Traxx (1988)
Traxx has battled his way through El Salvador, the Middle East and Nicaragua, spitting lead with two-handed good grace. He decides to retire to a life of baking designer cookies. Running out of dough to buy more dough, he hires himself as a "Town Tamer" and begins cleaning up Hadleyville, Texas, telling the lowlife street scum, "You got three choices. Be good, be gone, or be dead." Like all bacteria, the scum are resistant: crime boss Aldo Palucci (Robert Davi) brings in the dreaded Guzik brothers to rid the town of the town tamer, setting the stage for a showdown in the streets.
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Very well executed
Really Surprised!
Purely Joyful Movie!
This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.
It has moments of supreme absurdity, like the Working Mother's Daycare in the brothel, and moments of just plain sophomoric grossness, like the way Robert Davi's character dies.Mindless in result, thoughtful in preparation, this is a Zen movie.I discovered it on cable soon after it came out and have owned a copy of it on VHS for years.A movie to be watched with your older teens without embarrassment, and your peers without explanation.Shadoe proves himself to be a master at his character and seems to have had enough sense to realize that he did his best just this once and to leave it at that.The bit players and supporting cast all seem to be having fun and the production values are way above par for such an effort.All in all, a movie that does what it is supposed to and then stops.
The production is low. The acting is bad. The cookies are horrible. But that is what makes Traxx such a great film! The plot is not overwrought and deep, but it holds its own. What you are left with is over-the-top action and campy fun. Each of the characters is unique and quotable. This film remains probably the most oft-quoted movies of all time between me and my family and friends.There was no attempt to make this movie low budget, naturally. That is what makes the entire package worth multiple views. Unlike the trendy, big budget "under the radar" releases today that try to fit the low-budget profile (and all the while most remain overrated and under deserving), Traxx succeeds because it is the real deal. It is underrated and most deserving. Watching the main character (Traxx) almost break character and begin to laugh as the one-shot-only pyrotechnics go off around him (you cannot script that). The Guzik Brothers hit squad is so brutal and self centered, yet they do not have to demand more screen time from the viewer: you will demand it of them.This movie is the only reason I still have my VCR hooked up.
The worst movie in the world did not come from Edward D. Wood Jr. or during the low budget drive in horror movie period of the fifties, sixties or eighties. It came from video tape. It came from the man who was the announcer of Hollywood Squares and the infamous man in those damn Federated Electronics commercials. This man was Shadoe Stevens.
The only funny part of this movie that I can remember is when the Guziks are in the back of a limo and the reactions on the driver's face in the mirror is just CLASSIC! Unfortunately, he winds up dead and Robert Davi kicks him as he asks what happened. The original credits listed him as "Eric Tilley... Dead Limo Driver". Why isn't he listed in the credits here? Maybe he thought better of it after he saw the finished product...