Slayground (1983)

Director:

Terry Bedford

Writers:

Trevor Preston (writer)
Donald E. Westlake (novel)

Release Date:

February 1984 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama

Tagline:

Welcome To Your Funeral!

Plot Keywords:

Revenge | Cat | Assassination | Dead Child | Murder

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Peter Coyote	...	Stone
Mel Smith	...	Terry Abbatt
Billie Whitelaw	...	Madge
Philip Sayer	...	Costello
Bill Luhrs	...	Joe Sheer
Marie Masters	...	Joni
Clarence Felder	...	Orxel
Ned Eisenberg	...	Lonzini
David Hayward	...	Laufman
Michael Ryan	...	Danard
Barrett Mulligan	...	Lucy
Kelli Maroney	...	Jolene
Margareta Arvidssen	...	Grete
Rosemary Martin	...	Dr. King
Malcolm Terris	...	Venner

Runtime:

89 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:M | UK:18 | Iceland:16 | USA:R | West Germany:18

Filming Locations:

Blackpool, Lancashire, England, UK

Company:

Jennie and Company

Quotes:

Parker: This would be the last time, Terry.
Terry Abbatt: Oh Christ, how many times have I heard that? Every villain I've ever known. And how do they end up? Three in a cell in some Victorian Dungeon, or worse, lying dead in the gutter.

Movie Connections:

References Point Blank (1967)

Soundtrack:

Bad To The Bone

Rather confusing, to say the least

I felt in watching this that there was something I was missing, like what was going on? The basic story line is fairly simple, some thugs hold up an armored car and in their getaway they hit another car and kill a little girl, and then her dad, who is apparently a rather influential kind of guy, is after their butts to avenge her death. After others in this heist die one (Peter Coyote) takes off for England to visit his old buddy Terry (as played by Mel Smith, a couple years before he was a Moron from Outer Space) and then I guess I lose track of what the point is. Of course the father of the little girl that was killed is on Mr. Coyote's tail still, even in England, and this all ends with a big confrontation at some semi-derelict amusement park in Blackpool. There were some rather obscure references and conversations which I though made no sense and I'd have to say that perhaps there was a book or something that I'd have needed to read before watching this to understand what they were talking about. The film itself has no problems barreling on down the road with little regard for the lost viewer though, which is probably why it wasn't well received at the box office upon release. I can't say I thought too much about this film, but I wanted to like it, it had some good elements to it, it just got kind of lost in the making I guess. 5 out of 10.