Bullet Points: Pursuit (1991)
I feel like I am always on the hunt to find something to watch that I can cover right here on Bulletproof Action. But sometimes when I am really lucky the movies find me. This happened recently when Tubi recommended 1991’s Pursuit starring James Ryan…
- Gold Diggers: Rebel forces led by General Carlos Da Costa, infiltrate the palatial estate of the President of an African nation… they kill the President’s security detail and advisors and the President himself. They also steal a bunch of gold bullion, the same gold bullion the President had planned on using as collateral for a deal with the “World Bank” that would allow his nation to prosper and take advantage of what had been a stretch of stability in the region… but if the government could get the gold bullion back, there’s a chance that they can carry on their fallen President’s vision, but they are going to need to hire a professional to get a job of this magnitude done…
- Deja Vu: That professional is Jake Cody (James Ryan, Rage to Kill) and when government bureaucrats Samuels and Kato come a calling, Jake is engaged in some martial arts training. They pitch the mission to Jake, who is reluctant at first but when Kato assures him that some of the money they receive from the bank loan will be used to help the less fortunate, Jake gets on board… but now he has to assemble his team and at this point I felt like I may have gone back a decade and was watching Kill and Kill Again again… Jake’s first stop is finding his old friend Bob Matthews who is in mid-fornication when Jake finds him which is a good excuse for the movie to have the big boobs of the woman that Bob is fornicating with fill the screen for a few seconds in all their bouncing glory. Bob suggests Abu, his buddy who was watching the door (unsuccessfully) for the mission and then the name Crazy Ezra is tossed out there… Ezra was played by Robin Smith, who I most recently saw in the Frank Zagarino flick, Never Say Die.
- Easy Peasy: Going through the intel he received Jake learned that Da Costa has two fellow mercs, Joe Doyle and Lucky Luke, training his rebel army… Jake shows them some professional courtesy and gives Joe and Lucky the heads up before his team storms Da Costa’s camp… not only do Joe and Lucky not object, they assist! The inside help, along with the inexperience of most of Da Costa’s “army” makes this one of the easiest missions in any action movie I have ever seen. By the time they get to Da Costa they find one of the locals, David, has killed Da Costa. So much for him being the main baddie in this movie. And that’s about the time I checked the clock and quickly realized it was all TOO EASY…. and that’s about the time that Bob finds out exactly what they were recovering… the gold bullion!
- Go For the Gold: Bob then confers with Abu, Ezra, Joe and Lucky and they all agree that they should keep the gold for themselves and get out of this miserable line of work… but Jake doesn’t feel the same way, they were paid to do a job and they need to see it through. That almost gets Jake killed, but Bob isn’t willing to go that far, so instead they rough him up, knock him out and leave him behind… but they do take the female photo journalist Samantha, who was hanging around covering Da Costa’s attempts to overthrow the government but more importantly has a past with Jake Cody.
- That Tracks: Fortunately for Jake… David is still hanging around and finds Jake and tends to his wounds and gives him a place to rest. Even more fortunate, David is an expert tracker… so despite backstabbing Bob having a head start, David can help close the gap. But there’s another problem… headstrong Samantha isn’t one to play the damsel in distress mode, so when she gets a chance she outsmarts her captors but it is out of the frying pan and into the fire… or out of the fire and into the pot, because she is captured by a cannibalistic tribe that inhabits the region! And when David and Jake find out about Sam’s predicament, they take the detour to save her… but does that mean Bob is going to get away with the gold?!?!?
You probably already know the answer to that last question and that’s okay. Pursuit embraces its derivativeness. As I alluded to earlier, parts of Pursuit felt like other James Ryan movies that I have already seen… but it didn’t make Pursuit any less enjoyable. Could some wild, unique and never before seen moments have made the movie more enjoyable? It is possible, but it also could have backfired and made the movie a steaming turd. Pursuit played it safe and I am about to play it safe too by wrapping up this review with some Bonus Bullet Points…
- Disturbing Quote: “I will blow your head off and use your ball bag as a tobacco pouch”
- Not So Fun Fact: We learn that Abu lost his family and had his tongue cut out when he was only 10 years old… to the best of my knowledge the actor who played Abu, David Mphuti, does in fact have a tongue but considering Pursuit is the only movie he ever starred maybe he doesn’t?!?!
- AKA: Pursuit is known as Deadly Hunter in South Africa, where the movie was produced.
- Directed By: Pursuit was directed by John H. Parr, who also directed Prey for the Hunter, a movie I covered earlier this year that was read by next to no one.
