Navigation

Death Ring (1993)

Dir: R.J. Kizer

Matt Collins (Mike Norris, Son of Chuck) and 'Skylord' Harris (Chad McQueen, Son of Steve) are real men who spend their time doing really manly things together.
Matt is an ex-Army hero dude who currently feels less manly than he should (for a guy so manly) because he has a hot, rich, loving girlfriend named Lauren (Isabel Glasser) who has more money than him. Our heart‘s weep at the thought of such hardship!
‘Skylord’ is an ex-Army pilot hero dude who likes to party hearty and act all silly when drunk (though in a manly way of course).

Danton Vachs (Billy Drago, “The Untouchables“, “Hunter‘s Blood“) is a loony who sits behind pot plants and looks sinister. He also runs an exclusive ‘hunt’, on his secluded island, for high paying clients who get their thrills by hunting selected Human prey (with randomly picked weapons, like a spear and throwing stars) whom Vachs’s has kidnapped for his “Most Dangerous Game” style manhunt.

Because he is a strapping example of manliness Matt is considered a prime contestant for the hunt and he, along with Lauren, is kidnapped by Ms. Ling (Elizabeth Fong Sung), Vachs’s sexy Oriental henchwoman, and taken to the island.
There he meets the super rich sadists who are going to hunt him;
‘Iceman’ (Víctor Quintero, stuntman on “Invasion U.S.A.” among many others)
Mr Chen (George Cheung, “White Tiger”/”Big Trouble in Little China”)
‘Apache’ (Henry Kingi, “Predator 2” and countless stunt jobs)
‘Temple’ (Donegan Smith, “Black Widow”)

Fleeing for his life, with the hunters hot on his trail, Matt happens upon John Blackwell (Don Swayze, uglier Brother of Patrick), an earlier ‘contestant’ who has been hiding out in a cave, after he tricked the bad guys into thinking he was dead, and who now joins up with Matt to hunt the hunters, or as he puts it; “back from the dead and ready to kick your ass”.

Meanwhile ‘Skylord’ is on the trail of his kidnapped partner in manly manliness, but can he find Matt in time and does it matter anyway because Matt is obviously manly enough to take care of himself surely?….

 

Well now, if this isn’t a classic ‘less successful family members’ starring flick I don’t know what is. We only needed Frank ’Brother of Sly’ Stallone to make the party complete! He must have been busy that day.
The novelty value of the actors is not the only thing “Death Ring” has going for it though and in fact there is interesting casting here away from the three hero leads.

Dennis Lipscomb (“Retribution”, “Under Siege“) makes a tiny cameo (sporting hysterical black dyed hair) as a mysterious guy who helps ‘Skylord’ and he turns in a stupendously pretentious performance and makes certain his one scene is a memorable one.

Harrison Page (“Sledge Hammer’s” Captain Trunk himself) has a small role as a Cop helping ‘Skylord’, but is not given much to do.

Billy Drago (as always) is an absolute joy and he slithers though the movie like a cobra, whispering and hissing in that slyly psychotic way he does so well.
His character is also given to sudden lethal outbursts that ensure he remains (despite his dubious, wavy blonde hairdo) a genuine physical threat and not just a sinister comic strip villain.
He basically makes the film twice as fun as it would have been otherwise.George T. LeBrun‘s screenplay (from his own and Mike Norris’s story) piles in as many enjoyable quirks and cheesy clichés as possible and it’s obvious that prolific ‘Jack of all Trades’ R.J. Kizer (“Hell Comes to Frogtown”) is enjoying directing them.
You have to love aspects like the hunters having a spot of last minute exercise for the body and mind before going after Matt which results in such cheesy nuggets or wisdom as;
“Respect is the flower of true strength”.
“When it blossoms all things are possible”.
And when they toast the start of the hunt with a wee drop o’ snake blood (!) you just know these guys are serious about there hobby!

Some solid, mildly bloody, violence punctuates the film (with a head bashing, a vicious kicking and a rather groovy decapitation being the splatter highlights) and Norris, although not the fighting screen presence his Father was at his best, does a good enough job in his brief one-on-one fights and certainly has a dumb ‘n’ cheesy charm.
Away from the Martial Arts we also have some gunplay and numerous explosions, where henchman in white coveralls are blown up via the ever reliable ‘bouncing off trampolines’ method, to up the action quota.
A couple of breast exposures (not just the guys, but a couple of ladies too!) are also a pleasant addition and add to the trashy goodness.

The film’s only real serious fault is that it does not always utilise it’s novelty cast as well as it could.
Swayze arrives late in the day and as such little more than fire a gun off near the end,.
McQueen takes part in very little of the actual action and spends most of his time tracking down Matt or stuck in a helicopter. But like Norris he plays a likeable hero well enough even if he is a far cry from the screen majesty of his famous father.
Norris himself fares better though with some good fights (though he’s pretty lame in handling a gun) and most of screen time.

The hunters are not as formidable opponents as their build-up suggested sadly, but at least Drago is fully utilised by the Director and well served by the script and his ‘seduction’ scenes with Elizabeth Sung’s vicious Ms. Ling are a nicely creepy addition to Vachs’s character.

Thankfully though the general charm of the three leads shines through (as does the novelty factor of having them all together given who they are), their characters are likeable and the action is fun and violent,
And with Drago giving us many moments to savour throughout the movie, it all means that “Death Ring“ manages to be a solid and unpretentious, ‘enjoy it with a beer and friends‘ action movie that overcomes it’s faults to deliver bags of entertainment. And ultimately that means it’s done it’s job admirably. Check it out.