COYOTE MOON
(UK: Inferno)
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Sound format: Dolby Digital
A disillusioned ex-soldier (Jean-Claude Van Damme) goes to the desert to commit suicide, but instead gets drawn into a small town plagued by thuggish drug runners.
Van Damme's career continued its downward slide with this routine actioner, inspired by YOJIMBO (1961) and bolstered by violent set-pieces and a gallery of eccentric supporting characters (played by Pat Morita, Danny Trejo, Larry Drake and Vincent Schiavelli, amongst others). Tom O'Rourke's screenplay springs few surprises, but director John G. Avildsen (THE KARATE KID) keeps the pot boiling in between scenes of gunfire and hand-to-hand combat, and Van Damme strikes something of a god-like figure in his skintight vest and clinging jeans (it's doubtful he ever looked sexier than he does here). Undiscriminating action fans will lap it up, though it doesn't really amount to very much. Released to video in the US as DESERT HEAT.
(UK: Inferno)
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Sound format: Dolby Digital
A disillusioned ex-soldier (Jean-Claude Van Damme) goes to the desert to commit suicide, but instead gets drawn into a small town plagued by thuggish drug runners.
Van Damme's career continued its downward slide with this routine actioner, inspired by YOJIMBO (1961) and bolstered by violent set-pieces and a gallery of eccentric supporting characters (played by Pat Morita, Danny Trejo, Larry Drake and Vincent Schiavelli, amongst others). Tom O'Rourke's screenplay springs few surprises, but director John G. Avildsen (THE KARATE KID) keeps the pot boiling in between scenes of gunfire and hand-to-hand combat, and Van Damme strikes something of a god-like figure in his skintight vest and clinging jeans (it's doubtful he ever looked sexier than he does here). Undiscriminating action fans will lap it up, though it doesn't really amount to very much. Released to video in the US as DESERT HEAT.