Sam Firstenberg is a pro. Even though most of the movies he`s directed have had the word ”ninja” in the title (”Revenge of the Ninja,” ”Ninja III: The Domination,” ”American Ninja”), he hasn`t sloughed them off. Firstenberg is one of the few filmmakers working on the lower end of the action-adventure genre who still subscribes to the old Hollywood ethic of doing the best you can with what you`ve got. And although ”Avenging Force”
doesn`t give him much, he brings to it a fine sense of craft–a fast and distinctive cutting style, a vigorous narrative rhythm–that more than gives the audience its money`s worth.
The plotting is naive but functional. In New Orleans, the leaders of a right-wing group target a young black man, Larry Richards (Steve James), who is running for the Senate. But they haven`t counted on the martial-arts expertise of Richards`s ex-Secret Service partner, Matt Hunter (Michael Dudikoff), a baby-faced blond whose mild-mannered, not to say nerdish, exterior masks the strength of a raging bull and the single-minded
determination of a stoat.
The film is, of course, extremely violent–such is the nature of the genre–but Firstenberg is able to introduce some progressive values that help to give the wholesale slaughter something of a moral point. The chief heavy
–played with hammy relish by John P. Ryan–is given a number of hysterical speeches about the ”dope-crazed savages, rapists, yellow-bellied liberals, and commie guerrillas” who threaten his ”constitutional right to bear arms” in defense of his demented vision of ”the American way of life.” It is the same sort of demagogic drivel we`ve become accustomed to hearing from the heroes of Hollywood action films, chiefly those of Sylvester Stallone, and it`s refreshing to see this insanity placed back where it belongs: in the mouth of a raving lunatic.
But it`s the action that matters in a movie like this, and Firstenberg has come up with some imaginative, high-impact sequences that make a resourceful use of his locations: a shoot-out in the middle of the Mardi Gras parade (convincingly restaged with no more than a couple of hundred extras), a chase through the industrial decay of the New Orleans waterfront, a final pursuit, in the driving rain, through the bayou. Though the action is extravagant, Firstenberg resists the kind of campy, comic-book exaggeration that has been the genre`s norm since ”Raiders of the Lost Ark.” He returns a touch of plausibility to the proceedings–and the thrills and suspense come back with it.
”AVENGING FORCE”
(STAR)(STAR)(STAR)
Directed by Sam Firstenberg; written by James Booth, edited by Michael J. Duthie, photographed by Gideon Porath. A Cannon release; opened Friday at the Dearborn and outlying theaters. MPAA rating: R. Running time: 103 minutes.
