Me Against The World was the most successful single to come off of Lizzie Borden’s third studio album, Visual Lies. This was the only Lizzie Borden album to features Joe Holmes, who would later find fame as a guitarist for both Ozzy Osbourne and David Lee Roth. Holmes can also be seen in this video.
Along with this music video, Me Against The World also received attention when it was included on the soundtrack of the classic heavy metal horror film, Black Roses.
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Serving out a six-month suspension, Merchant Seaman Tommy Campbell (Jan-Michael Vincent) rents an apartment on New York’s Lower East Side and passes the time painting and trying to learn Spanish in hope of getting assigned to a ship that is heading to Panama.
Tommy just wants to be left alone but he finds himself being drawn into the close-knit neighborhood. He becomes friends with Carmine (Danny Aiello) and more than friends with his upstairs neighbor (Theresa Saldana). He becomes a mentor to a street kid (Fernando Lopez) who lives with a punch-drunk boxer named called Whacko (Lenny Montana). Abe (Art Carney), who owns the local bodega, agrees to let Tommy use his phone.
Tommy also finds himself drawing the attention of Angel Cruz (Rudy Ramos), head of the local street gang. Tommy doesn’t want to get involved in any trouble. He just wants to serve his suspension and sail to Panama. But with Angel and his gang terrorizing the neighborhood and even robbing a church bingo game, Tommy and his friends finally stand up to the gang.
Defiance is more intelligent and realistic than many of the other urban vigilante movies that came out in the 70s and 80s. Tommy never becomes a cold-blooded killer, like Charles Bronson did in the Death Wish films. Instead, he spends most of the film trying to stay out of trouble and, when he does stand up for himself and the neighborhood, he does so realistically. He fights the gang members but he doesn’t set out to the kill them. About as deliberately destructive as he and Carmine get is that they destroy Angel’s car. Rather than being a typical vigilante movie, Defiance is a portrait of a neighborhood where everyone takes care of everyone else. Angel and his gang mistake the neighborhood’s kindness for weakness. The neighborhood proves them wrong.
Defiance stars two actors who never quite got their due. Theresa Saldana’s promising career was derailed when she was attacked and nearly killed by a deranged stalker in 1982. Though she recovered and went on to do a lot of television, she never became the star that she should have. Jan-Michael Vincent did become a star in the 70s and 80s but he later became better-known for his struggles with drugs and alcohol. Both of them are very good in Defiance and leave you thinking about the careers that they could have had if things had just gone differently.
Bourbon County Line was the first single released off of Warrant’s seventh solo album, Born Again. The band shot videos for every track on the album, though only Bourbon County Line and Dirty Jack were officially released as singles.
This was also the first Warrant single to not feature Jani Lane on lead vocals. Lane left the band in 2004 (though he later returned) and vocals were handled by Jaime St. James.
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Framed on charges of dumping toxic waste, Morgan (Billy Zane) accepts a CIA mission to travel to the fictional African country of Zambeze and to track down his former friend, Jim Scott (Robert Downey, Jr.). Scott is an ex-CIA agent who faked his own death and who is now leading a revolution against the oppressive government of Zambeze. Scott knows the location of several barrels of uranium. Also searching for the uranium is the ruthless Mr. Chang (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa). Morgan teams up with Dr. Kim Woods (Lisa Collins) but soon discovers that he has to be careful of who to trust.
There is a surprisingly lot of talent in the cast of this film. Along with Zane, Downey, Collins, and Tagawa, Ron Silver appears as the shady political operative who joins Morgan in Zambeze. The cast may be good but it doesn’t take long to see that everyone in this film was there mostly for the money. No one brings their A-game to Danger Zone and both Downey and Silver often look like they’re struggling to deliver their lines with a straight face. Downey, especially, gives a self-amused performance, delivering his lines in a thick and indecipherable Southern accent.
(It is easy to forget that there was a time when Robert Downey, Jr’s career was regularly cited as being the ultimate Hollywood cautionary tale. Everyone knew he was talented but, in the 90s, his well-publicized struggle with drug addiction and the time that he spent in jail made him practically uninsurable and unhirable. He ended up appearing in a lot of films like this one before he eventually got clean and reinvented himself as the face of the MCU. In the 90s, most people would probably have been shocked to hear that Downey would eventually win an Oscar and receive a standing ovation as he accepted it.)
Danger Zone does have some good action scenes. The movie ends with an attack on a train that is actually pretty exciting. Unfortunately, the rest of the film suffers from bad acting and an incoherent plot that makes Danger Zone almost impossible to follow. You can fly into the Danger Zone but you won’t want to stay.
Twilight Hotel was the second single to be released off of QRIII, the fifth studio album from Quiet Riot. Unfortunately, neither the single nor the video was as popular as the other single released off of QRIII, The Wild and the Young.
Director Dominic Orlando also directed videos for Kansas, The Beach Boys, Celine Dion, Dolly Parton, The Fat Boys, and several other artist that you would not necessarily expect to see at a Quiet Riot concert.
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Another frontier town is in trouble.
