Bullet Points: Intent to Kill (1992)
As I was re-watching 1992’s Intent to Kill for the first time in many years, I couldn’t help but think about how the star of the movie, Traci Lords, used her time with PM Entertainment to reinvent herself. This was a much different approach from that of one of her PM Entertainment contemporaries, Anna Nicole Smith, who went the “dance with what brung ya” approach…
- The Cowboy Way: The opening credits feature policewoman Vickie (Traci Lords, Ice) preparing for a night of undercover work as a prostitute… which includes putting on lipstick and slipping a gun in her thigh high fishnet stockings. Vickie’s backup on this undercover operation is Al (Scott Patterson)… Al is also her live in boyfriend. Vickie ends up hooking the fish she was looking to hook… Salvador (Angelo Tiffe, Sword of Honor) one of the Colombian Cowboys, a drug dealer known for having a fetish for picking up prostitutes. But this interaction goes bad for everyone when Salvador finds Vickie’s gun while he is getting to know her in the back of his limo. Vickie ends up dumped from the moving limo and a police chase ensues which includes driving on the sidewalks of Los Angeles… when the limo is stopped Salvador’s goons come out blasting with some serious firepower, including one of them out of the sun roof. Salvador ends up escaping, the cops recover $50 million in narcotics from the trunk moments before the limo explodes!
- Mad Bosses: Salvador’s drug lord boss is pissed and he gives him a week to recover the drugs and/or the cash to make things right… Salvador tells his boss that if he can’t do it, he’ll take himself out… Meanwhile, Vickie’s boss, Captain Jackson (Yaphet Kotto, Friday Foster) is pissed with her… both for the risks she took and for all the damage the operation caused. She is immediately taken off the Colombian Cowboy case and moved to the day shift.
- Keeping Busy: Vickie may not be on the case she wants to be on, but she’s not going to spend her days doing nothing but pencil pushing either. When a rape victim comes in and files a report with one of Vickie’s fellow cops, Vickie overhears the conversation and when the victim hears the harsh reality of the likelihood of her three attackers, who the victim actually knew and considered friends, being brought to justice in a courtroom, Vickie delivers some vigilante style justice including breaking the nose of one of the rapists and throwing another off a balcony… later Vickie poses as a woman looking for work at a local factory… a factory owned by a man who rapes his female employees. Something he is likely not going to do any longer after Vickie is through with him. Later we find out that Vickie trains a self-defense class for women.
- Getting Busy: After the factory incident, Captain Jackson gives Vickie the rest of the day off, she goes to the park to clear her head before heading home to find Al in bed with another woman. This isn’t much of a shock since it is established early that Al loves talking to the ladies… the only thing he may love more is his car. So it makes sense that Vickie sets fire to Al’s car as she leaves the premises… Meanwhile Salvador, who has only recovered half of what he lost, is relieving some stress by engaging in sexual intercourse… the woman he is with gives him the idea to just go to the police station and get his $50 million of narcotics from the evidence room… and with Salvador going after her fellow cops, there’s no way Vickie isn’t going to take another crack at taking down the Cocaine Cowboy!
- End With a Bang: Vickie gets to the police station after the damage has been done… but who has time to mourn when there’s a chase scene to get to. Vickie is in hot pursuit of Salvador, both of their cars end up jumping a semi-truck and both drivers manage to come out on the other side in one piece… and that’s about the time both exit their vehicles and Vickie shoots Salvador and if the bullet didn’t kill him the fact that his car explodes as Vickie slowly walks away certainly did.
Traci Lords put in the work in Intent to Kill and made for a believable action heroine. Vickie was by no means an indestructible super cop, but she could turn the “Dirty Harriet” on when she needed to and kick some bad guy ass. And let me just say when your supporting cast includes Yaphet Kotto, you are doing something right. Kudos for this casting decision. Kotto maximizes his minutes as always in his small but important role and elevated the movie in my eyes.
Bonus Bullet Points are a small but important role of a review and I hope they elevate the quality of this post in your eyes…
- Checking All the Boxes: Intent to Kill had the sizzle you’d expect from a PM Entertainment movie, the vehicular mayhem you’d expect from a PM Entertainment movie… and the unexpected surprise of KICKBOXING! After Vickie and Al are finished, it doesn’t take long before another cop, Tom (Michael M. Foley, Desert Kickboxer) makes his move… and before Tom takes Vickie out to dinner, she watches him kickbox because PM Entertainment were a bunch of magnificent bastards!
- Favorite Quote: “And what was your intent? To Kill?!?” – Captain Jackson
- Deja Vu: After Vickie catches Al in the act, she ends up at a bar. While she is there she doesn’t get into a bar room brawl sadly, BUT she does have a conversation with her mentor/boss Captain Jackson. Cap, knowing her home life has been turned upside down, offers Vickie his extra room if she needs a place to stay… which reminded me of when Yaphet Kotto’s J.B. Devereaux invites Gary Busey’s Buck Matthews to stay in his extra room after the ruthless biker gang trashed the Matthews home, killed Buck’s wife and put Buck’s daughter in the hospital in Eye of the Tiger.
- If You Ever: …wanted to see Traci Lords have a conversation with some goldfish, then Intent to Kill is the movie for you.
