FLASHFIRE A Film Review Copyright Dragan Antulov 2000
In modern society law enforcement ceased to be exclusive domain of certain distinct social groups and policemen now come from all walks of life. FLASHFIRE, 1993 thriller directed by Elliott Silverstein, represents this phenomenon in the form of its protagonist. Jack Flinder (played by Billy Zane) is policeman who came from the rich family and later became despised by his financially less fortunate colleagues. They hate him because he lacked motivation to take bribes and later actually testified against fellow cop during corruption trial. Real ordeal begins when his partner gets killed by two assassins in motel during the encounter with Lisa Cates (played by Kristin Minter). The girl managed to escape without harm and therefore became witness. Flinder wants to find people responsible for his partner's death and decides to protect the prostitute, falling in love with her in process. Soon it becomes clear that the assassins were actually policemen and that the motive for murder was actually cover- up of corruption scandal.
Exploitation cinema in last few decades embraced police corruption as part of its most favoured motives. Naturally, 1990s B-films like FLASHFIRE can't be made without combining this motive with other forms of sleaze. But FLASHFIRE nevertheless fails to arouse our interest because scriptwriters John Warren and Dan York drown the story with cliches and predictability while director Silverstein gives anaemic look to the plot and characters. FLASHFIRE simply can't be rescued from the well-deserved descent into oblivion - not even by the presence of always capable Louis Gossett Jr. in thankless role of police captain nor by physically attractive but nevertheless not very interesting Kristin Minter in the role of femme fatale.
RATING: 2/10 (-)
Review written on October 3rd 2000
Dragan Antulov a.k.a. Drax Fido: 2:381/100 E-mail: dragan.antulov@st.tel.hr E-mail: drax@purger.com E-mail: dragan.antulov@altbbs.fido.hr
Filmske recenzije na hrvatskom/Movie Reviews in Croatian http://film.purger.com
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