No Surrender Cinema: Fled
It’s cliché, it blows through plot points at a rapid clip, and it spits in the face of proper grammar. Don’t be confused by my opening statement, though. Fled is a fine action movie, the type that you don’t have to take too seriously and can just turn your brain off and enjoy. Boosted by two charismatic leads (Laurence Fishburne in full badass mode, and Stephen Baldwin in a much more acceptable role than The Flintstones or Bio-Dome) and a breakneck pace, Fled never slows down enough for you to lose interest.
Our story begins with a pre-credits sequence where a federal witness is killed before he can testify against Frank Mantajano (Veteran TV actor Michael Nader, best known for playing “Dex” Dexter on one of my personal favorites, Dynasty). We don’t know why this witness was killed or why he was testifying in the first place, but it sets the pace for the rest of the movie, where Mantajano dispatches his goons to take care of whatever problems come his way.
Mantajano, as we find out a little further into the movie, is a top dog in the Cuban Mafia. Despite being positioned as the main villain of the movie, we barely even see him. Instead, the dirty work is carried out by his henchman Rico Santiago (Victor Rivers), or a variety of corrupt officials. His latest target is Luke Dodge (Baldwin), a computer hacker who stole $25 million from a corporation called Brigantine International and distributed most of it to various charities. He’s serving hard time on a prison work detail where he winds up scuffling with hardened inmate Charles Piper (Fishburne). Things go south when another inmate grabs a guards gun and starts picking people off, so Dodge and Piper make a run for it (or, as Piper would say, “we gotta fled”). During their bonding moments that include punching each other in the face and cussing each other out, we discover that unbeknownst to Dodge, Brigantine is how the Cuban Mafia launders their money. Dodge has a disc which would reveal all and clear his own name, but if you’ve seen any type of action movie ever you know that it’s easier said than done.
The cons do have a few people that seem to be on their side. Detective Matthew Gibson (Will Patton) was Dodge’s arresting officer, and when Dodge and Piper get blamed for the prison detail massacre, he’s not buying it one bit. Cora (Salma Hayek) is introduced when Dodge and Piper carjack her, and she rather willingly accepts the fact that they’re doing so. Still clad in their prison jumpers and handcuffed together, Dodge and Piper are given a fresh set of duds and unlocked by a handcuff key left behind by her ex-husband, a cop. Romantic tension is teased between Piper and Cora, and she continues to aid the duo during the climax of the film. She was the happiest hostage this side of Commandant Lassard in Police Academy 5.
The pacing of Fled is great for action fans, because you’re never bored by what’s going on. Shootouts, explosions, and fist fights are fired off at a breakneck pace, but it leaves little room for character development. Hell, most characters are killed off as soon as we meet them! Dodge seeks out his girlfriend Cindy (Brittney Powell, a familiar female face of 90’s entertainment who starred in To Be The Best and Airborne), but the reunion is short-lived as she’s offed by Mantajano’s crew. His best friend Puffy (no, not that Puffy) catches a bullet literally seconds after reconnecting with his pal. By this point Dodge had the same amount of luck that Brad Spyder did in the unbearable Blackbelt II, which you can read all about here.
Fled delivers a few twists, none of which are really inspired. Why would Piper be so willing to help Dodge and not just make a run for it on his own? Why are the US Marshals blaming them for the prison massacre? It all comes off as way too obvious to the viewer. Even within the confines of the movie, Gibson can read between the lines. He knows that Dodge is far from a violent offender, and once he realizes that what Dodge did involves Mantajano and the mob, he heads out to help the pair before it’s too late. It’s all very by the numbers, and while we do get the requisite “final fight”, it’s not the one the movie seemed to set up for us. In fact, Mantajano never even interacts with our heroes. It’s corrupt US Marshal Schiller (Robert John Burke, who has played a cop everywhere from Law & Order: SVU to the title character in the terrible third installment of the Robocop series) that gets his comeuppance when he attempts to procure the disk and fill our heroes with more than a few bullets.
There are some light-hearted moments amidst the mayhem. Comedians Bill Bellamy and Joe Torry have some funny banter with Dodge in the strip club where his girlfriend works. RuPaul has a cameo during a chase scene, and our heroes commission his/her car to aid in their escape from the goon squad. Dodge and Piper get in their verbal jabs in between the real ones, and Dodge especially is pretty funny when he compares every situation they find themselves in to a movie he’s seen. We get references to Deliverance, The Godfather, and even What’s Love Got To Do With It (in which Fishburne starred as Ike Turner) in a sort of fourth wall-breaking bit.
Fled is far from being the best action movie, but it’s an extremely enjoyable ride and you get the feeling that the cast and crew had a lot of fun with this one. Baldwin was quite likable as the guy who was in over his head and couldn’t joke his way out of it, and Fishburne carries himself with a sense of authority that has served him well in many roles. You’ll often find it on cable or on various streaming services (I’ve seen it everywhere from Netflix to the Tubi.TV free streaming app), and it’s definitely worth a watch if you’re in the mood for some fast paced action. It was a nice twist to the buddy cop/odd couple formula, but it was easily overshadowed by the more bombastic entries in the genre at the time such as Bad Boys. I still consider it a favorite, and it makes for perfect weekend viewing where you can just kick back on your couch and let the explosions entertain you for a few hours.
