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"Bad Attitude''. This film has been covered in the past but it has been some time since I have used some half decent screencaps (there is a very effective copy prevention mechanism on the tape). Let me put my cards on the table. there is only one reason to watch this film and her name is Gina Lim. Okay, she is no Bette Davis but she sure is cute, why she hasn't appeared in other films is a mystery to me. Anyway, back to the film. The nominal star of this film is 'Leon'. He is a black, laid back cop with a 'Bad Attitude'. When his friend gets killed he goes all out to find the culprit. This brings him into the drug dealing world of Mendez (played as an androgynous character by Susan Finque) and church evangelism of which Mei Ling (Gina Lim is) a member. However Mei and the rest of the (rather fetching) congregation pack more than bibles for pursuing their good work.
Aided by good cop (Nancy Griffiths) and opposed by a corrupt cop, Leon gets closer to the truth and discovers that Mei Ling is not as benevolent as she appears. The final scene has Lim and her gang getting the upper hand on Medez and her sidekicks. The final image of no-nonsense Lim is a classic of Girls With Guns cinema. The film itself is a run of the mill action story which is unnecessarily nasty in places. Film Rating 4/10 and Gina Gun Girl Rating 7/10.
"On Dangerous Ground". This is one of two films based on a novel by Jack Higgins and commissioned as a TV movie. When originally shown on UK TV it was shown in two parts which helps explain its excessive running time (well over 2 hours). Both films star former Brat Packer Rob Lowe playing British spy Sean Dillon though both movies contain characters common to both. This is the first of the two and shows Dillon thwarting his former compatriots in the IRA. Dillon's first mission is to infiltrate an IRA unit and thwart an attempt to kill some Chinese dignitaries. After dealing with this minor inconvenience Dillon is in pursuit of a document which could alter the status of Hong Kong. Helping him is fellow agent Hannah Bernstein (Deborah Moore) and controlled by Secret Service overseer Brig. Charles Ferguson (Kenneth Cranham).
During his quest to find the document Dillon crosses path with Chinese villains, the Mafia and the enigmatic Asta (Ingeborga Dapkunaite). He also manages to fall in love with Su Yin (Daphne Cheung) but as Rob Lowes expression never changes from one scene to the next it would be easy to miss this. As it turns out Asta turns out to be the baddest penny of the whole story. And she is quite a good villain too. Suitably mysterious, ruthless and psychotic all at the same time. She switches allegiances and then kills her would be lover when he doesn't appreciate the fact she killed his wife. Finally Sean Dillon is the target for her revenge and only the quick intervention of his fellow agents saves him from being shot in front of his new found girlfriend. All in all the story is too drawn out to make absorbing entertainment but even so it is not bad for a TV movie. Now if we could just get Rob Lowe to smile every so often maybe we wouldn't be as miserable as he appears to be throughout. Good supporting cast though. Film Rating 6/10 and Gun Moll Rating 6/10.
"Blood Money".
Michael Ironside is a well used and very competent actor. However because he is in demand so much he appears in some very run of the mill films. "Blood Money" is one such film. The plot is straight out from the formulaic school of screen writing and the acting from the "I've done the thing now pay me" school of acting. The story starts out promisingly enough with a stash of money being stolen. From a gun girl point of view the opening scene promises good things as two out of the three robbers are women. The plot thickens when another murder is carried out and the act is witnessed by two dancers at the scene of the crime.
The cop on the case is played by the aforementioned Michael Ironside and he has his obligatory sidekick. His main role in the film is to protect one of the dancers who saw the murder. This doesn't prove so easy with a hitwoman on her trail and ,as it turns out, the usual corrupt cop in the department. All of this sounds more exciting than it actually is. The hitwoman gets a couple of scenes but like the film itself these are rather dull. Once she is out of the way the film trundles along to its predictable finale and denouement. Film Rating 4/10 and Gu Moll Rating 4/10.
