I had to rewind Sybil Danning’s introduction scene in L.A. Bounty (1989) to enjoy it all over again. Rocking up to the middle of a nighttime kidnapping at a mansion – in a blue turtleneck, leather jacket and Mum-jeans – to cut some goons in half with a bulky super-shotgun. If you check out the movie’s excellent poster for, this is what Danning wears the whole movie, occasionally varying it up with huge black shades or smoking a cigarillo.
This was perfect Friday night video trash viewing. Under 90 minutes and a remastered version on Tubi. Generic cop movie plot – about a kidnapped mayoral candidate – but buoyed by just letting Wings Hauser do his whacked-out over-acting in a warehouse as the drug running villain named Cavanaugh. Feels like he shot his scenes in three days which all take place in the warehouse: painting a nude model, killing henchmen who have disappointed him, riffing and gesticulating to the heavens. Then his nemesis, the mostly silent Sybil Danning (who also wrote the story and produced the movie) as Ruger, a bounty hunter out for revenge, played like a cross between The Man With No Name and Cobra, rolling around in a green truck and blasting away in shootouts.
Strengthened by flashes of style, such as the silhouette of Danning walking down a dark alleyway, smoke swirling behind her, or a warehouse climax shootout that feels endless, the type of warehouse that’s supposed to feel huge but it feels like they’ve just reset and redressed the same three corners again and again, all of which I was enjoying, particularly when they throw a red or blue gel light in there to create a neon-charged atmosphere.
Also stars the rooster punk from Escape From New York (Frank Doubleday), Bobby Sixkilller from the TV show Renegade (Branscombe Richmond), and one of the drug dealers (Blackie Dammett) from the Christmas tree lot scene in Lethal Weapon – so to me, an all star cast! Recommended.
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