Bullet Points: Riot (1996)

It has been said there are two kinds of people in this world, those who think Die Hard and Lethal Weapon are Christmas movies and those who are wrong.

There are also two kinds of action stars in this world, those who are content with Bruce Willis, Mel Gibson and Danny Glover owning the Christmas holiday and those who want a piece of the Christmas action pie for themselves.

Gary Daniels is one of those action stars who wanted to get in on the Christmas action and he did so in the 1996 movie Riot.

• The Premise: Gary Daniels plays Major Shane Alcott. Alcott is a British soldier who is now working in the United States and training members of the United States Armed Forces. When the British Ambassador’s daughter, Anna Lisa Gray (Paige Rowland), is kidnapped and held for ransom, Alcott is called in to deliver the ransom money to the gang leader who has kidnapped Anna Lisa and bring Anna Lisa back safely. But this is no simple delivery/pick up, Anna Lisa is being held in a bad part of town, a part of town where the danger level is even worse than usual due to “The Christmas Eve Riot” that is going on.  I should also point out that this isn’t just a mission for Alcott, he was engaged to Anna Lisa at one time and she was part of the reason he accepted his training job in the United States. But before we could get to all of this, we have to meet our hero.

• Adventures in Babysitting: Two bizarre sequences introduce us to Alcott in Riot. First we see him come home to his apartment and proceed to take off his shirt and work out in his home gym. Riot may set the record for the earliest training montage in an action movie and it is certainly the only training montage I’ve ever seen that was done to the tune of “Deck the Halls”. His workout is interrupted by a smoke alarm coming from the apartment next door. Alcott’s neighbors are a single mom with two kids, Bobby and Sue. Mom was stuck in traffic due to “The Christmas Eve Riot”, so a hungry Bobby decides to cook a frozen pizza for dinner… the only problem was Bobby didn’t take the pizza out of the box. Fortunately for the two kids, Alcott came to the rescue, although I’m unsure why they were seemingly unable to open the front door and instead just pounded on it while yelling for help. Alcott had to then kick the door down to rescue them. Alcott takes the kids over to his place, orders them Chinese food and teaches them to eat with chopsticks.  At this point, his buddy Major Williams (Sugar Ray Leonard) gives him a call and invites him to meet him for a beer at a local watering hole. We never hear from Bobby or Sue again.

• Oh Joy a Bar Fight: I have talked before about the unwritten rule in action movies that if an action hero enters a bar he’s not going to leave the bar until there is a bar fight. Riot does not disappoint. As Alcott and Williams are enjoying their adult beverages and watching the news coverage of “The Christmas Eve Riot”, a softball team shows up. This just isn’t any softball team, this is a racist, xenophobic and homophobic softball team that is pissed off that due to the riots their precious softball game was cancelled. And with that, the obligatory bar fight ensues and since this fight is taking place on Christmas Eve a rap song that samples “Joy to the World” accompanies the action. The fight ends when two of the softballers are defenestrated and some military dudes pick up Alcott and Williams and take them to the home of the British Ambassador where they learn about what happened to Anna Lisa and Alcott is given his mission.

• I Was Told Patrick Kilpatrick Was In This Movie: About 52 minutes into the movie, we learn that the real bad guy in the film is not Shyboy, the head gang banger who kidnapped Anna Lisa, but instead the man who hired Shyboy and his crew to do the dirty deed. That man is Bryan O’Flaherty (played by Patrick Kilpatrick doing an Irish accent). O’Flaherty is a member of the IRA and has previous bad blood with Alcott. Kilpatrick is excellent in Riot and it was worth waiting for more than half of the movie before he showed up. I was not looking forward to a Alcott/Shyboy showdown at the end of the movie, but I was all in on an Alcott/O’Flaherty finale.

Riot was one of the better Gary Daniels films I have ever seen and with the events of the film taking place on Christmas Eve, I intend on putting it into my annual Christmas action movie rotation going forward. Daniels was really in his prime here and he was on a movie hot streak as Riot was released after two of Daniels’ other quality films, White Tiger and Hawk’s Vengeance. Sugar Ray Leonard was a nice surprise. Sugar Ray is obviously known as being one of the greatest boxers of all-time, but I had no idea he had ever been in an action movie. And I have to once again praise the villainous work of Patrick Kilpatrick in Riot.

Now before the loyal readers of Bulletproof Action begin to riot, here’s the bonus Bullet Points you were expecting…

• If You Ever: …wanted to see Sugar Ray Leonard fly a helicopter, then this the movie for you.
• Familiar Faces: Charles Napier plays the man who briefs Alcott on his rescue mission, FBI Agent Devaney. Napier has been in numerous action movies and TV shows over the course of his career but his role as Marshall Murdock in Rambo: First Blood Part II may be his most famous… Kenneth Tigar plays the reporter covering “The Christmas Eve Riot”. You may recognize Tigar as the Bomb Squad Leader in Lethal Weapon 2 and Lethal Weapon 3.
• Holiday Greeting: “Ho Ho Ho Mother F#ck@r!”
• The Name Game: This movie should not be confused with the 2015 film Riot that starred Dolph Lundgren and Chuck Liddell or the 2012 movie Riot starring Steven Berkoff of Beverly Hills Cop fame or the 1997 TV movie Riot starring Luke Perry, Mario Van Peebles and Mako or the 1969 movie Riot starring Jim Brown and Gene Hackman.
• Opening Credits: The film opens with news footage of riots as “O Come All Ye Faithful” plays.
• If You Ever: …wanted to see Gary Daniels chased by a bunch of hockey players on roller-blades, then this is the movie for you.