Bullet Points: Getting Even (1989)

A few months back I touted the great variety of obscure action movies that ScreenPix offered on their streaming service. Ever since then I feel like I have had an unofficial ScreenPix Movie of the Month with titles like Terror Squad, Iron Warrior, Mr. Hercules Against Karate and Survival Game among the titles I have discovered on ScreenPix.

This month’s unofficial ScreenPix Movie of the Month is 1989’s Getting Even…

• Under the Bridge: The movie wastes no time getting to the violence as a group of men have taken some poor woman with plans on gang raping her. This vile group of human trash get as far as removing all the woman’s clothes when an unsuspected obstacle pops up under the bridge they dragged this poor woman to… a homeless man who was sleeping there! The bad guys make the classic mistake of judging the book by its cover and the homeless dude ends up kicking all their asses… well, almost all of them… one of the guys tries to make a dash for the car and ends up shooting the homeless man, seconds before the NYPD roll in.
• Slisko Kid is NOT a Friend of Mine: Surprisingly the homeless guy, who we learn is Roy Evans, survived the shot but is in rough shape. A comatose Evans begins having flashback to his time in Vietnam. Evans along with Tom and John Slisko are a trio of Marines who get picked to do a lot of the dirty work. Speaking of dirty, Slisko ends up doing Tom and Evans dirty before the flashback is all said and done. After a successful assault on a heavily guarded enemy radio tower, Tom ends up getting a shot, while Evans tends to his fallen friend, Slisko runs off to the extraction chopper without his fellow Marines. Evans isn’t going to leave Tom behind so he carries him to the chopper… Slisko who had a head start and isn’t carrying another human, naturally got to the chopper first… he tells the pilot to take off, pilot argues with him as he can see Evans and Tom making their way towards the chopper. When Evans reaches the chopper, instead of helping get Tom on board, Slisko kicks them down and puts a gun to the pilots head… Tom ends up dying and Evans ends up a prisoner of war for five years… thanks Slisko!

• Wake Up, Wake Up: After about a week, Roy Evans comes out of his coma and who is there in his hospital room? Roy Evans’ old commanding officer Dundee (Richard Roundtree, Shaft). Evans’ immediate reaction is along the lines of OH HELL NO! …but his tune changes when Dundee dangles one helluva a carrot in front of him… the chance to GET EVEN with John Slisko. Evans recalls making two promises he made to his fallen comrade Tom… he vowed to kill Slisko for what he did to them AND per Tom’s wishes that he will never wear the uniform again. Basically, he’ll get even BUT in casual clothes.
• Empire State of Mind: Per the FBI, specifically Agent Roberts, it is believed that Slisko, now an arms dealer, is in New York City and killing prostitutes when he’s not trafficking guns apparently. I should point out another part of the flashback was when Slisko, Evans and Tom were on leave for a weekend and enjoying themselves at a brothel when they heard one of the prostitutes screaming for her life… that’s when they find Slisko and his patented kris (a distinctive, asymmetrical dagger from Indonesia for those in the know) torturing the prostitute who was tied face down to the bed. So when 6 prostitutes show up dead in two weeks, all with unique stab wounds that could only be made by a kris, Slisko is a prime suspect (because he is the only one who could possibly have a kris!?!?)
• Let’s Get Physical: Dundee and Evans track down the pimp that the latest dead prostitute worked for, a guy named Nick Cobra.. Cobra is not about cooperating with the authorities and he has his muscle attack Dundee and Evans which gave the movie a quick action fix. Cobra eventually spills the beans and says he heard Slisko is stashing some of his inventory at the Downtown Athletic Club. So Evans goes down to check out the Club and finds the owner, Maryanne, who was getting a massage, which allows her to give Evans a little show before she doesn’t give Evans any straight answers to his questions about Slisko and dead hookers.

• More than One Night in Bangkok: Maryanne then turns around and immediately spills the beans to Slisko (so he really is in New York) and now that Slisko knows his past has come back to haunt him, he starts making plans to get the hell out of town and back to his operations in Southeast Asia. But do you know who he doesn’t want around anymore? Maryanne… so Maryanne is left behind and motivated to spill the beans and tell Evans and Dundee where Slisko was heading…. which leads to Evans and Dundee returning to Southeast Asia and an eventual showdown with Slisko. The last act was what I expected for the most part, until the unforeseen (and honestly unnecessary) twist.

Getting Even was my first go around with Harrison Muller, who played Roy Evans. Muller was adequate in his role, but I can’t say I was overly impressed, the fact that this was his last movie tells me others weren’t overly impressed or Muller realized this was not the life for him… Getting Even was NOT my first go around with Richard Roundtree, and it was actually his inclusion that got me to watch the movie to begin with and I have no regrets thanks in great part to Roundtree’s work as Dundee.

• The Name Game: 1989’s Getting Even should not be confused with 1986’s Getting Even starring Edward Albert, Audrey Landers and Joe Don Baker.
• Favorite Quote: “Mmm-hmm. You know how to sleep under bridges.” – Dundee to Evans
• Reunited: Getting Even was actually the second Harrison Muller/Richard Roundtree collaboration, with the first being Miami Cops… a movie I now feel obligated to see at some point.
• Distributed By: Getting Even was distributed by Menahem Golan’s 21st Century Film Corporation.