It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Elmo Freech (Piper) is a rough-and-tumble Private Investigator and ex-cop who does things his way. He ends up teaming up with a mysterious man who has lost his memory, John Portland (Blanks). But Portland appears to be a trained fighter, and together the two men - who certainly don't always see eye to eye - get deeper and deeper into a conspiracy that goes all the way to the top. They're going to have to work together and fight to get to the truth. Can they do it? Tough and Deadly is classic 90's fun at its best. One of its main strengths is its healthy dose of humor. So many movies out there, DTV actioners included, take themselves so seriously - finally, here's a movie with the guts to not take itself so seriously, but also has some killer stunts and fights, which are taken seriously. So it strikes a near-perfect balance of tongue-in-cheek, well, cheekiness, with some nice bone-crunching action. It's a surprisingly rare mix, so our hats go off to the filmmakers on this win.The movie really gives you what you want: on top of the humor, the stunts, fights, etc., it has a very good pace and nice energy. You can actually SEE what's going on. Nothing is shrouded in shadow. Considering there's a barfight AND a poolhall fight, as well as a (completely inexplicable) training sequence followed by a montage, Tough and Deadly truly has it all. Let's not forget the Billy Blanks and Richard Norton fight, which gets the movie off to an engaging beginning. There's also the classic "I want to listen to country!" "I want to listen to rap!" CD player confrontation between Freech and Portland. Just the names of the characters are insane - Elmo Freech, Winston Briggers (James Karen), Trekkler, and Freech's assistant Maureen Peek (Stahl). Yet, the great Richard Norton plays...Agent Norton. Does he feel cheated that he didn't get a wacky name? At least he's on board. That's all that counts. Naturally, it all ends in the time-honored abandoned warehouse. Also Elmo Freech has a poster in his house that simply says "Pasta Sauce". For his interior decoration skills alone, you should see Tough and Deadly.It's easy to see why Piper and Blanks teamed up again after Back In Action (1993). Piper's charm and Blanks' woodenness make an excellent combination. It's sad that they didn't team up on any more movies after this. But at least we have two. While debate continues to rage as to who - John Portland or Elmo Freech - is Tough and who is Deadly - there's certainly no shortage of face-punching action in this prime example of what the 90's Direct-To-Video era could do.

Following an assassination attempt, a CIA Agent (Billy Blanks) ends up in a hospital with amnesia. Sensing an opportunity on a possible bounty, skip tracer Elmo Freech (Roddy Piper) tries to get the mystery man's fingerprints, but ends up stopping a second murder attempt instead. Freech then takes the in the dark agent under his wing and dubs him "John Portland." One brief training session later, John is back to kicking ass, which is helpful as a group of assassins (led by Richard Norton) are still out to get him while the head of the CIA (James Karen) wonders what happened to his top secret agent.This is an enjoyable mid-90s action vehicle. Blanks may not be much of an actor, but he makes up for it with his skillful martial arts. The highlight of the film is a midway showdown with Norton, a man as equally talented in the fight game. It is a shame Blanks never got bigger exposure from the 8 or so DTV films he did, but I'm sure Tae-Bo has compensated him well. What is really interesting is the great chemistry between Blanks and Piper. This was their second feature together (following 1994's BACK IN ACTION) and the two have a great rapport.

I caught this movie on cable today and was fairly impressed. Not with the action or special effects, but how well Piper and Banks played off of each other. Piper was more believable in his character than Banks, but Banks held his own. The action was ok, but nothing to get excited about. This actually turned out to be a really good buddy movie with a good mix of action, drama and a fair mix of humor. This is one that is worth watching just for the heck of it. Remember...it's not an A movie...it's a B movie at best.

I bought this movie for two bucks because I wanted to see Billy Blanks in a movie where he has to show off his acting skills. I had seen parts of this movie before on cable, but when I watched it, it was actually entertaining. It had good fight scenes, including one of my new favorites. It's when Billy Blanks kicks a bad guy out of window of a moving car and the guy falls in front of the car and under the wheels (they actually show this, only they use a dummy).This movie is worth seeing once. Check it out.