Bullet Points: Coldfire
As much as social media can infuriate me at times, social media can also be a source of good. Like recently, when I was reminded of a PM Entertainment movie that I meant to check out some time ago, 1990’s Coldfire…
- 21 Jump Street: Nick (Kamar de los Reyes, East L.A. Warriors) and Jake (Michael Easton, The Killing Zone) are two fresh-faced detectives with the LAPD, who have been posing as students and working undercover at a local high school. Nick and Jake have gotten close to the big drug dealer on campus, Johnny Dove and are all set to make a buy at a local strip club that Johnny hangs out at. Captain Getz assigns the veteran Sgt. Dix to run the sting operation… as is often the case in movies, things go sideways quickly when Jake accidentally reveals that he and Nick are cops! What everyone is about to find out is that Johnny Dove has tested a brand new drug from Russia called “coldfire”… a drug that can be deadly when a person’s adrenaline starts pumping… like Johnny Dove’s adrenaline was pumping when he fled the scene like a bat out of hell. Dove freaks out, nearly kills Dix… eventually forcing Dix to shooting Dove first in the legs. and then taking it too far and shooting Dove dead. Dix gets suspended for his actions. This pisses off Dix’s buddy, Milton Lars (Wings Hauser, No Safe Haven) and Lars and Jake exchange heated words as a result. But Jake and Nick don’t get off scot-free, for their screw up and are put on desk duty for the foreseeable future by Captain Getz.
- The Other Side of the Fence: The in-fighting is not exclusive to the good guys in Coldfire… there’s a power struggle amongst the bad guys too. The main drug dealer in town, Sheldon (Addison Randall, The Last Riders) has heat with Victor, the man who brought coldfire over from Russia and is working with Sheldon to distribute this new drug in the United States. Victor blames Sheldon for the Johnny Dove situation… a situation that has now clued the cops in about “coldfire”. The villains in Coldfire were the weakest part of the movie for me. But there was more to Coldfire than cops vs. drug dealers.
- A Tale of Two Friends: We find out that Nick and Jake aren’t just partners, they are lifelong friends as well. However while everyone seems to believe that Nick has what it takes to being a great detective for the LAPD, the jury is still out on Jake… In addition to getting into shouting matches with his more experienced co-workers, Jake is also getting a reputation for taking unnecessary risks and not taking anything seriously. When Jake is stuck on desk duty, he uses that time to hit on a female cop in his precinct, although she handles that in a unique way without having to get HR involved. Jake’s personal life is a mess too. Jake’s mom passed away and his dad is in prison and has no love for his son, especially now that he has become a cop, so that leaves Jake turning to the bottle for comfort more often than not… Meanwhile, Nick is a married man who goes home and has candlelight sex with his wife Maria and then serenades her in the bathtub, until Jake shows up and rummages through their refrigerator thus concluding Nick and Maria’s romantic evening.
- Business Picks Up: You may not want Jake around if you have plans with your significant other, but he is definitely a good character to have around if you want some action in your movie. Not content with riding a desk or being back up for more seasoned detectives, Jake convinces Nick that they should go maverick! The gamble pays off as far as making an arrest, but Captain Getz blows his top in a fantastic scene. Despite Getz’s meltdown, Jake and Nick continue to do their own thing, which leads to a car chase which ends with Jake going in the drink in a different fashion, but compared to future PM car chases, it was relatively tame. All this independent police work puts Jake and Nick on the radar of the bad guys, which can’t be possibly be a good thing. Later when Nick finds out Maria is pregnant, he really rethinks his partnership/friendship with Jake… after all, he will soon have a family to support, can he continue to partner with a wildcard like Jake!?!? This sets up the big finale, where Nick learns the drug dealers have Maria and not only does he have Jake at his side, the two finally get on the same page as Milton Lars, which can’t be a good thing for the bad guys!
PM Entertainment had not yet perfected their formula in 1990, but they were getting closer. Coldfire was not as action packed as future PM projects, but with Kamar de los Reyes and Michael Easton putting in strong performances, I still found myself entertained and at times genuinely wondering if they’d both survive until the end.
You have almost made it to the end of this Coldfire review, all that is left are these Bonus Bullet Points…
- Double Duty: In addition to his role as Milton Lars, Wings Hauser also served as the Director of Coldfire. Wings pulled double duty as an actor and director on two other PM Entertainment films, The Art of Dying and Living to Die.
- If You Ever: …wanted to see and hear Wings Hauser call up a 976 sex line, then Coldfire is the movie for you. Side note, Hauser’s Lars made these calls from work, incurring a charge of $42.06.
- Cold Open: The movie started off in a somewhat bizarre fashion, with a guy who found himself in the role of human lab rat.
