Warriors (1995)

I don't remember where I first encountered this, how it first appeared on my radar. I think I was looking up something else, and this was suggested in addition, you know, the ol' "people who looked for this, also liked this" kind of thing. Anyway, all I needed to see was Gary Busey and Michael Paré, and I was sold.

Warriors has Busey as a dude in a double-secret black ops group where all the guys are highly skilled and all of them have had their deaths faked by the government so no one can prove they were working for the US. When his father, another high up military officer, sneaks a message to him that he wants to see him, Busey breaks out and goes AWOL, which makes the military less than stoked. They call in his old student and not so secret black ops dude Michael Paré to bring him in-- dead or alive. Now it's a deadly game of cat and mouse played out in the mountains between two highly trained killing machines.



This one wasn't bad, but the only reason it wasn't was that it had Busey and Paré. There were a lot of dead spots, a lot of points of lame plot exposition, but our two leads carry it so well it's worth watching, especially Busey. I think that's a good thing though. We watch these movies less for how good we expect them to be and more to see these guys work, and this film delivers that. I could watch a movie that was 90 minutes of Busey and Paré running errands, and if it had enough of them in it, I'd enjoy it.

The Busey was stellar. I daresay this is pretty Abusive. The line delivery, the facial expressions, it's all there, everything you want. My favorite was when he went to this hotel room to talk to the hooker that slipped him the message from his dad, and she's being attacked by her pimp (Chris Heyerdahl). He attacks Busey too, and Busey knocks him out. The hooker asks Busey "is he dead?", and Busey says in a soft, measured tone "I wouldn't hang around here if I were you, I'd move fast." Great stuff.



According to the trailer (which I posted on the Facebook page), I've been mispronouncing Michael Paré's last name. It's not PAH-ray, it's pah-RAY-- or is the trailer wrong? Anyway, pah-Ray or PAH-ray, he's pretty sweet too. The movie's plot is a little fluid, so we're not sure if Busey or Paré is supposed to be carrying the film, but both are so solid it works; and while Busey is just Busey, Paré has this cool ability to carry scenes or take a step back and let Busey have it, which adds to the time they're on screen together. It's January of 2012, and like most Januarys here at the DTVC, our New Year's Resolution is to get more Paré up, but unlike those years in the past, I'm going to try and hold myself to that. Let's see.

Recognize that young fella below? That's right, Chris Hayerdahl, he who was beaten up next to a nasty toilet by Dolph in Silent Trigger, and he who sported the dildo ponytail in The Peacekeeper. He has a very small part here as the pimp of a girl who has a much bigger part. Here's what happens after he gives Paré a hard time. Not a pretty sight, huh?



Finally, I wanted to finish with something a friend told me recently about white birch trees. He was playing some online video game, and the people who created it added some white birches to the game environment, and I guess people who hadn't seen them before referred to them as "zebra trees". "Zebra trees"? I want to go into a rant about how people need to get out more or something, but part of me thinks "zebra trees" is pretty awesome.

Okay, VHS is the only way to go here, but you can either get it new or used from Amazon. I wouldn't do that, I'd just keep an eye out for it. It's a good bargain bin find, as opposed to something you need to go out of your way and order special.

For more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111670/