The 1980s were a guiltless time. Rock music was hard, meaningless, and not subtle with its innuendo. The same can be said about 80s action movies. The 80s Action movie had to be classic good guy-bad guy, because all action movies "should" be like that. The 80s action movie had to have some babe in it, and though it was meant to attract female viewers to a movie, the result was nothing more than a sex object for men. The 80s action movie had to have an absurd amount of killing and testosterone. 90s and 00s action movies are the same, but, they are riddled with guilt. They "try" to have a good guy-bad guy mix, but the good guy is not entirely good and the bad guy is not entirely bad. They "try" to incorporate deep "love interests," but fail miserably...at least 80s action movies didn't really try in that department. Lastly, they don't have good action anymore. Everything is computer and shaky camera during fight scenes. Where is the good old fashioned pile of dead extras? 80s action movies are guiltless and treat themselves like revenge fantasy "epics," while modern action movies try to be deep. Just like 80s rockers, they did not try to be deep, while modern alternative music's attempt at deepness and subtleness fails to invoke any real intelligent thought. 80s music, movies, presidents were not deep in meaning...everything was a MTV sound bite, a rude, in your face, unashamed whatever it was. It did not pretend to be something different.
Death Warrant, like the band Firehouse, was the last breath of the 80s burning out in the 90s. It has 80s music, 80s clothes, and most importantly, the 80s mentality. The story revolves around a bad ass, shallow as a puddle, cop in Van Damme. He quickly defeats Kilpatrick (Naylor Sandman) by firing 400 bullets at him, and gets th-rusted into the "average" American prisona cesspool of political corruption, racial tension, violence, and sodomy. The movie is rather guiltless at all of these aspects of America's prisons, making stunningly "deep" observations. The politician justifies harvesting prisoner's organs because "they're all scum"a reflection of real policy. When Burke (Van Damme) enters "the black part of the prison," the music gets stereotypically "black" with its bass (guiltless 80s mentality) and the warden's comment "I know that you are hereWhy? I can smell the (n-bomb)" is a reflection upon the racism. As a prison movie, violence and sodomy don't need to be explained. Of course the movie is all ridiculous hyperbole, but it is so extreme, yet at a strange level true, it makes the bad ass action movie extremely comical as well.
The movie has many ridiculous elements added on purpose, for the sake of guiltless "bad-assness" and hilarity. Everyone in this prison is part of a gang, has access to drugs, cell phones, weapons people leave their cells at will..the "Priest" (a prisoner), seems to be more powerful than the Governor of California, let alone the warden of the prison. The Sandman is stronger than Goliath and refuses to die until he ironically dies like every other prisoner who died as part of the organ ring conspiracya spike in the back of the head. Lastly, the Sandman, after taunting Burke, lets him wallow a little longer. Sure, the Sandman could had killed him right there, but instead he says something incredibly "deep" instead: "Bring me a dream Burke, bring me a dream " This has nothing to do with the plot. It is an inside joke, a little jab at the song named "Mister Sandman," which the first lines of the song are "Mister Sandman, Bring Me a Dream." The movie ends as all movies should end. The hero gets the babe, mends racial boundaries, gets the ultimate honor of "Prison Respect" (where every convict will move out of your way and sing your praises like "He just dusted the Sandman" and "You got it homes "), and ends with a kick ass 80s sounding rock ballad called "Bring Me A Dream"another inside joke. I wrote an email to the composer of the song and he sent me the MP3 of it, because I "got" the joke. Very cool.
I rate this movie 8 out of ten in not a light fashion. I have watched a lot of movies and only a handful are 8 and up. This movie is that good for its genre and its ultimate entertainment value. It is smart, incredibly stupid, subtle, but blatant at the same time. It is an 80s movie masterpiece and is up there with some of the best movies of all time.
Death Warrant, like the band Firehouse, was the last breath of the 80s burning out in the 90s. It has 80s music, 80s clothes, and most importantly, the 80s mentality. The story revolves around a bad ass, shallow as a puddle, cop in Van Damme. He quickly defeats Kilpatrick (Naylor Sandman) by firing 400 bullets at him, and gets th-rusted into the "average" American prisona cesspool of political corruption, racial tension, violence, and sodomy. The movie is rather guiltless at all of these aspects of America's prisons, making stunningly "deep" observations. The politician justifies harvesting prisoner's organs because "they're all scum"a reflection of real policy. When Burke (Van Damme) enters "the black part of the prison," the music gets stereotypically "black" with its bass (guiltless 80s mentality) and the warden's comment "I know that you are hereWhy? I can smell the (n-bomb)" is a reflection upon the racism. As a prison movie, violence and sodomy don't need to be explained. Of course the movie is all ridiculous hyperbole, but it is so extreme, yet at a strange level true, it makes the bad ass action movie extremely comical as well.
The movie has many ridiculous elements added on purpose, for the sake of guiltless "bad-assness" and hilarity. Everyone in this prison is part of a gang, has access to drugs, cell phones, weapons people leave their cells at will..the "Priest" (a prisoner), seems to be more powerful than the Governor of California, let alone the warden of the prison. The Sandman is stronger than Goliath and refuses to die until he ironically dies like every other prisoner who died as part of the organ ring conspiracya spike in the back of the head. Lastly, the Sandman, after taunting Burke, lets him wallow a little longer. Sure, the Sandman could had killed him right there, but instead he says something incredibly "deep" instead: "Bring me a dream Burke, bring me a dream " This has nothing to do with the plot. It is an inside joke, a little jab at the song named "Mister Sandman," which the first lines of the song are "Mister Sandman, Bring Me a Dream." The movie ends as all movies should end. The hero gets the babe, mends racial boundaries, gets the ultimate honor of "Prison Respect" (where every convict will move out of your way and sing your praises like "He just dusted the Sandman" and "You got it homes "), and ends with a kick ass 80s sounding rock ballad called "Bring Me A Dream"another inside joke. I wrote an email to the composer of the song and he sent me the MP3 of it, because I "got" the joke. Very cool.
I rate this movie 8 out of ten in not a light fashion. I have watched a lot of movies and only a handful are 8 and up. This movie is that good for its genre and its ultimate entertainment value. It is smart, incredibly stupid, subtle, but blatant at the same time. It is an 80s movie masterpiece and is up there with some of the best movies of all time.