For us pulp cinema fans, few words arise excitement in us the way "double feature" does. For this week's article, I treated myself to a double dose of future justice. Two films I've acquired at unlikely places; "Twisted Justice", which I bought at a discount book store; and "Cold Harvest", which was purchased at a CVS. Both movies were chosen for a back-to-back viewing because they took place in the future. I wondered how else they could be similar.
Sense I'm terrible at summarizing films, I'll transcribe for you what the back of their boxes say:
Twisted Justice
The year is 2020. The Future is now!
Violence in society has gone from bad to worse. The result: guns have been banned. But the killing continues and now a rash of violent homocides [sic] aimed at beautiful women has erupted!
Well, that sounds great. Especially the fact that "homicides" is mispelled! The DVD also had an additional line as its menu screen:
The year is 2020... He's the only cop who can stop the destruction of the world!
Alright, I thought. This was going to be a futuristic action extravaganza that would lead the world being saved by evil. That wasn't the case at all, but I'll come back to that.
Cold Harvest
It's been two years since the comet devastated planet Earth, leaving humans on the brink of extinction. Disease has raged out of control and lawless savages patrol the streets. Out of the shadows emerges Roland, with revenge on his mind. With the help of his suicidal sister-in-law, Christine, he seeks to avenge the death of his brother by finding one of only seven humans who cary [sic] the precious anti-body that can cure the overwhelming plague.
However, Little Ray also has his eye on the vital vaccine, but with the shocking intention of isolating the gene and ruling the world. Now the two men will collide in a deadly pursuit of world preservation and domination.
Whoever writes these covers deserves a Noble prize. But they still can't proofread to save their lives.
I knew there was trouble with 1990's "Twisted Justice" the moment I saw that it was written, directed, produced, and scored by the film's star David Heavener. The cast wasn't such a good sign either, the biggest celebrity on the box is Erik Estrada, followed by Gene Simmons' housemate Shannon Tweed. After the "Hero Films Inc." credit and a prologue about how guns have been outlawed, the film begins with a standoff at a chemical plant (the same plant we'll see at least a dozen more times before this movie is over). Three police officers who wear chain mail body armor are at a stand still until James Tucker appears in his torn jeans, brown leather coat, and a mullet that would make Martin Riggs choke. Tucker quickly saves the day by blowing away the suspect with the largest magnum in the world.
"Twisted Justice" goes on to tell a story about a world where the police aren't allowed to use guns and instead use tranquilizers. The Big Bad of the film develops a drug that pumps a person up enough for the tranquilizers to be useless, he sells the stuff to street gangs, and he uses his powers to crave bull-eyes into women. Only Tucker is a bad enough dude to restore order to the city. However, cleaning up the streets isn't quite the 'stopping world destruction' I was promised. Nonetheless, the movie manages to stay interesting and entertaining. A great running gag in the film is that every morning a pair of police officers check Tucker's apartment for the large magnum he sometimes carries around. The final revelation of the gun's whereabouts managed to deliver some amusement because all my guesses turned out to be correct.
We also mustn't forget that there just might be some substance to this film. The film raises a good point about what would happen if the police were forced to give up their guns for tranquilizers like those wacky left wingers are campaigning for. The film's answer comes in the form of Tucker's magnum solving everything and inspires a petition Erik Estrada gets every police station in the country to sign to send to Congress.
"Cold Harvest" was a different beast entirely. Made in 1998, this film actually had a set and locations. With "Twisted Justice", the interiors all looked like they came from the same building and the police station had a giant sign that said, and only said: POLICE. In "Cold Harvest", the streets are dirty, everything's on fire, walls are crumbling, etc. It actually looks like an apocalypse has run through the world. Except that every now and then, it looks like the soundstage wall can be seen in the background. There's also the fact the film asks the audience to accept that in the last two years there was a comet crash, a plague, and somehow the sun has been blotted out.
The film follows Roland whose twin, sissy brother Oliver has been murdered by Little Ray. Oliver left behind a pregnant wife whose unborn child is the only hope for the world restoring order. Does that sound familiar? It should, Albert Pyun's "Cyborg" had pretty much the exact same plot and setting. Roland is a gun-for-hire rounding up fugitives for money. His brother's death rattles him and he swears to protect his sister-in-law, who is not suicidal unlike what the back of the box tells us.
Unlike the "Twisted Justice", guns are in abundance in this future apocalypse. In fact, all the action is increased. There's explosions, bad guys leaping through windows to surprise the good guys, bad guys leaping on motorcycles to surprise the good guys, and even six shooters with infinite ammo. "Cold Harvest" is really a western in the guise of science fiction. This fact is repeatedly shoved down the audience's throats as they watch standoffs, saloons, and even a fort invasion. The finale of the film is even a direct homage to Sergio Leone by having about a hundred different shots leading up to quick gun battle to end all gun battles. This follows a direct shot-for-shot lift from "Face/Off" where the hero and villain talk to each other, separated by a wall, shoot at the wall while running, and finally leaping into the air firing at one another in slow motion. Their fight continues into a very Hong Kong inspired fight scene between the two, where the audience discovers that the villain can fight, even if he hasn't thrown a punch the rest of the film.
