Blowback - 2000
When was the last time you were looking for an interesting action movie with just enough difference to make it more interesting than your standard Steven Segal three-word actioner? Well, if it wasn't that long ago, and you weren't successful, then I may just have found the movie for you!
It's 1999's Blowback, and I'm sure you've probably never heard of it, because I never had until I stumbled across it at the video store. And what exactly would draw me to this movie? Two words, Mario Van Peebles! That's right, or as I call him, B Movies own MVP!! Now, alot of people don't care for Mario, but he's been one of my favorites since New Jack City days, sure he hit a little bit of a bump in the road with Solo, but no one travels a completely smooth path through this life.
In Blowback, Mario plays a cop who has finally
caught a serial killer who's punishing women in Biblical ways. Each killing
mimics the death of a famous Christian martyr. Well, when we first see Mario,
he's finally caught up with our killer, here played by James Remar, one of the
best bad guys in B Movies; by the way, our killer is finally captured, put on
trial and sentenced to death. Mario even goes to the execution, What Mario
doesn't know is that the execution is faked by the CIA.... damn you CIA...so
that they can brain-wash the psycho and use him as an assassin. The problem is
this serial killer is smarter than most, and he beats the mental programming and
is soon back on the streets to kill who he wants and not who the government
wants him to. Now, if you were a psycho killer who had been
sentenced and executed and seemingly miraculously brought back to life, whom
would you want to kill? That’s right! Everyone involved with sentencing him to
death, including Mario and his ex-wife, who just so happened to be the
prosecutor of the case...what are the odds? The only problem with our killer is
that he’s too organized, he starts his killing spree, but he has to kill
everyone alphabetically, which makes it easier for the cops to track him down. Blowback is an interesting take on the serial
killer movie. Not a simple action movie and not as simple as one of those ‘cop
gets into the head of the killer’ movies, this goes a little further. Mario is
the smart cop but not one of those obnoxious genius cops who know damn near
everything and the killer is evil enough that you actually want Mario to kill
him. If you’re looking for something familiar enough that you’ll be
comfortable with it, but different enough to be a fun ride, then Blowback may
just be for you. I thought it was well worth the rental fee. So, until the next
time, remember if you’re going to be a serial killer try not to cheese off the
smarter cops, stick with the dumb cops, you’ll last longer and also remember
that the best movies are bad movies.