REVIEW: Extreme Prejudice (1987)

By The_Night_Rider on November 6, 2014@manlymovie

Runtime: 96 Mins
Rated: R
What To Expect: A movie so manly it demands yearly viewing
Click Here To Buy Extreme Prejudice ( Double Border ) (Blu-Ray & DVD Combo) (Blu-Ray)

I have to go a little retro for this today’s review. 6.5 on the IMDb? You have to be joking. Walter Hill’s resume can never be repeated enough. Director of The Warriors (1979), Southern Comfort (1981), 48 Hrs (1982), Red Heat (1988), Another 48 Hours (1990), Trespass (1992) and Undisputed (2002). He’s also written two Alien movies and The Getaway. And you know, here is one of his best. A violent and ultra manly action thriller that even has a good story – which figures because the thing was written by John Milius. The film drew poor box office, apparently the hot thing that month was Michael J. Fox in ‘The Secret of My Success’. Go figure, this one is best viewed with cigars and Bud.

This movie is kind of like The A-Team, only with profuse violence, swearing, drug using, nudity and meanness. A crack squad of Special Forces who have faked their own deaths are in town to stage a robbery as a cover for retrieving sensitive documents from a drugs kingpin. Nolte is there to bring ’em all in and he’s not unwilling to shoot to kill. If Walter Hill and Milius already didn’t give this movie pedigree, check out the fucking cast. Nick Nolte. Michael Ironside. Powers Boothe, Maria Alonso (Predator 2, The Running Man), Clancy Brown (The Kurgan from Highlander) and more. The score is by Jerry Goldsmith, who scored the Rambo series and Total Recall. To say this movie has it all would be understating it. It’s a true 80’s Icon that flew quietly under the radar.

This could be the first time we seen Special Forces/Rogue soldiers use particular sets of skills to pull a heist. When watching this, I wondered if Hill had been watching Die Hard. Military men planning a heist, black computer hacker, professionalism rarely seen in the ’80s, clever story… But this movie actually came out in early 1987. Die Hard came out mid-1988. That’s not to say this is in Die Hard’s league (what is?), but it’s 75% of its quality with 5% of its recognition. It’s classy action too. Like a typical Hill movie, it has the best squibs you’ll ever see. It seems only RoboCop came close it making real thick, exploding bloodwork busting out of clothing as good as this. A big part of the story involves a love triangle, yet it is barely mentioned and only serves for an excuse for two men to have a back to back shoot-off, old West style. Nolte practically tells the bitch to quit nagging at the start, and you don’t see her much afterwards.

This is how you film a movie for the male demographic. Business gets handled. Nick Nolte’s Ranger should’ve gotten a sequel out of this. Damn shame he didn’t.