Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Bounty Tracker



Plot Synopsis: Almost the whole staff of a tax consultant office is slayed by a team of professional killers, only Paul Damone can escape. He didn't know that his partner used to wash gangster Louis Sarazin's money and had to testify as chief witness against him. Paul's brother Johnny, best bounty tracker of Boston, visits Paul to protect him, but can't prevent that he and his pregnant wife are targeted by the same team. Now Johnny's out for revenge.   

 Lorenzo is back with a vengeance in Bounty Tracker.  So if you haven't guessed by the title he's a bounty hunter, or bounty tracker if you will.  He's Johnny Demone.  The best hunter in the business.  In one of the strangest opening scenes in film history he impersonates a nerdy Englishman to gain entrance into a hip hop bar.  Shouldn't he have been acting like a gangsta?  Well he has a flask that when opened is really a smoke bomb (yes I'm serious) he yells "fire" and everyone runs out, well everyone except for the criminal he's after.  He must have been watching the guy for a long time to know he would be the only guy to not run out of the building.  After beating the crap out of the guy and his bodyguard the cops show up instead of the firemen and arrest the guy.  That's how we learn he not really a sissy Englishman, but a bounty tracker.
  Unfortunately Lorenzo's brother works for an accounting firm who has been helping a mobster launder money.  When the firm decides to turn over the evidence Matthias Hues, the quintessential strait to video bad guy of the 90's and his team of mercenaries walk in and kill everyone, except Lorenzo's brother who runs out the back door.  Well luckily for Matthias Mr. Lama's brother is being guarded by the worst precinct in LA, as they just take him back to his house.  Yes his house, with his pregnant wife, not a safe house or anything, just his house.  But don't worry 3 cops are guarding him.  Yes 3, even though the hit squad after him just took out an entire office building.  Just about this time Lorenzo shows up for a visit.  And wouldn't you  believe that so does the hit squad, who after dispatching of the Keystone Cops kill Lamas's brother, and pregnant wife.  But not Lorenzo, he beats down and kills one of the baddies, and sends the other's running in fear.  Well not really they just leave after they pop his brother.  They knew Lorenzo was there, so obviously they are the dumbest hit squad alive as they leave behind a witness, who killed one of their team members.
  So as you can guess Lorenzo swears revenge and goes after Hues and his team.  Luckily for him he noticed a snake and knife tattoo on the guy he killed, and even more lucky, even though this is a team of mercenaries who have been around sense Name, they guy happened to get his tattoo in LA, right where Lorenzo is staying.  Talk about luck of the Irish.  So Lamas finds a crippled Latino with the same tat who tells him he used to work for Hues, and it was Hues who crippled him when he wanted to leave the gang.  Sidebar, Hues is a moron, he keeps leaving behind witnesses.  Luckily for him the cops in this town are morons.  This crippled guy now spends his time helping young men get out of gangs, or something like that.  But Lorenzo does learn that Hues studied Korean Martial arts, just blocks from where he is.  Boy for a mercenary Hues didn't leave LA much did he?
  So Lamas goes to this Dojo, and beats the crap out of everyone.  Then the evil sense comes out, we know he's the sense because his uniform is a different color, and we know he's evil because he has a cheesy mustache.  I have to admit this is one of the better fights I have seen in films.  While Lamas is doing this, Hues goes to the crippled Latino guys house and kills him, and as hes leaving the thug kids the old man helps see a guy with a ponytail leaving, and assume its Lamas.  Even though Hues is a blond, where as Lamas has dark hair, and Hues is about 1 foot taller, and 50lbs heavier.  Oh well if they were smart they wouldn't need an old man to mentor them in gang life gone wrong.  So they decide to go after Lamas, even getting the drop on him.  But he just tells them he didn't do it, and they believe him, proving they are the most trusting former gang members in history.  So they decide to help him.
  So Lamas armed with his 3 gang stooges go off for the final battle in an abandon junk yard.  As you can guess Lamas, and Hues have your typical 90's martial arts final battle.  This is no spoiler, as Lamas kills him, avenges his brother and gets the 100 thousand dollar bounty.  He then gives a cut to the gang kids and decides to hang around and help them out.  Which is good, because he obviously can make a fortune here, as the cops had been looking for Hues for years, and Lamas tracked him down and killed him in like 2 days.  That, and if a mercenary team is so stupid, the common criminals must be real morons.
  With all that said I really do dig this film.  Great fight scenes, cool 90's straight to video cast, and a good pace make this a great watch.  The only drawback is the reformed street gang kids.  They added nothing to the story, and in fact dragged it down in the scenes they were in.  Other then that though its a fantastic film, that I recommend watching.  It does not yet have a DVD release, but you can get the VHS from Amazon at a really cheap price.

Overall 3 out of 5 Stars!

1 comment:

  1. I'm loving Lamas week, by the way.

    Hey, I gave you an award here:
    http://zombiehall.blogspot.com/p/updates.html

    ReplyDelete