Deadly Prey (1987)

Simply Perfect

Just perfect...

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

You'll never say die after viewing this movie! In Vietnam, Mike Danton was the best, and he still is (provided the bad guys line up to fight him one at a time). Want to see a man beaten to death with his own arm? You're a liar if you say no! Watch it now or risk some bad timing. Watching this movie is like being on the winning side, it's a lot healthier. I'm a little man who's spent 27 years of his life as a film enthusiast searching for a great movie. 27 years in the filth and dirt of the streets and there ain't no music down there. Finally, I found a movie so manly it just could not be denied. So summon up some spit cleaned earthworms and flame cooked rats, hunker down and watch Deadly Prey today! End of Story.

There's really not much to this movie: an off-brand Rambo ("Mike Danton", just good enough I guess) with an epic mullet walks through the woods and kills evil army guys. That's pretty much it. Most scenes are identical. The most clueless army ever looks around for mullet guy, then he comes out of an implausible hiding space to kill one of them without anyone else knowing. The way things just solve themselves for our hero is beyond amazing. Nobody hears it when a victim grunts, even though they're walking about two feet from each other and there's no other noise whatsoever. Everyone has machine guns, but drop them instantly when they have an easy shot because they're just so keen on awkward hand-to-hand combat. People die from everything. At one point our hero just takes a branch and impales a guy on it...somehow. And then there's the traps, which really make you wonder how small this forest is supposed to be. One scene features Danton hiding in the water to kill someone who walks by. He doesn't lure him there, he has no way of knowing the soldier is going to get nearby. He's just suddenly there, magically. A similar thing happens when the evil backer guy helps out a guy laying on the street. Why? He's a douchebag, why would he help people? So he can get killed of course. If I'm making it sound like I hate this movie, nothing could be further from the truth. I like it, but dear God is it intensely stupid. It's like if a 12-year-old got the chance to write an action movie and just wrote whatever popped up without taking anything else into account. Yeah he can't be there, yeah that makes no sense, let's put it in anyway. This has its positive and negative points, but the former outweigh the latter. "Deadly Prey" is entertaining because it gets straight to the good stuff, but please give your brain a day off.

David A. Prior is the man! Not only did he give us the surreal (and the first SOV film made for the video market) SLEDGEHAMMER, he gave us one of the best movies ever, KILLER WORKOUT. Now, he gives us DEADLY PREY. An action movie. You can already imagine it, can't you? Colonel Hogan is the commander of an army of mercenaries who usually orders his men to kidnap random people off the street so they can be released into the wild for training exercises for his troops. However, they just kidnapped Mike Danton, a former man under Hogan's control, and needless to say, he's pretty angry and ready to fight back.DEADLY PREY is the film definition of sheer insanity. It wastes zero time getting going. It opens with one poor fellow getting hunted and killed, Hogan ordering another one, and Danton is taken while wearing shorts shorter than any man should be allowed to wear. Seeing as Ted Prior plays the role, the mercenaries take off his shirt for no reason and release him.DEADLY PREY has one of the highest kill counts of any action movie I've ever seen, and it may just beat out STRIKE COMMANDO for that title. A lot of them are straight up shootings, but occasionally, there's a killing that will make your jaw hit the floor. There's a grenade down the pants, a guy somehow not seeing Danton under a pile of leaves, and, possibly the best action movie death I've ever seen, a guy getting his arm hacked off and then getting beat to death with it! The acting is standard for a Prior movie, and even includes a lot of the cast. There's David Campbell (KILLER WORKOUT, and acting the same as he did there), Ted Prior (KILLER WORKOUT, acting the same as he did there), Fritz Matthews (KILLER WORKOUT, acting the same as he did…say, I'm starting to see a pattern…).Overall, it's a great movie to watch if you're looking for over-the-top action and no plot. The ending is open for a sequel that, sadly, never was. Still, I would rank this movie up there with STRIKE COMMANDO as far as nonsensical, cheesy action flicks go.Watch it at all costs.

Night Of The Kickfighters (1988). Clash of the Ninjas (1986). American Kickboxer 2 (1993). Deadly Prey. The upper echelon of action movie insanity. If you've seen any or all of these movies, there's no going back. You're a changed person.Mike Danton (Prior) is just an average guy, we think at first. He just wants to get five more minutes of sleep in his waterbed and take out the trash in the morning. Without warning, he is kidnapped by a team of mercenaries and driven 75 miles southeast of Los Angeles into the forest, where said Mercs hunt live prey as training exercises. The nefarious Col. Hogan (Campbell) just wants to drink his New York Seltzer and run the operation from behind his desk, but his corporate benefactor, Michaelson (Donahue) is breathing down his neck for results. So with the help of his right hand man, Lt. Thornton (Matthews) and right-hand woman Sybil (Abraham) he focuses all his energy on his former protégé Danton, who is killing off his entire squad.Released into the wild like an animal, with only his wits, his mullet and his undersized white shorts, Danton makes mincemeat of his fellow meatheads. But help is on the way in the form of his concerned wife Jaimy (Tara) and her Father (Mitchell). Jaimy's Dad is a retired cop with somewhere between 27 and 30 years on the force. He infiltrates Hogan's training camp to find out what's going on with Danton. Additionally, his old 'Nam buddy Jack Cooper (Zipp), a former worker for Hogan, switches sides to the good guys to help out Danton. Will Danton - or you - ever be the same? Far from your average AIP jungle slog, this is far, far funnier. And better. There are at least three solid laughs in the first two minutes of the movie alone . The tone is then set for what has to be the best AIP movie. Why can't they all be like this gem? Almost every line of dialogue (which is mostly in soundbite form) or even the faces the characters make are a "laff" riot. How did they not know it was this funny while they were filming it? Far from just a "homage" to First Blood (1982) and The Most Dangerous Game (1932), Deadly Prey is an entirely different beast. We're just sort of thrown in to the plot, seemingly as random as Danton is thrown into the forest. It is a pretty big coincidence that a guy the mercenaries chose at random just happens to be Hogan's former student and "the best". But it's a joy to watch Danton turn the tables on the baddies, and, looking a lot like a caveman and basically in the nude, display his survivalist abilities. At least they must have saved on their wardrobe budget, as, even when he eventually gets the chance to, Danton still steadfastly refuses to wear a shirt.Deadly Prey would make an interesting double feature with Masterblaster (1987). It also features one of Steve McClintock's best scores, and his sensitive end-credits tune "Never Say Die" musically is antithetical to the violence that we just saw, but that's all part of the illogical fun. We tried to avoid describing specific scenes because you must see them for yourself.Silly, ridiculous, hilarious, and full of laughs and action, for an entertaining night of wildly fun viewing, it's basically impossible to top the modern-day classic Deadly Prey. See it!for more insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com