Bullet Points: Hangfire (1991)
There are plenty of movies that feel like they fit perfectly in their era. I can’t imagine Death Wish working as well (cause the remake didn’t) nowadays and watching the remake of Red Dawn was like watching a slow motion replay of my own botched vasectomy. Movies like Hangfire, however, feel like they were about a decade too late. Released in the early years of the 1990’s with a story and some actors who seem to be much more suited to this type of scenario just a few years earlier.
Synopsis: The wife of Vietnam veteran Ike Slayton is taken hostage by a large group of escaped convicts. Slayton enlists the help of his old Army friend in a furious search to find her, while a hard-nosed National Guardsman leads a platoon of soldiers determined to kill or capture all the convicts, even if it means killing all of the hostages in the crossfire. – Via IMDB.com
- Prison life: The film opens showing us a couple of characters who are bound to be important. Prisoners Kuttner (Lee de Broux) and Patch (James Tolkan) kill a guy in prison because that’s what really bad dudes in prison do. Luckily there was no hanky-panky because I don’t think I could ever get over a scene like that with James Tolkan in it. Later, a massive PM Entertainment-style car explosion causes a hazmat situation. All of the prisoners are going to be transported out of the prison to a safe place and that is the precise moment that these two bad dudes with attitudes were waiting for in order to escape.
- Ike and his lady: Ike, don’t call me Isaac, is being played by Brad Davis. He’s the new Sheriff in the small town that just so happens to be in the path of the escaping prisoners. He’s also very unlucky that his brand new wife is the psychiatrist working at the prison when the escape goes down. Now, she’s totally a hostage of the bad dudes and it’s only a matter of time before something very bad happens to her. The good news for Ike, is that his good Army buddy Billy (Ken Foree) is in town for his wedding and he might just be the best friend a guy could ever have.
- On the run: The prisoners take over the small town and the prisoners fan out to gather more hostages in order to stop Police Lt. Yaphet Kotto from stopping their asses. Kotto is just one of the many names in the movie that does pretty much nothing. George Kennedy is the warden in a couple of scenes and we get a serious misuse of Lou Ferrigno and Lyle Alzado as two bonehead prisoners. They get their asses handed to them on multiple occasions. Kuttner is the brains behind the whole operation and the rest of the prisoners are content to just do whatever he says.
- What’s the plan, Jack: While Kuttner and his crew attempt to get more hostages, Jan-Michael Vincent and his detachment of Army National Guardsmen show up to fuck things all up. Have he Guard ever had a decent representation in any action movie? Do they even deserve one? It seems that Kuttner is happy to get himself and his buddy Patch out on chopper while the rest of his crew keeps the men busy. He may also have taken a big liking to Kim Delaney’s Maria. I don’t think Ike is going to be happy about that.
- So many names: As I said, there are so many actors in this movie, especially the ones you read on the poster above, that do absolutely nothing. Kuttner does his best to hold it down for the evil guys but never pushes it to the next level of evil. Maybe he should’ve offed a few more people. James Tolkan doesn’t do much, honestly. I would have liked for him and Jan-Michael Vincent to have swapped characters. Vincent played the egotistical Colonel who has some unique tactical ideas when it comes to assualting the town. As it stands, both men are underutilized.
- Laying on the action: Finally, Ike and his best pal Billy spring into action. By the final act, it’s clear what they’re going to do but it all happens very slowly. Once their move happens, though, they quickly run through the bad guys like a hot knife through butter. Even Patch and Kuttner go down like chumps and the only thing I’ll ever remember from this finale is that Billy has video game levels of ammunition. It’s never ending! You might have guessed that the chopper does eventually show up but the bad dudes don’t get the release they had hoped for.
The Verdict: For the star power involved in Hangfire, it really does struggle as an action flick. I can imagine that if Chuck Norris or someone like that was in the role then it could have had a much greater impact. Guys like Lyle Alzado and Lou Ferrigno are wasted in their roles and George Kennedy and Yaphet Kotto are only there for a few scenes. Star Brad Davis just doesn’t have “it” as an action leading man. He’s small, no doubt, but even his scenes in which he’s mixing it up with the bad guys doesn’t do him any favors. I wish I could say that Hangfire was some hidden gem that I had never heard of but it seems like it was more of a missed opportunity. A simple story and a decent enough budget, just not a really charismatic leading man to take the reins.
