Ex-football star Brian Bosworth keeps trying to click as an actor, but his work in poorly-scripted, hyper-macho vehicles like BACK IN BUSINESS ensures that he's going to be best remembered for his days on the gridiron and not on screen.
After being booted off the force by corrupt cops whom he tried to expose, Joe Elkhart (Bosworth) rebuilds his life by becoming a garage mechanic. He learns to control his harsh temper with the aid of a radio shrink; she advises him to mend fences with his former wife as well as his ex-partner,
Tony Dunbar (Joe Torry). Tony recruits Joe to help him with a dangerous, unofficial sting operation. Working outside his corrupt department, Tony dangles stolen kilos of heroin in the path of drug lord David Ashby (Alan Scarfe), who's in cahoots with Tony's superiors, Emery Ryker (Brion James) and
Hank Berdsall (Aleks Shaklin). To circumvent federal authorities, Ryker and Berdsall stash millions of dollars worth of drugs in a car scheduled for government auction.
While enjoying a nautical interlude with Tony's mechanic pal, Natalie (Dara Tomanovich), Joe inadvertently falls asleep as Tony sails his boat to a rendezvous with Ashby. Although Ashby gets wise to Tony's frame-up and orders his men to open fire, Ryker and Berdsall unexpectedly turn up and
protect their reputations by attacking Ashby's contingent. The two corrupt cops also attempt to blow up Tony's boat. Joe and Natalie emerge unscathed from the blast; Tony is believed dead. Joe takes the fall for Tony's botched drug scam. Ashby bails out Joe in the mistaken belief that Joe has
money which Ashby had entrusted to Tony. Joe escapes the clutches of the impatient Ashby and flees to Tony's home, only to find his friend there, alive and well.
Crashing the auto auction, Joe and Tony pursue Ashby after he wins the bidding war for the drug-laden car. During a confrontation between Ashby's thugs and the venal cops, double-crossing Ryker fatally shoots Ashby, and Tony kills Berdsall. When Ryker motors away in the auctioned car, Joe and Tony
give deadly chase; Ryker's car barrels off a cliff.
Action buffs will enjoy Bosworth's martial arts skill, the detonated fireworks on display, and the artillery blasts which are commensurate with the destructive power of a small world war. How these elements correspond to this flick's screenplay is another matter. After his drab stint in VIRUS
(1996), one can appreciate Bosworth's attempt to latch onto a more positive screen image here, but he would have been best served by sticking with the icy demeanor he displayed in his debut film, STONE COLD (1991). Although the film gets some mileage out of the running gag about our hero's
attempts to control his temper by speaking to a talk-radio psychiatrist, the film's false starts and detours are best exemplified by Bosworth's "Dukes of Hazzard"-like interplay with Torry. Trying way too hard to divert, BACK IN BUSINESS falls prey to extraneous explosions and lame comic relief.
(Graphic violence, extreme profanity, substance abuse.) leave a comment
