Hurricane Film

I had my VHS-watching night last night. I'd had to postpone it in order to sit in on the "Top Story! Weekly" writing staff, and so it was being held in the first week of June instead of the last week of May. I had some concern about very many people attending, but those fears proved unfounded, and we had a good time watching a couple of old action movies. I think people mainly think of scifi and horror when it comes to "bad movies", but I say action movies are great too.

The first one we watched was "Hurricane Smith". Carl Weathers stars as a Texas oil field worker who journeys to Australia in search of his missing sister. He finds out that she got involved in some bad stuff (IE drugs and sex work) while in the employ of a nefarious underworld figure played by Jurgen Prochnow. Weathers continues to try to find her, but mainly is sidetracked by a hooker and her pimp who he logically ought to have moved on from after he got what information they had.

Weathers is an actor with only so much to offer. He's not incapable of executing in action sequences. He is not possessed of much charisma though, and is not terribly compelling in scenes with a ton of talking. He's good as a supporting actor in an action film, but I just don't think he's up to the task of carrying a film as its lead. If there's a movie out there that prove me wrong I'll own up to it, but I suspect any other film in which he's the lead will only prove me right.

If the film has a saving grace (which is not Prochnow), it has to be the aforementioned pimp, a stringy-haired, rat-faced actor called Shanks. He steals scene after scene, and proves especially durable after coming through torture and gunfights little the worse for wear. The titular Smith does also, but then it's expected of him. A sniveling, blustery pimp is really playing with house money if he survives one incident. Because of that, I can recommend this film.