Both films didn't appear that similar at all, but there were numerous similarities between them once I started analyzing them. For one, the villains in each are evil only for the sake of being evil. There won't be any boo-hoo internal angst here. The drug master of "Twisted Justice" acts like Frankenstein's monster heaped up on steroids as he cuts up the wives of the men who've betrayed him. He's a big, strong brute that never takes a quiet moment for himself. Little Ray is also a devious bastard without remorse. He kills innocent people without a thought or a care which might have led to his downfall without all the gun battles. There's one point where he kills the last vaccine scientist and I wondered just how is he supposed to develop the cure now? Both men are irredeemably evil and one dimensional, but that always seems to make a fun villain. Villains that are just pure evil are a threat to audiences; they're not sympathetic, but sometimes we secretly root for them, usually because the good guy isn't as flamboyant as them.
Speaking of the good guys, once again we have morally ambiguous protagonists. In "Twisted Justice", we have Tucker as the only cop who has a gun, he breaks the rules constantly, and has no qualms taking the law into his own hands to dispense his brand of justice. He also has a life that I wonder how he gets around before and after the movie. He lives like a slob, sleeping in his bathtub, wearing the same clothes everyday, and his best friend is his pet rat who thinks he's a dog named Freud. I don't know what Tucker eats, I don't know what he likes to do on his vacations, I don't even know why he became a cop, but I do know his license plate reads: TUCK U and isn't that all that really matters? There's also an interesting scene where Tucker is assigned a case and tries to weasel his way out of it by saying it's a premeditated murder and he only deals with the "crazies". Is that supposed to mean that Tucker only takes cases that he believes will lead him to having to shoot the culprit to death? Either way, how Tucker remains a policeman is a mystery to me.
Roland of "Cold Harvest" is a bounty hunter in his apocalyptic world, but the only back story we hear about him is that he killed his parents and left his brother to bury them. Having the man we're supposed to root for being the cause of his parent's death seems peculiar. Then again, Roland has nigh-superpowers and amazing martial art skills. I have no idea how he developed these talents, but wasn't that also the case in "Waterworld"? Roland also leads a life of mystery about what he does beyond this film. At least with Tucker I knew where he slept, Roland makes no impression that he sleeps or that he has a home.
Another link between the two films is the dependency on blonde women. Both Tucker and Roland have blonde sidekicks. Tucker has a police lawyer who follows him around for the middle of the film, and another blonde woman as his dispatcher. Roland has his sister-in-law who operates as both his damsel-in-distress and even rescuer a couple of times. But less apparent is the fact both these men appear to have a lack of sex drive. Unlike other films, Tucker doesn't hit on his blonde helper. In one scene he changes the channel from a sex phone ad to "It's a Wonderful Life". But, to his credit, his dispatcher who makes so many sexually suggestive comments to him, I'm surprised Tucker hasn't filed for sexual harassment, uses a voice filter that makes her sound like a weird man; this really begs to question why Tucker doesn't report this guy. The closest Roland comes to a sex scene is watching his sister-in-law give herself a sponge bath in a mirror while he strokes his shotgun. Never mind the fact she's pregnant with his nephew, because there's been other movies where the hero has hooked up with their sibling's soul mate. In one scene, she even asks him to come with her, but our sexually ambiguous hero declines. In fact, both films have a scene of gratuitous female nudity, but the hero is never in the scene to see it. I wonder what that suggests?
And where would pulp films be without gratuitous violence. In both films, a car tips over onto its side and blow up for no apparent reason. That's the kind of movie logic I love. Since these films were made in the era before Al Gore came along to make everyone aware about global warming, we have real, unenhanced explosions; they just work better. There's easily more violence in "Cold Harvest" than "Twisted Justice" on account that everyone seems to have a gun in their future and has a double black belt in martial arts. Tucker isn't completely useless without his gun, because he throws down his fighting skills with down-and-dirty street fighting tactics.
These films are not widely known and are left to be shown at the vampire hours on cable stations. There isn't much substance to them, but they're fun. Both should be given credit for asking a question about the future and then building a film to encapsulate that world. If the world were run by the movie studios, we wouldn't get films like these. The stars of each films, David Heavener and Gary Daniels, both have extensive credits in these action films outside the mainstream. Since their credits give Stallone and Willis a fun for their money, what keeps them away from getting recognition? Who knows, but maybe there's solace to be found knowing that I can be entertained by their second rate action for only a fraction of the cost. That's the way the world should work and thankfully the system still works.
And even though unnecessary, the Pulp Cinema Avenger rates the films:
Twisted Justice - †††
Cold Harvest - ††† and a half.
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