Bullet Points: Ricochet

Denzel Washington is a great example of an actor, who when called upon can assume the role of action hero… something he first proved in 1991’s Ricochet.

Prior to Ricochet, Washington had made a name for himself in dramatic roles and he even dabbled in comedies from time to time, but the realm of action entertainment was one Denzel had yet to step into…

• A Star is Born: Our movie begins in the summer of 1984… Los Angeles is experiencing Olympic fever and uniformed officers Nick Styles (Denzel Washington) and Larry Doyle (Kevin Pollack) are patrolling a street festival celebrating the games taking place in the City of Angels. Meanwhile in a building overlooking the festival, Earl Talbot Blake (John Lithgow, Cliffhanger) is attempting to make a huge splash in Los Angeles’ criminal underworld… but things don’t end up going exactly as planned for Blake. After gunning down some of his fellow bad guys, Blake has to make a hasty retreat leading to him defenestrating himself and ending up on the street and eye to eye with Officer Styles. Blake quickly grabs a hostage to get the advantage, but Styles uses some unorthodox methods to diffuse the situation and take Blake down. The entire incident was caught on camera by an amateur videographer and just like that cop/law student Nick Styles was on his way to becoming an Assistant District Attorney in Los Angeles.

• Something to Live For: On the opposite end of the spectrum of Styles is Earl Talbot Blake, who is serving hard time in prison for the crimes he committed. While Nick Styles is living the good life on the outside with his beautiful wife and two young daughters… Earl finds himself engaging in the prison version of American Gladiators as he fights for his life against his cellmate Chewalski (Jesse Ventura, Predator) in the chow hall. While media darling Nick Styles is being groomed to be the future mayor of Los Angeles, Blake is befriending the Aryan Brotherhood. The irony of the situation is not lost on Blake… the incident that destroyed him, is the very same incident that laid the groundwork for all of Styles’ success… Earl Talbot Blake vows revenge and the wheels start turning in his sick and twisted mind as he bides his time waiting for the moment he can exact his revenge.

• The Mighty Have Fallen: The plan that Earl Talbot Blake concocts is absolutely Machiavellian. Blake, with the help of his stooge Kim (Josh Evans) manages to escape prison in most violent fashion, fake his own death and then systematically destroy the image of Nick Styles… he has the media believing that Styles is a pedophile, that Styles killed his friend Larry Doyle and that he is not the family man he claimed to be when a sex tape shows up of Styles and a prostitute… a sex tape that Blake himself produced after kidnapping Styles, drugging him out of his mind, tying him up to a bed and hiring a prostitute to ride Styles… when Nick tries to explain that Earl Talbot Blake is behind all of this, everyone thinks he is crazy because they believe that Blake is dead.

• Desperate Times: When Styles finds out that Earl Talbot Blake had been in his house, and in the bedroom of his two young girls… he is ready to fight back and hard, so Styles turns to an unlikely source… Odessa (Ice-T, Stealth Fighter). Odessa is a guy he knew from back in the day and who grew up on the same streets as Styles. Odessa is now a powerful drug dealer in Los Angeles, but as they say desperate times call for desperate measures and Nick Styles is ready to do whatever he has to to clear his name and destroy the man who has all but destroyed him.

Many times in action movies, when you have an antagonist as diabolical as the Earl Talbot Blake character, the protagonist can easily be overshadowed. But that was not the case with Ricochet. Both John Lithgow and Denzel Washington turned out some strong performances which gave their characters a perfect parity.

Bonus Bullet Points always pair perfectly with any review…

• Familiar Faces: John Amos (Die Hard 2) played Nick Styles’ father Reverend Styles… Lindsay Wagner (The Bionic Woman) Played Styles’ boss District Attorney Priscilla Brimleigh… And the bad guys that Lithgow’s Earl Talbot Blake gunned down at the start of the movie were played by Miguel Sandoval (Death Wish V), George Cheung (U.S. Seals II) and Thomas Rosales Jr. (Nowhere to Run).
• Connections: Mary Ellen Trainor played reporter Gail Wallens, a character she originally played in Die Hard. Steven E. de Souza wrote the screenplays for both Ricochet and Die Hard.
• If You Ever: …wanted to see Denzel Washington play basketball with Kevin Pollack and Ice-T, then this is the movie for your.
• Soundtraxx: Speaking of Ice-T, the rapper performed the title track on the Ricochet soundtrack