Bullet Points: Dangerous Men
I was recently gifted a copy of a movie that I had never heard of… 2005’s Dangerous Men.
The whole 2005 thing is a bit misleading however. As I watched the movie, it was clearly a product of either the 1980s or the 1990s, depending on the scene.
After watching some of the special features included with the Drafthouse Films release, I learned that the mastermind behind Dangerous Men, John S. Rad, did not want to go into debt making the movie. So Rad would save up enough money, film until that money ran out. Then would resume filming after he had save up enough money again.
It then took until 2005, for John S. Rad to finance the actual release of the film…
- That’s Amore: Love is in the air at the start of Dangerous Men. First, there is a bizarre sex scene with a detective and his wife, Second, a romantic dinner between Mina (Melody Wiggins) and the man she hopes to marry, Daniel. The sound mix for this romantic dinner is really something special… this was low budget filmmaking at its best or worst, depending on your point of view. Mina and Daniel declare their love for one another. Soon they are meeting with Mina’s father to get his blessing so they can be married. Then it is a day at the beach for our young lovers, a day that is completely destroyed by a pair of bikers who decide to target the couple. The biker with the hat attacks Daniel, while the bald biker attempts to rape Mina. To his credit, Daniel is able to get the better of the hat wearing biker and actually strangles him to death. The strangulation of his friends, gets baldie off of Mina… which is a good thing. But then he proceeds to stab Daniel repeatedly and kill him for killing his friend, which is a bad thing.
- Not All She’s Cracked Up To Be: After witnessing her future husband’s brutal murder, the sweet and innocent Mina begs the bald biker to take her with him. This is a bizarre twist, although everyone grieves differently. The two end up at a hotel, where they have a nice steak dinner before heading up to their room. During dinner Mina “clumsily” dumps her plate and silverware on the floor, it was all a ruse however so she could sneak the steak knife up to the room with her. Mina tells her new biker “beau” to get comfortable, while she goes and takes a shower. She returns to the bed, wearing nothing but a towel and having a strong desire to have her knees touched. Her towel soon drops and I couldn’t help but wonder where she stashed the steak knife… the answer was, in her ass crack! Mina makes a bloody mess of the biker and in that moment she realizes she must make it her life’s work to kill DANGEROUS MEN.
- Law and Disorder: The detective that was seen at the beginning of the movie was actually Daniel’s brother David. David wants in on the investigation of his brother’s murder and the disappearance of Mina… even if that means doing his own unofficial investigation visiting biker bars. It seemed at this point, the movie would be about David eventually finding Mina and realizing she was the female vigilante killing DANGEROUS MEN and he’d either have to arrest her or in classic vigilante movie fashion, allow her to get out of town and leave the vigilante killings a mystery. But that scenario would have made sense… instead, David visits biker bars, finds out that the leader of the motorcycle club that his brother’s killer belonged to is a guy named Black Pepper and David is able to coerce another bald biker who tried to rape a woman on the beach, to take him to Black Pepper. As a final boss, Black Pepper is the absolute shits. Prior to the cops showing up at his place, what crime has he committed? Is being a poor man’s Chris Elliott a crime in the State of California?! Black Pepper does take off when the cops show up, so he must have done something wrong and when David catches up with him we get a Black Pepper vs. David battle, THAT DAVID LOSES!! …I should probably also mention that before that confrontation, we find out Mina has been arrested and that’s the end of her for the movie. Apparently there was a real life falling out between Melody Wiggins and John S. Rad, which is why she did not end up finishing the movie.
- Enter the Vincenzo: With David and Mina out of the picture we need a new hero to step up to the plate and that hero is David’s boss, Chief Davis (Carlos Rivas, Young Rebels). We briefly see Chief Davis about midway through the movie on the phone with David and then a bit later with Mack, another LAPD detective that reports to him. This seemed like it was going to be a relatively small supporting role for Carlos Rivas and then to my surprise, Chief Davis finds himself hunting down Black Pepper in the closing minutes of the movie. For me Rivas as the good guy was a surprise in and of itself. In the aforementioned Young Rebels, Rivas plays one of my all-time favorite characters, Mr. Vincenzo… an over the top villain with piss poor phone etiquette and even worse labor negotiating skills. Carlos Rivas’ performance as Mr. Vincenzo was so memorable in Young Rebels, I had basically typecast him in my mind… I will never doubt the acting range of Carlos Rivas again for as long as I live.
If you are a fan of batshit crazy cinema, you need to give Dangerous Men a watch as soon as possible. It belongs right up there with Samurai Cop, Miami Connection and Young Rebels.
If you are a fan of Bonus Bullet Points, you need to read these right now…
- Confusing Quote: Of all the nonsensical elements in Dangerous Men, I think the thing that baffled me the most happened when Mina and Daniel were on their way to the beach. Mina says “Look at THAT ocean over there. Isn’t it absolutely beautiful?” Who says THAT ocean? Oceans aren’t things that just pop up along a drive like a cow. Was she unsure which ocean it was?
- If You Ever: …wanted to see a minor character in a movie, for example the car rental agent in Dangerous Men, get a phone call from their horny significant other, followed by a less than flattering sex scene between the two inconsequential characters, then Dangerous Men is the movie for you.
- Naked and Afraid: After her first kill, Mina finds herself hitchhiking away from the scene of the crime. Mina is picked up by a kindly, mature English gentleman. But after Mina falls asleep on the drive, she realizes he may not be as gentlemanly as she originally believed and that is confirmed when he pulls a gun on her and demands sex. Mina manages to use her feminine wiles to turn the tables on him and when it is all said and done she forces him to strip down completely and then drives off with his vehicle. What is really strange is the fact that the naked Englishman gets more screen time after that as we see him becoming one with nature, wandering around the woods with only some foliage to hide his shame and debating aloud how he will explain his nakedness when he inevitably runs into another human being.
- One Thing You Didn’t Know: Later in the movie, Mina once again finds herself hitchhiking (since it went so well the first time). This time around it is a younger dude, but he also wants to have his way with Mina before taking to her desired destination. Things don’t turn out well for him or his car. Mina ends up pushing the car down a steep hill and when it reaches the bottom, it blows up. Interesting fact… the car used for the scene belonged to John S. Rad’s daughter. John caught his daughter talking to a man he did not want her talking to. John took the car away from her as punishment, telling her she would never see the car again… and up until she saw the movie, she had no idea what her father had done to her car.
