Land of the Free has Speaks working a campaign for Shats, a presidential candidate named "Carvell" with dubious ties to a right wing separatist group. Speaks tries to expose him, Shats and his guys try to kill him, so Speaks is on the run, until he isn't, at which time Shats is in trouble.
Pretty paint-by-numbers right? Except it's a PM flick with Speaks and Shats. Why not, right? It makes the whole thing a fun movie from the late 90s. I wouldn't put this in any PM top 20 list, but it does what you want in a PM actioner: good quotient of action scenes, including a great chase scene with a bus that they do their darnedest to flip over; and they lean on their stars, especially Speaks and Shats, but also Charlie Robinson, aka Mac from Night Court, and it's always great to see a Night Court alum get after it. On top of all that, in true PM style, they build upon each action scene, which brings you to Shats and Speaks hanging off a helicopter, and you're thinking "they won't have Speaks and Shats get after it with a final fight scene, will they?"
We're now at 7 Speakman flicks here at the DTVC. As far as I can tell that leaves us with another 7, plus The Perfect Weapon, so we have some films to go before we've exhausted his filmography. We get a good amount of his Kenpo Patty-Cake style, slapping guys around them knocking them off buildings or defenestrating them. By the time the end comes, we're all in with him invading Shats's compound and giving the baddies their comeuppance. I guess the thing I would say about this though, is it's just a fun actioner, and I think I can see why Kenner gave it such low marks. He's judging Speaks against his best stuff, and in that sense it does come up wanting; also, if you're comparing it against PM's best, same thing, this doesn't feel as inspired as their other stuff. I didn't hold it against either as much, but I can see how someone might.
As I mentioned above, when I had Jon on the pod to discuss The Expert, he described the score in this. Something like a guy at RadioShack playing around with his Casio, that's probably the best way to think of it. Couldn't they mix in a little electric guitar? Even some smooth jazz? And at one point there's this too sweet car chase with buses rolling over and cars flipping over things, and there's this Casio score playing in the background. It was almost as unreal as Shats and Speaks having an end fight scene.
Speaking of Shatner, this is only the second time we've seen him on the site. The last time: May 21st 2007, two weeks after the site started. How did we go that long between Shatner appearances? You'd think in the 1000 films or so between those posts, I'd run into at least one more Shatner flick, but it never happened. This was one I had planned on doing for many of those posts, and when it became unavailable on Netflix that was it until I found it on Prime. I don't know that I'll make an effort to get more Shatner on the site, but he's so much fun, especially in this, that I don't see why I wouldn't. The other thing is, his character's name is Carvell, which reminds me of the old Carvel ice cream shop. We had one in a strip mall near where I grew up, which I think after many changes is now a Panera Bread. I looked online, and while we don't have one here in Philly, there are still a bunch of them open, especially in the New Jersey area, plus the one in South Station in Boston, which I was happy to see was still open. I went online, and saw that the whale and Cookie Puss were also still available. Life is good.
Finally, in that fantastic chase where Speaks and his family are trying to elude their pursuers in a bus, we see a station wagon with wood paneling and a canoe strapped to its roof that gets caught in the melee of cars, and ends up flipping over. Can you imagine, you're working an office job in LA in the late 90s, you're excited to get out of dodge for the weekend, take the canoe out on the lake, you're cruising down the highway, and the next thing you know you're hip-deep in a PM Entertainment car chase, and all these cars and a bus are racing by you going the wrong way, you try to take evasive action, and you end up flipping your car. How much does that suck for you? Sure, insurance covers the car--maybe the canoe if it's included in your housing insurance--but how does that make you whole when you're sitting on the side of the highway waiting for a tow, and you need to drive a rental back to your house and spend the weekend at home? Not cool.
And with that, let's wrap this one up. It's not the best PM or Speaks, but throw in Shats and a nice chase and some good action, and I think this one works as a fun 90s actioner. If you have Prime you can stream it, and I think that's the best way to make this happen--and if you're lucky enough to live near a Carvel, why not grab an ice cream cake to have while you watch it? Also for the Speakman podcast that Jon and I did, you can subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, or other major podcatchers.
For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0127637
Looking for more action? Check out my short action novel, Bainbridge, and all my other novels, over at my author's page! Click on the image below, go to https://www.matthewpoirierauthor.com/
