The direct-to-video DEATH RING raised a few eyebrows in 1993 for the chutzpah of its ad campaign. "Norris! Swayze! McQueen!" it proclaimed, heralding an epochal mix of Hollywood star power. Well, yes and no, because the fine print notes that the surnames so loudly dropped refer actually to
Mike Norris (brother of Chuck), Don Swayze (brother of Patrick), and Chad McQueen (son of Steve). Celebrity bloodlines notwithstanding, this is simply the umpteenth B-movie variation on Richard Connell's classic 1924 pulp yarn "The Most Dangerous Game."
Danton Vachs (Billy Drago) lives with his henchmen on an island off the coast of Mexico. Vachs arranges human big-game hunts in the island's jungles for an exclusive clientele of wealthy predators, and he sees a lively prospect in Matt Collins (Mike Norris), Vietnam vet and champion athlete.
Collins and his fiancee Lauren Sadler (Isabel Glasser) are kidnapped and brought before Vachs and his ruthless party of manhunters. With Lauren a hostage, Collins has no choice but to co-operate. He gets several hours headstart before the hunters set out on his trail.
Unexpectedly, Collins finds an ally on the island. John Blackwell (Don Swayze), a survivalist, was the prey in an earlier Vachs safari but faked his own death and hid in a cave. He joins Collins and the duo fight their way back to Vachs's lair. Collins' chopper pilot buddy "Skylord" Harris (Chad
McQueen) arrives, having figured out his missing friend's whereabouts, and Lauren is saved while Vachs is decapitated.
DEATH RING should have been a lot more fun than it is. Perhaps this hoary story formula has been done so often (several months later the Jean-Claude Van Damme vehicle HARD TARGET hit theaters with the same premise) that all the juice has gone out of it--death wring indeed. In any event, the
energy level is lackluster and the pace fitful when it should be relentless. One problem is a parallel storyline involving "Skylord" Harris and his amateur sleuthing to find out where his friends went. He comes across a coven of lethal (but "innocent") devil-worshippers, a quirky subplot that
keeps interrupting the main action. The manhunt that should have been the main action highlight also disappoints. The quartet of hunters go down too easily before the good guys' onslaught, while Vachs, back at his mansion, simply snickers smugly at the heroes' advance. As in the Van Damme vehicle,
there is a barely-addressed sub-theme about bored civilian Collins being just as bloodthirsty as his pursuers. Collins even snatches the ultimate trophy, the Death Ring, from the arch-villian's lifeless finger. But serious moral ambiguity is quite beyond this screenplay's horizons.
Norris is merely adequate as the hero, McQueen boyishly earnest as his airborne pal (Harris must have flown missions in 'Nam at the age of 12 judging by his looks). Don Swayze normally plays vicious or degenerate villains, so his change-of-pace part here is refreshing--even though he still
maintains a suspicious, shifty-eyed look. The film replays the usual tired female stereotypes: Glasser whining and helpless, asserting herself only as she kills Vachs's ex-Viet Cong lieutenant Ms. Ling (Elizabeth Fong Sung), a dragon-lady straight out of Terry and the Pirates. The only one of the
hunters given quality screen time is Donegan Smith as a sharklike attorney who savors spilling blood in and out of the courtroom, and gives Swayze occasion to quote that great Shakespeare line about killing all the lawyers. Production values are okay except for a few shots in the explosives-happy
finale when stuntmen fly through the air before the grenades detonate. A cute closing credit thanks Ernest B. Schoedsack, whose 1932 adaptation THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME was the first and still best retelling of this tale. (Violence, profanity, sexual situations, nudity.) leave a comment
