No Tomorrow (1999)

I was looking for some Gary Daniels films to review here, and found this gem with DTVC Hall of Famer Gary Busey. I was skeptical, considering it was directed by Master P, who did the atrociously painful Hot Boyz, but I didn't see Silkk the Shocker's name anywhere near the top billing, so I figured it would be an okay bet.

No Tomorrow has Master P as a gangster out for revenge on Gary Busey, who's an arms dealer that shut Master P out of a lucrative arms deal. Daniels plays a computer programmer that just happens to be good in a fight, which makes some suspicious. He saves Busey's life, which puts him in his good graces. While all of this is going on, Pam Grier is a cop looking to take them all down, because Busey's trying to steal some chip that let's him set off nuclear bombs. What a mess.

This was pretty good. The beginning had the same problem Hot Boyz did, with a massive amount of repetition. In the other film, it was Silkk running around in an overly-looped chase scene that went on way too long. In this one, it's Master P setting the same stunt men on fire with a flamethrower for about ten minutes. Really, all the scenes that didn't have Master P were the good ones, with Daniels and Busey stealing the show. That's a shame, because Master P was one of the few good spots in Hot Boyz. Plenty of explosions and gunfire, not so much on the martial arts front, which sucked considering we had Daniels. Overall, not bad, but not good.

Busey was awesome. He had some great one liners, was hilarious when talking down to Magnum PI's Larry Manetti--just a solid performance. On the Abusive Scale, I'd give this a solid seven. It's been a while since we've had a film of that quality as far as Busey's concerned. Great pairing with him and Daniels. My only complaint is that I'd've liked more Busey.

There's been a push to get Daniels into the Hall of Fame this fall, and he's definitely up for discussion with the career he's had. This movie's not gonna quite get him there, especially since his martial arts skills weren't utilized at all. He was great in every scene he did with Busey, which is a huge plus. I've got six months before new HOF inductees are announced, so we'll work on getting a larger sample of films up.

Pam Grier is in this. It's the second film of hers we've covered (the other being the Lambert classic Fortress 2), and in both cases, she had to make a lot with nothing. She'll be 60 in late May, which is just crazy. I think her biggest problem isn't her problem at all, but Hollywood's. She came around at a time when African American leading men, let alone leading ladies, weren't in high demand. As such, she's been stuck with these stinkers. She deserves better, and it's too bad only Quentin Tarentino could see that.

Silkk the Shocker does make a cameo as a rapper, and that cameo reminded me just how badly he was cast in Hot Boyz as a lead in an action film. It was such a stretch, I just can't believe Master P thought he could sell that to us. Any complaints I had about this film faded when Master P reminded us of his other one. I just kept telling myself: "At least it's not Hot Boyz".

If you see this in the video store, and you like Gary Busey, and you want something to laugh at, you could give it a go. Don't spend too much money on it, though. I don't know what a good price is, but no more than a dollar to a buck-fifty. It has the ludicrous explosions, gunfire, and bad plot, but sometimes that's just not enough, and this film straddles that line.

For more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0189810/

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