Extreme Prejudice

So this one is really like two movies in one.  There’s one story about Nick Nolte (Blue Chips) playing a hard boiled Texas ranger who’s after Cash Bailey (Powers Boothe (Sudden Death, Southern Comfort)), an American drug lord hiding out in Mexico.  The other story is about a group of mercenaries that…need to do a job…they’re after Cash too but…I didn’t understand what their deal was exactly.

The best character is Cash and Boothe plays him perfectly.  He’s tall, handsome, charming and downright mean.  For example we’re introduced to him by showing him pick up a scorpion and then crush it in his bare hand.  So the movie’s trying to tell us that not even something we consider deadly and dangerous can stand a chance against Cash.  We’re lead to believe that he has some sort of code but he treats the woman that he’s supposed to be in love with (Maria Conchita Alonso (The Running Man, Predator 2)) like shit and he also cheats in the final showdown at the end.  So he’s manipulative and slimy, not honorable.  But I still like him.

Nolte’s character, Jack Benteen, and Cash were best friends up until the whole crime boss thing happened.  And seeing Nolte and Boothe together made me realize that Boothe is really the better version of Nolte.  I think they’re both pretty similar in their acting style but Boothe tends to play more dirtbags and even when he supposed to be playing a good guy he has an assholic quality to him.  For me Nolte’s emotions feel forced a lot of the time and it’s not that Boothe’s seem that much more genuine but goddamn does it look like he’s having fun up there.  Nolte always looks like he’s laboring through the part while Boothe makes it seem effortless.

That's a great looking poster

There are a couple of good action scenes in here including the really awesome ending shootout that’s reminiscent of The Wild Bunch.  I like the bank robbery and chase sequences too even though I don’t think they have a whole lot to do with the movie.  I also like how the faceoff between Cash and Jack gets a bunch of build up and postponement to make it seem all the more important.

This was directed by Walter Hill and he’s kind of a mixed bag.  He’s capable of creating genius works like Hard Times, The Warriors and Last Man Standing.  And while his stuff is always entertaining on some level at times it can fall a bit short like with Red Heat and Undisputed.  This one is probably a little above average.  The casting helps a great deal and this one has some of the all time greats including Michael Ironside (Total Recall, Visiting Hours) and William Forsythe (The Devil’s Rejects, Boardwalk Empire). 

Between the two stories I was actually more interested in the mercenaries one.  Aside from the pretty cool cast of characters I think it’s because I didn’t fully know what was going on with that one.  I mean the film starts A-Team style where they list the name, rank and military background for each mercenary.  Then they do some recon work and rob a bank and go to Mexico and…what the fuck are these guys up to?  They say they have orders from some central command but they’re never explained.  Well some shit is explained at the end but I feel like it doesn’t account for all the shit that leads up to it.  Sure, the mano a mano western type plot between Cash and Jack is cool but it’s a little slow compared to what’s going on with the mercs.

So is it worth checking out?  Yeah I think so.  There’s plenty of badass shit to pull this disjointed movie together long enough to make you want to see it through.