| Relentless (1989) Dir: William Lustig Cast: Robert Loggia, Judd Nelson, Leo Rossi, Meg Foster, Beau Starr Rated R, Approx: 92 minutes RCA/Columbia Pictures Video and DVD |
| A serial killer is loose in Los Angeles, selecting victims at random from the phone book and making them participate in their own deaths. That's the gist of William Lustig's latest entry in the 'cops and killers' genre that Lustig seems to have a fondness for. Having made the disgustingly overdone Maniac along with the superior Maniac Cop (and its two sequels), Lustig is obviously no stranger to this formularic material and Relentless is a great little sleeper title. While offering nothing especially new to the genre, it manages to work really well within the confines of its conventions. |
| Judd Nelson is effectively creepy as Arthur 'Buck' Taylor, a young man living in his father's shadows. As a child, Buck was raised by his controlling father Ike (Beau Starr, Halloween 4 & 5), with the forced desire to be a police officer like his decorated (and now deceased) dad. As a young man, having been rejected from the LAPD Academy due to his psychological instability, Buck embarks on a brutal killing spree choosing random victims and covering his tracks with the police training he recieved from his father. Enter detective Sam Dietz (Leo Rossi, Halloween II), assigned to the case. Dietz, a promising, young rookie detective equipped with remarkable powers of observation, teams with Sam Molloy (the excellent Robert Loggia), the typically jaded detective who's been around the block and seen it all. Together, both detectives will track Buck, who takes an eventual interest in the lives of both men. |
| Relentless is far from an original film, of course, that's not always a terrible thing. The screenplay by Jack T.D. Robinson (writer-director Phil Alden Robinson under a pseudonym) revels in cliches, but director Lustig fills the film with excellent actors and draws fine performances from them all. Judd Nelson in the lead is very believable, menacing and creepy. He's a long way from The Breakfast Club here, his perfromance of the vengeful Buck Taylor is certainly a memorable one. Playing the detective duo, Robert Loggia and Leo Rossi are both excellent and play off each other very well, sharing a great screen chemistry. Roudning out the major cast is Meg Foster who plays Rossi's wife in a good but small role. Lustig's film stands above other, more 'generic' serial killer films, as I said above, the acting top notch and the murder sequences, quite intense. There's a particularly memorable scene in which Nelson comes crashing through a storm window chasing his victim through her house, and the climax is nailbiting if not a tad frustrating and elongated. |
| Those who don't mind seeing the same old formula given yet another go around will probably like Relentless, a fast-paced and well done thriller, it's an enjoyable (and sometimes suspenseful) experience for the undiscriminating viewer. The film sparked three sequels returning Leo Rossi's Sam Dietz and placing him on the trail of various serial killers. Relentless 2: Dead On followed first in 1991. |
| Matt's Rating: ***1/2 (out of 5) |
| Reviewed by Matt Serafini 1/23/02 |
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