The Kill Reflex aka Soda Cracker (1989)

This is one that was on Tubi, and in the interests getting more Williamson on the site, I needed to make it happen. Also, I was a guest on the Comeuppance podcast where we went over our top 5 Williamson flicks, and I figured I should watch this on the off-chance it makes my list. In addition to us and Comeuppance, there are only two other critic reviews on IMDb: action mainstays Bulletproof Action, and Down Among the "Z" movies with Steve Q.  

The Kill Reflex is a film based off a novel called Soda Cracker, where Williamson plays the eponymous hero--Soda Cracker, not The Kill Reflex--though a copy of this says "Fred Williamson is the Kill Reflex." Anyway, Williamson's partner is killed, and he wants revenge. He and new partner Maud Adams have to deal with pressure from the top, which makes them think something fishy is afoot, especially after he sets his sights on local drug kingpin Bo Svenson, whose recent release from prison seems to coincide too well with Fred's partner's untimely death. But as they dig deeper, will they like what they find? Could Fred's partner have been dirty? At least he's taking his partner's son to the shooting range.

This isn't the best Fred, but it's the kind of Fred that's good because it's Fred, if that makes sense. The movie starts with him waking up his partner and partner's wife by playing loud music and making them breakfast. The story isn't giving us much beyond that, but I can see why Fred would've wanted to adapt it into a film. He loves the Chicago hard-boiled detective type, and this is definitely that. From an action standpoint though, this is more drama, and I think Fred excels more when his movie has less story and more action. The other thing this one lacks is names. We have him, Maud Adams, Bo Svenson, and then small parts from Frank Pesce and Phyllis Hyman. I think this could've used any of a Gary Busey, John Saxon, David Carradine, Jim Brown, or Robert Forster to enhance the proceedings. Still, as a Fred fan, this is a fun enough watch.

We're still on the march to get Fred into the 30 Club. After doing the podcast episode with Ty and Brett, I have a few Fred flicks in the hopper--though I also dug into more of his older Blaxploitation stuff too, which may not fit as much on here, at least not until we cover more of his DTV stuff first. That means we're at 23 for him, and at the rate I'm doing reviews overall, let alone Williamson reviews, we may not get there until next year. Another list he's moving up is the director list, with this being his 9th directed film on the DTVC. That puts him in a tie for seventh with Jim Wynorski and Jesse V. Johnson, but other than Albert Pyun's 42 director credits, no one else has more than 15, so he could move up this list. (Also of note, Dolph is quietly moving up this list too, with 6 director credits so far. We might have to create a 60-10 Club for him!) This film is another one for Fred completists more than anything. I don't know that I can recommend it outside of being a Williamson movie, but often with his movies, he's the biggest factor in it working, so maybe a good Williamson quotient is all you really need.

Maud Adams was in this, a mere six years after she was in Octopussy. Interestingly enough, this is back-to-back reviews with an Octopussy alum, after we did The Return of Swamp Thing with Louis Jourdan last week. You'd think being a "Bond Girl" would get you bigger parts, but it doesn't look like it worked out that way for her, which might have been a commentary on how some of those Roger Moore Bond flicks were received by the industry--even if they're some of my favorites. I think her part here is really any woman from the late 80s--lots of coats with shoulder pads, lighter shades of lipstick, and hair that's teased but not too teased. I just think of how many family Christmas parties I went to around this time where aunts dressed like this. She does great though in this role, her and Williamson have good chemistry, and she works well as a detective. We've seen her one other time on the DTVC, in another film with Williamson, Deadly Intent, and while she didn't do a lot of stuff, she has some more DTV stuff in her filmography, so I imagine we'll see her again.

We also had soul singer Phyllis Hyman in this as Bo Svenson's girl. This was one year after she did School Daze, and looking at her bio on Wikipedia, it seems like her career was still going well enough at this time, so I wonder if she did this part as a favor for Williamson. One of the great female soul singers who happened to be around when there were so many greats that I don't know if she always gets her due, especially when she didn't have as many hits; she also struggled with bipolar disorder, which caused her to turn to drugs and alcohol, and tragically take her own life in 1995. If you watch the Whispers' Unsung episode, they talk about how they were on the bill with her at the Apollo when it was announced that she died, and rather than cancel they decided to go on with show in her honor. Another one of the great soul acts who are overshadowed by the number of great acts from their era.

Finally, because this was based on a novel, I was curious to know if the author, Jaron Summers, had written anything else, or if this novel was still available. It looks like no to both questions. According to IMDb, he was a screenwriter, mostly for TV shows, who hasn't done any work since 2012. A lot of the work he did do was an episode here or there for TV shows like Miami Vice or The Incredible Hulk, so exactly the kind of thing that would've lent itself to a novel that could've been adapted into a film like this one. I wonder where the idea came from though: was he eating a lot of soda crackers, and thought "what if there was a hard-boiled detective who ate so many of these his colleagues called him 'Soda Cracker'?"

And with that, let's wrap this up. As of this writing, you can catch this on Tubi under the name Soda Cracker, but at least once since I've watched it a few months ago Tubi has threatened to take it down, and while it's survived, they could pull it at any time--the dangers of living and dying by streaming services. Also, if you go back into the archives on the Comeuppance Reviews podcast, episode 61, "Best Freds Forever," is the one I was a guest on where we discussed Williamson. It was a great conversation, definitely worth checking out.

For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097663

And if you haven't yet, check out my new novel, A Girl and a Gun, at Amazon in paperback or Kindle!