By Geno McGahee
In 1985, THE BREAKFAST CLUB was a monster hit and was the hopeful launching pad for Judd Nelson, the arguable star of the film. Starring alongside him was Ally Sheedy, so putting them together again made sense and it should have made dollars too, but it bombed badly. Made on a budget of 21 million, the suspense/mystery film made only 7 million of it back and the skyrocketing career of a big box office star for Nelson screeched to a halt.
Billy Turner (Nelson) is the son of a rich guy that just about runs Blue City in Florida. Turner is one of those bad boys that is always bailed out of trouble by his father and that leads to him misbehaving again. He goes to a bar and starts a fight with a former high school rival and ends up being locked up and informed that his father can’t bail him out this time because he was murdered months ago.
Chief Luther Reynolds (Paul Winfield), a friend of the family, lets Billy out of jail and tells him that Blue City has gone to shit since his dad died and Perry Kerch (Scott Wilson) moved in. Not only did he take over the businesses in the city, but he is also banging Turner’s stepmother, Malvina (Anita Morris). Reynolds informs Billy that Kerch may not have killed his father but he knows who did.
Billy is now obsessed with Kerch and catches up with him at his casino, but Kerch has backups. He has a bunch of big goons and one of them is Zeus from NO HOLDS BARRED. I bet this is happening in the same universe. Kerch offers Billy 10 grand to leave town and never come back, but it’s refused. He wants Kerch to confess to murdering his dad or tell him who did, but it doesn’t go over well. Kerch tells Billy that he has goons that he found at some college and then points to one of them and said it takes generations to make them this “strong and stupid.” Kerch is an asshole.
After getting his ass kicked, Billy now plans a big war with Kerch and enlists the help of an old friend. Joey (David Caruso) and Billy used to raise hell, but Joey has already had one run-in with Kerch and wants no more, but after a walk down memory lane, he agrees to team up and take down Kerch, despite the objections of Joey’s sister, Annie (Sheedy).
Fucking with dog races, stealing money, breaking slot machines, making his stepmother buy more groceries than expected…Billy is on a tear, but Kerch will not stand by and let this happen. As I watched this film, I began to appreciate it. It is stylish, interesting and fun at times, but there is one huge problem with it and that problem is Judd Nelson.
Nelson is unlikable in this. From the moment his character is on the screen, he has this smirk. It never goes away. The lines that are supposed to be funny like “I’m new at this” when he’s robbing the bad guys at gunpoint are delivered terribly. I’m guessing that Nelson’s ego was so huge after THE BREAKFAST CLUB that it bled into this performance. Everything else is working in this film, but Nelson sinks it and he’s the lead.
Another big problem with Nelson is that he is not believable as a tough guy and that’s what he’s trying to play. Had they cast this role better, this film would have been successful. In 1986, we had RAW DEAL, COBRA and THE DELTA FORCE, with leads that are believable as tough guys. Judd Nelson is not fit for the job and I know that this is more drama than action, but he’s playing it like an action film. So, I’m calling it as one. Eat that. I guess it could have been worse. They could have put Steve Guttenberg in this. I should count my blessings.
There are some twists and turns along the way and the film could have been really good. It reminds me of RUN with Patrick Dempsey and a little of WALKING TALL with the Rock, but it just doesn’t click with Nelson. Even on the cover of this film he has that fucking smirk. It’s no wonder this bombed. If I saw that poster with Nelson smirking, I would have watched RAW DEAL for the second time instead.
Even with all the Nelson shit, I still recommend this. It was written well, stylish and the rest of the cast did very well. Had they got somebody else in the lead (not Steve Guttenberg), this could have really worked.
