases, and other exploding-hut-esque activities follow, and it's all capped off by a bizarre motorbike competition to see who can skid under a logging truck. Maybe the JUNGLE HEAT is getting to us all...


When the first shot of any film is a framed picture of Richard Nixon on the wall, which then zooms out so the dialogue and and action can begin, you know you're in for a good time. Well, some of the time. Not this time. But still, it was a wacky start and there are some noteworthy things about the largely lackluster Jungle Heat.


It helps if you're a Sam Jones fan. He brings some interest and life to the proceedings, his classic spiky brush cut towering over the other, smaller-in-stature and less-stylishly-coiffed cast. Unfortunately, his voice is dubbed just like everyone else in the film, and if you know Sam Jones's voice, as we all do, the overdubbed voice he was given seems to not be a fit. Those loud, no-subtlety, nattering voices that seemed all the rage at this time are punishing on the ears. They make the explosions and gunfire sound like Barry White by comparison.


Jones was also a truck driver in Driving Force (1989), so he was familiar with plots involving...truck driving. It may not be the most thrilling way to kick off an action film, but it's all in the execution. Sadly, Jungle Heat doesn't focus on execution (unless you count some unlucky POW's). The film just lazily goes from incident to incident, winding and babbling like the Mekong river itself. This lax and basically structureless approach to plotting is similar to Karate Warrior 6 (1993): something happens, then something else happens, then maybe something else, but there's no continuity or "glue" holding it all together. Maybe this flies in some countries, but to our American eyes it just seems boneless and blobby.


Adding to the negatives column, there are huge swathes of time where Sam Jones is absent. However, as indicated earlier, it's not a total loss: There's a classic silly barfight to watch out for, and some of the violence is pretty wicked, including a standout gore moment that was appreciated, but seems tonally out of whack with the rest of the goings-on. We always mention "PT", or Prerequisite Torture, which, in a post-Rambo world, was, well, prerequisite for these lower-budgeted productions. They needed an inexpensive way to stand out and that was how they chose to do it. Jungle Heat takes it a bit far, with more torture than its Mercs-box-set/When-The-Vietnam-War-Raged-In-The-Philippines competitors, even making its main baddie not simply a baddie, but a huge torture fan.


Also of note is that the bald guy on the good guys (?) team was apparently named Mazo, but all we heard was "Matzoh". The idea that an East Asian warrior man would be named Matzoh is so unbelievably absurd that you just have to laugh. Or maybe not. I hear he's a big hit at Passover Seders.


There is a rare movie that, as of this writing, we're looking for: Jungle Heat (AKA Rapid Fire) from 1988. It has Cynthia Rothrock, George Chung, Leo Fong, Chuck Jeffreys, and Richard Norton. Based on the cast alone, it's probably better than this film of the same name from '85. There are also other movies called Jungle Heat out there: one dates all the way back to 1927, another from 1957, and one from 1983, which is also called Dance of the Dwarfs and stars Peter Fonda and Deborah Raffin. Just to avoid any confusion, the one under discussion today was directed by Jobic Wong (which sounds more like an argument over a pen: "That ain't Jobic, that's my Bic!").


In the end, if you like movies like War Camp or maybe even Dog Tags, you may be able to wring some entertainment value out of the rag that is Jungle Heat. Sam Jones has done better, and there are far more explosive and entertaining entries in the Exploding Hut genre, such as Mannigan's Force or Commander. Maybe go with those instead, unless you're on a quest to see every Jungle film of all time.

Comeuppance Review by: Brett and Ty