Simply Perfect

Good movie but grossly overrated

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

When a Libyan terrorist group called the Hand of God are running around killing politicians, detectives Neil Farrow (Harrod) and Bill Marshall (Everett) are on the case. Captain Burton (Estevez) is constantly demanding answers from them, and after Marshall ends up in a coma, Farrow goes rogue - and also goes to Texas - to find the perpetrators. While somewhat of a fish out of water in the small town of Morgan County, Texas, Farrow has a spirit guide - his comatose partner Marshall himself! Dressed in a white T-shirt and bathed in white light even though he's not dead, he gives Farrow cryptic clues as to what to do next. Doubtlessly it's because of this intervention that Farrow comes across local powermad good ol' boy Milo Truscott (Patterson) and his gang of nogoodniks. After traveling to the local "survival camp" and being mercilessly mocked and ridiculed by the local doomsday preppers, Farrow decides enough is enough and takes the law into his own hands to unravel the mystery. But will there be BLOOD ON THE BADGE? Shot the same year as Armed For Action (1992) and featuring almost the exact same cast and crew, Blood On The Badge is more low-budget, Texas-set, Joe Estevez-infused DTV wonderment. Out of the two, we prefer Armed For Action, mainly because that has a higher mullet-and-Gatling-gun ratio, but it's probably a matter of taste. David Harrod returns as the hunky Himbo hero. His favorite outfit is what appears to be a homemade New York Yankees T-shirt tucked into acid washed jeans with a black belt. When he's not wearing that, he likes to lounge around in a towel, showing off his ultra-manly Woody Woodpecker tattoo. He's so much of a Himbo, he makes Dan Cortese look like William F. Buckley. Naturally, the ladies can't get enough of him, and that includes Monique Detraz of The Dangerous (1995) fame. While the movie as a whole suffers from pacing issues, Joe Estevez appears right on time. Rocky Patterson also returns, along with everyone else, from Armed For Action. In that outing he strongly resembled Joe Piscopo. In this movie, he strongly resembles Greg Kinnear. The man is a true chameleon. While his name here is Truscott, it sounds like everyone is calling him "Triscuit". Thankfully, this movie isn't quite as dry as his namesake cracker. Speaking of which, Truscott is a racist bigot who spews racial slurs constantly. That and the sax on the soundtrack are the hallmarks of a type of film which is not made anymore. While in many respects, Blood on the Badge is a relic of its day, it is actually quite ahead of its time. The plot revolves around Islamic terrorists, and there is a subplot that involves the Israeli ambassador. They should re-release this back into theaters today. While there are a healthy amount of funny lines and silly situations, the plot is slow going. There is a machine gun shootout in a warehouse, and even an exploding helicopter, so in that respect it's pure AIP. It all ends on a classic freeze frame and under the closing credits are wedding pictures. You've gotta hand it to director McCormick and his band of regulars. It may be rough around the edges, but, darn it, he made these movies and released them into video stores. You can tell plenty of effort was put into making them as good as possible under very, very limiting circumstances. It's probably important to keep that in mind while watching. In the end, if you liked Armed For Action, or even One Man War (1990), and you appreciate that down-home style, you'll more than likely enjoy Blood On the Badge. If not, you probably won't, though it is just entertaining enough to satisfy VHS junkies who are familiar with this type of material.

Yes, the budget was low, but there were some good talent who were abused by bad directing and editing, who I know for a fact were never paid the agreed amount, but cheated all the way around. But, it was still another stepping stone to larger projects for them. "Sheriff Begelow" played by Larry Flynn came across very naturally, and believable, but received no credit, maybe for his best interest. Just don't throw out the baby with the bathwater. They all worked hard for the director, and were led to believe this film would be handled in a more professional manner. Incidentally it was NOT shot video, but on 16 MM film. I know this for a fact.

Soon after it begins, a viewer will know that this small budgeted movie is of low quality, the opening scenes indicative of what is to come, as Dallas police officer Neil Farrow (David Harrod), along with his partner Bill, hide in a warehouse stocked with weaponry and ammunition, the building soon entered by masked "Libyan terrorists", prompting a gun battle, and as hundreds of automatic weapon rounds dance about them the jolly lawmen joke and laugh as if they hadn't a care. Amazingly, Bill survives being shot several times in the chest by the head "terrorist" and lapses into a coma, but not until he receives Neil's vow that he will "get that guy for you", and Farrow then sets out upon his mission of vengeance, over protests from his supervisor (a wooden Joe Estevez) and, accompanied by an untested female detective from a neighbouring jurisdiction, he goes up against obstacles of all sorts, save those that might reflect cinematic technique, and imagination. There are superfluous subplots and an ample amount of near naked female flesh (Neil is patently irresistible to members of the opposite sex), but through it all an apparition of his comatose partner provides Farrow with not terribly cryptic clues, in addition to Magical Realistic messages of support as a narrative gimmick that gives the vengeful officer sufficient time and opportunity to express various politically correct sentiments while upon his way to discover the identity of Bill's assailant, an unveilment that comes to him somewhat later than it will to all but the most sluggish of viewers. Shot with videotape, the piece has a shoddy look, but more damaging yet is a battery of substandard elements, such as sparse direction, including weak setups and blocking; a screenplay that needs doctoring; scoring that is consistently disruptive; insufficient post-production finishing; and a dearth of logic and continuity. The acting is generally ineffective; however, the lack of able direction and poorly accomplished editing may be held to answer for the stumbling performances of some cast members.