Deadly Alliance (1982) User Reviews

Some Competent Performances, But Too Little Funding.

[rsoonsa · 4/10 · 10 June 2006]

An exigency of having a sufficient budget is plainly evident throughout this patchy film; unfortunately, also are serious shortcomings of logic within a script that oft wants same, and in spite of ability and talent contributed by some from the cast, along with a handsome amount of ably photographed detail, it is weakness in narrative form and continuity that finally sinks the piece to a substandard level. There is, in fact, a curious effort made to inject into the plot a greater number of issues than can be adequately examined. A pair of Southern California film producers become entangled with a woman who claims to have safely hidden damning documents that she intends to use in exposing an extensive conspiracy that will reveal the activities of a cartel of large oil corporations (the "Alliance") and its plans to homicidally subvert United States Congressional authority. One of the producers has determined that he will be shield bearer for the woman, this being to his partner an unwise posture, and to his uncomprehending wife a source of puzzlement, but he nonetheless continues, albeit with assistance of acquaintances who are members of an organized crime group, in a bewildering tale replete with obligatory nudity, senseless explosions, chases of all sorts, gun battles at close range, and so forth, with a few less generic moments of character development tossed into the mix for good measure, these quieter sequences incidentally being the most rewarding to a viewer. Michele Marsh earns the acting laurels here for her turn, one that belongs in another film, of a young wife, delighted to be pregnant with her first child, yet sensing that her husband is rapidly slipping away from her. Whenever post production quiets the raucous implanted and frequently inappropriate scoring, director Paul Parco along with cameraman Mark Morris, co-producers of this film, provide scenes of substantial interest, but a tedious emphasis upon "action", in addition to a surfeit of meandering subplots, make for a terminally unfocused affair.

Better than expected lower-tier picture.

[EyeAskance · 22 February 2008]

I went blindly forward with this film, and my expectations were low. Surprisingly, it's actually pretty good of its type, and deserves better than the boneyard of forgotten movies to which it's been relegated. For all intents and purposes, DEADLY ALLIANCE is a grindhouse action flick with greater ambitions, relying more on suspense and plot devices than gratuitous sensationalism. Fortunately, nudity and violence aren't entirely precluded, just spare.

The somewhat prosaic story finds a pair of independent film makers becoming, by mere chance, immersed in an oil industry scandal so massive that the entire economic structure of the country is at risk. The cliché briefcase of highly classified documents is passed from hand to hand, with the expected mounting body-count. Things, however, may not be all that they seem, and nobody involved is above suspicion.

Despite the obvious skid-row origins of this picture, tension is built fairly well, and a no-name cast performs capably. The obligatory action scenes are variably well appointed...lots of foot chases, lots of car chases...and some decimated automobiles that were probably on their way to a scrapyard, anyhow.

5.5/10.