Bullet Points: Maximum Force (1992)

I don’t always shop at places like Wal-Mart but there is one thing that I do enjoy checking out in the crowded ass aisles at my local one and that is the DVD bargain bins. They always have a new 15 movie action pack featuring a few Seagal flicks I haven’t seen. It’s a good way to drop $5 and maybe find a diamond in the rough. Normally I wouldn’t consider any movie starring Sam J. Jones not called Flash Gordon to be a “sweet purchase”, but for maybe the first time ever, I was wrong. This 8 movie action pack that I picked up for $3.99 isn’t just hiding a diamond in the rough, it’s loaded with at least a couple of unexpected treats that will keep me buying shitty Steven Seagal movies for the next 10 years.

Synopsis: Three police detectives with their own vendettas against a crime boss are recruited by a soon-to-be retiree to get the criminal once and for all. They’ll have to put all their talents together in order to wipe the villainous Tanabe (Richard Lynch) from the city streets.

• The Po-Po: The movie opens up by introducing us to each of the three detectives that will be teaming up to prove that vigilante justice is sometimes far more effective than the law. First we meet the weapons and tech guy played by Jason Lively. His introduction is pretty funny as his stakeout gets ruined when a homeless dude blows his cover and Lively ends up having to blow a helicopter out the sky with his grenade launcher. Next we’re introduced to sexy lady cop Sherri Rose while she’s undercover as a hooker on the street. Her spot also gets blown up by a potential “John” and she’s forced to face off against the legendary Sonny Landham. Holy shit! No one told me Sonny was in this! Finally, Sam J. Jones goes the simple route and just walks into an underground fight club and starts mixing it up with all the bad guys. I miss the days when every street had an underground fight club in it.
• The Sax-Man: The weakest part of Enter the Dragon, John Saxon, is about to retire from the force having never taken down uber bad guy Tanabe. He cares so much that he recruits the three detectives listed above to put their lives on the line to finish Tanabe off for good. John Saxon is pretty old here but he works well as the team captain who attempts to prepare them for the job at hand.
• We need a montage: Just when I started questioning whether or not this movie was gonna rock, it blasted me in the face with an amazing montage like a Super Soaker CPS 2000. Sam Jones works the bag and jumps rope with a cigarette in his mouth like a real athlete. I don’t see Floyd Mayweather training like that! Sherri Rose meditates in the middle of the floor to suppress some of the toxic masculinity that Maximum Force constantly spews but Jason Lively brings it back a little with his marksmanship training. And by marksmanship training, I mean he shoots at candles with guns. It doesn’t make much sense in a big open warehouse setting but it looks damned cool on TV.

• Real world training: John Saxon knows a thing or two about kicking ass. Don’t forget, he beat up Bolo Yeung! He surprises the trio of detectives like a rapist in the night with some wonderful ninja attack training. Everyone is ready until they get attacked in the middle of the night by a couple of ninjas and are forced to fight them off. Saxon eventually walks in and lets us in on the planned attack but sticks around long enough to see his new team pull off some three-way butt-kicking of their own.
• Stereotypes rule: Movies use stereotypes so they don’t have runtimes of 300 minutes. Not everyone can turn a simple book into a trilogy like Peter Jackson. One of the stereotypes that you’ll see in 93% of cop movies in the 90’s is the broken family. Sam Jones is a divorced and broken man. He misses the life that he no longer has. The wife who left him and the child who rarely sees him. It’s a useful tool in the action movie handbook.

• Bring on the Man: The team eventually finds themselves the prey and not the hunter. Tanabe’s men seek out the group and we’re given a pretty great glimpse into the tech/weapons guy’s arsenal. It’s a cool scene that will finally lead to the all-out showdown with Tanabe. It wouldn’t be a 90’s movie without some more helicopter action and Maximum Force is all about maximizing their 90’s-ness. The finale isn’t as explosive as it could have been but it’s hard to complain when I only spent about 30 cents for the movie.

Maximum force deserves maximum Bullet Points:

• Sonny Landham giveth and Sonny Landham taketh. I was left wanting more…
• Radio controlled explosives sound cooler than they look.
• Richard Lynch has probably been killed by every single actor born between 1945-1970.
• Sherri Rose is very hot.

The Verdict: I had an absolute blast with Maximum Force. My expectations were ultra low as the film started but I was already hooked after the opening scene. Sam Jones doesn’t resemble Flash Gordon at all and that is a very good thing. He’s gritty, rough, and a worthy Lorenzo Lamas replacement for this movie. Sherri Rose isn’t a damsel in distress, but instead a badass chick who goes toe to toe with everyone. Jason Lively isn’t all comedy but he does deliver some good lines and you can’t dislike his firearms selection. If you can find this movie in one of those action packs then I highly recommend checking it out. It’s well worth the small price.