Bounty Tracker (1993)

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Starring Lorenzo Lamas - king of the C-class action movies. The plot ? It's your typical " They killed his family member . They made a BIG MISTAKE. " run of the mill revenge movie. The villain is played by Matthias Hues who I remember from "I come in peace" (aka "Dark angel"). He can't act (just like Lamas) , but he certainly has the look to play the villain.All in all forgettable stuff. I found this movie in my local supermarket . It cost me 5$ . I regret having to pay for this trash. I give it 1/10. For action junkies only.

A wily Boston bounty tracker, with a martial arts background, comes to LA to visit his brother who was employed in a company unfortunately with a businessman holding damaging evidence involving a white collar criminal. This crook hires merciless, cold-blooded mercenaries to hunt down and kill anyone that could keep him behind bars. When they murder the bounty tracker's brother and wife, he makes it his mission to take them all down. What they don't anticipate is his toughness, fighting prowess, and ability to escape numerous efforts to rid themselves of their menace.Lorenzo Lamas was one of those lower tier, made-for-cable / made-for-satellite action heroes, much like Don 'The Dragon' Wilson. There was a comfortable living to be made in the early 90s for these guys. And Bounty Tracker (1993) is one of my favorites from Lamas' low budget action resume. It doesn't task him with trying to win any thespian honors, and Lamas is allowed to look like a badass. He gets in a handicapped fight against three or so karate fighters in a dojo and makes mincemeat out of them. He avoids lots of gunfire while everyone else isn't so lucky. He simply goes to ask about main nemesis Matthew Hues (a forgotten heavy who was a regular in these types of VHS rental shelf fodder) to Judd Omen's wheel-chair cripple (back broken by Hues for simply wanting to leave his entourage!), after driving around to identify a specific tattoo, and it costs the innocent man his life! Omen's pupil, a kid he mentors, wants to get even also, and, with a couple of wannabe hoods, joins Lamas in his quest to rid LA of scum offering their mercenary duties to those with the coin to afford them. Cyndi Pass is memorable as a hot body mercenary equally as willing to kill anyone as Hues. Eugene Glazer is the classic rich cretin with a serpentine smile and devious mind, using his financial resources (surely accumulated through whatever shady method or heinous act he could accomplish) to get himself out of prison where he belongs. This is the kind of action movie where most people who come in contact with Lamas wind up dead except him. There's a lot of violence, with the likes of fists, kicks, and bullets. One scene has Hues, Pass, and their team of killers just opening up a wave of gunfire on a company of employees, and later they show no mercy on an outpost of cops who were a task force working to find them! The implausibility of how one man (Lamas) could survive while so many others are obliterated is yet again stretched to the max. The film builds to seeing those behind the killing spree (both the moneybags and weapons of destruction) get their just desserts and Lamas is comfortable on screen just getting the opportunity to flex his fighting skills and persevere on top. The plot is especially simple and cliché.A select audience is who this film is intended for. Conclusion in an auto junk yard does seem like a fitting location for a film such as this. Lamas has an array of punches and kicks to Hues certain to impress…the film goes out of its way to make him look like a million bucks. Hues often is featured as an intimidating presence against inferior foes and starts off well against the hero of these flicks, only to get embarrassed by the end of the fight…this is the same way. This doesn't re-invent the wheel. If you are okay with that, this might work.

Johnny Damone (Lamas), not to be confused with Johnny Ramone, is a Boston-based Bounty Tracker who always gets his man. When his brother Paul (Paul Regina) has to be sequestered so he can testify against Bernie Madoff-like white collar criminal Sarazin (Glazer), a team of ruthless assassins, who have no problem killing anyone in their path, led by the super-evil Erik Gauss (Hues), tries to find him and kill him. Johnny travels to L.A. to take down Gauss, his hardest collar yet. Helping him on his journey are a trio of homies from the 'hood who also want Gauss for their own reasons. Inevitably, it leads to the final showdown between Johnny and his boys, and Gauss and his gang. Who will prevail? Bounty Tracker is a total winner. It delivers everything you want in a DTV movie from this time and place. It has all the traits that make a movie like this successful. It's always pleasing when filmmakers actually "get it" because so many out there do not. This movie is pure 90's-action-movie fun and if you're a fan of that (and why wouldn't you be?), there is a lot to love about Bounty Tracker.This truly is Lorenzo Lamas at his absolute best. As the movie kicks off (no pun intended), we see his range as he plays a faux-upper-crust, bowtied nerd. Of course he still has his trademark beard stubble and ponytail. Lamas has a lot of charm, and, in true action-movie style, is always ready with a glib remark. Naturally, Johnny Damone is your classic "ex-Marine, ex-cop, with a black belt in Aikido", who now is a Bounty Tracker, not to be confused with a Bounty Hunter, or even a "Skip Tracer". It's confusing but Reno Raines is a Bounty Hunter. Johnny Damone is a Bounty Tracker. It's hard to keep it all straight. His superiors even call him a "Karate Cowboy", whatever that means, but it might make a great movie in its own right. His fight scenes are highly enjoyable, like the rest of this movie.Fellow fan favorite Matthias Hues once again plays the villain. To see Lamas and Hues face off is truly a DTV dream come true. It's a good, solid role for Hues, who so often is relegated to the background. Here, along with Lamas, he gets his name top-billed above the title. Ah, the golden age. Can you believe there was a time when a top-billed Matthias Hues was an actual THING? It seems hard to believe now in our cynical era. But here's the proof. His female counterpart in the movie, Jewels, is played by Cyndi Pass, who also appeared in Deadly Reckoning (1998), as well as Mission of Justice (1992), which was produced by Bounty Tracker director Kurt Anderson. Anderson also directed Martial Law II (1992) and produced the first Martial Law (1991). So you see the general spirit of what's going on here.We actually liked the homies that Damone teams up with. Sure, many punks and/or homies in these movies can be unnecessary or annoying, just look at Esteban Powell from Hit-man's Run (1999). But, the thing is, you have to take these things on a homie-by-homie basis. You can't just throw the homie out with the bathwater. You have to take the proceedings in the spirit of the time. They just want to turn their lives around and help out Damone. You can't fault them for that. Even Damone can use a little help against someone as evil as Erik Gauss. Plus you can tell he's evil because his name is Erik Gauss.Bounty Tracker is never boring and hits all the right notes. It's a pleasure to watch. There should be more like this.For more action insanity, drop by: www.comeuppancereviews.com

Rent this one if you want to see Lorenzo Llamas kick some serious butt. Plot is a throwaway, natch, with dialogue to match. But Kurt Andersen is an action director to watch, and he serves up some great fight scenes, including a sequence in a dojo that has to be seen to be believed.