Sherriff Jeff Conner (Jack Rockwell) is having trouble ridding his town of outlaws so his son, Larry, (Mickey Kuhn) writes a letter to his hero to ask for help. He addresses the letter to “Durango Kid, Texas.” That’s all it takes for Steve Randall (Charles Starrett) and his sidekick, Smiley Burnette, to show up in town.
Steve and Smiley apply to be deputies but Sheriff Conner explains that someone is circulating a petition to get him fired. Steve dresses up as the Durango Kid and pressures the citizens to give the Sheriff another chance. Realizing that the Durango Kid is making them look bad, the outlaws decide to dress up one of their own as Durango and make the Kid look bad. With the town turning on Durango, will Durango and Smiley be able to save Sheriff Conner from an assassination attempt?
This Durango Kid film is different from the rest of the series in that, for once, Steve is hired to be a deputy instead of a sheriff. This really is Sheriff Conner’s story, as he tries to win the respect of the town and keep its citizens safe, even while his own brother (Ed Cassidy) is working with the outlaws. There are all the usual horse chase and shootouts but this time, Durango and Smiley are mostly around to provide support to a man who is trying to do the right thing. B-western fans will enjoy it.
Smiley sings a few songs, as always. This time, musical accompaniment is provided by Merle Travis and his Bronco Busters.
Nuclear Assault is today best remembered for being the band that was formed by one of the founding members of Anthrax, bassist Dan Lilker. (Linker left Anthrax shortly before the release of the band’s first album.) Back in the day, though, Nuclear Assault was one of the top East Coast thrash metal bands.
Brainwashed was the first single to be released from their second album, Survive. The single was Nuclear Assault’s first big hit. Helping the song become popular was a music video that featured two of the top pastimes of the 80s, going to the mall and watch TV.
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Steve Harmon (Charles Starrett) rides again! This time, he’s investigating the murder of a Pony Express rider. The murderer is outlaw leader Claw Hawkins (Bud Geary), who is working with rancher Kirby Garvey (Steve Barclay) to cheat the local homesteaders out of their land.
When local newspaper editor Jake Parker (Emmett Lynn) is attacked for trying to expose Claw Hawkins, Steve puts on a mask and dark clothing and, as the Durango Kid, he moves Jake to the carpentry shop owned by Durango’s old friend, Smiley Burnette. While Jake continues to spread the word to the homesteaders, Durango works to prevent Claw and Kirby from taking all of the land for themselves.
This is a typical Durango Kid film. This is not the first time that I’ve seen the Durango Kid protect the rights of homesteaders and, as usual, the main villain is not the outlaw that everyone fears but the respectable citizen who is controlling him. Along with the usual gunfights and horse chases, Landrush has an exciting sequence where Durango and the homesteaders have to deal with a series of fires that have been set by Claw to keep the homesteaders from reaching their land. Charles Starrett is as authentic a cowboy as ever. Unfortunately, Bud Geary and Steve Barclay aren’t very interesting as the villains. People who have watched several Durango Kid films will regret that series regulars Frank Fenton and Jock Mahoney weren’t cast in the roles.
As usual, Smiley Burnette provides comedy relief and sings two songs. This time, he’s accompanied by Ozie Waters and His Colorado Rangers.
Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone was first released by a Motown group called The Undisputed Truth in 1972. The first version of the song peaked at number 63 of the pop charts and 23 on the R&B Charts. A subsequent cover by The Temptations was much more successful, peaking at number one in 1972. The song would go on to be interpreted by everyone from Michael Jackson to George Michael to Was (Not Was).
In this video, Slash and Demi Lovato become the latest artists to cover this classic song.
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For years, outlaws have controlled the frontier town of Dusty Gulch but now their power is threatened by the homesteaders who are moving into the area. Led by the crusading Rev. Tex Harding, the homesteaders are being progress and reform to the frontier.
Duke (Ethan Laidlaw) and his gang have launched a campaign of intimidation against the new arrivals. Luckily, the Durango Kid (Charles Starrett) rides into town to protect the homesteaders. Duke’s boss, businessman Blaze Howard (John Calvert), decides that the town needs a sheriff to go after the Kid. Blaze offers the job to newcomer Steve Ranson, not realizing that Steve is not only the Durango Kid but also the brother of the former sheriff, who was murdered by Blaze’s men.
Lawless Empire is one of the few Durango Kid films not to feature Smiley Burnette as Durango’s sidekick. Instead, Durango rides into town with Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys and, while Willis does perform a song or two, there’s still considerable less singing than in the films that featured Burnette. The role of comic relief is provided by Dub Taylor in the role of Cannonball. Cannonball gets a job sweeping up Blaze’s saloon and he feeds whatever information he learns back to Durango. When Blaze figures out what’s going on, he deliberately supplies Cannonball with bad information but it doesn’t make any difference. The Durango Kid is always one step ahead of the bad guys.
Lawless Empire is a little more serious than the other Durango Kid films. Steve is not only trying to clean up the town but he’s also seeking to avenge his brother so there’s not as much room for as much comedy as usual. Lawless Empire does have all of the usual gunfights and horse chases and the film gets off to an exciting start with Durango making his first appearance with his gun already drawn so that he can disarm Duke and his men. Even without Smiley around to help him out, Durango brings law to a lawless empire.
Through the Shattered Lens