The synopsis for this film was intriguing, so I started watching it. The "chemistry" between the two main characters was as forced as tax bill, as flat as bad soda, and as irritating as a bug in the eye. Sad to see someone of John Saxon's caliber in this movie.
8 Reviews
Tunnels
BandSAboutMovies8 February 2024
Warning: Spoilers
Directed by Mark Byers and written by Daniel Yost (whose next movie was Drugstore Cowboy), Criminal Act is also known as Tunnels. It has what I refer to as a Sam cast: Catherine Bach, John Saxon, Luis Avalos from The Electric Company and Vic Tayback are the best known members.
Pam Weiss (Bach) and Sharon Fields (Charles Dallas) are an investigative reporter and her photographer. Their boss, Herb Tamplin (Saxon), wants them to settle down and learn how to be good reporters. They're willing to instead run right at danger and both be the love interest of Ron Bellard (Nicolas Guest), the brother of the movie's villain Lance Bellard (Victor Brandt).
This is also supposed to have giant mutant rats and be kind of like C. H. U. D. but instead only has a homeless guy who occasionally bites someones. Yes, the millionaire evil brother is cleaning the homeless up by sending them out of the city which is totally illegal.
That said, Rick Zumwalt - Bull Hurley from Over the Top - is in this and I can't fault a movie that has both him and Daisy Duke in it, much less John Saxon. Vic Tayback's role is so small it had to be him stopping at catering and walking on to pay for the craft services he quaffed down.
Not the movie I was hoping for but what can you do?
Pam Weiss (Bach) and Sharon Fields (Charles Dallas) are an investigative reporter and her photographer. Their boss, Herb Tamplin (Saxon), wants them to settle down and learn how to be good reporters. They're willing to instead run right at danger and both be the love interest of Ron Bellard (Nicolas Guest), the brother of the movie's villain Lance Bellard (Victor Brandt).
This is also supposed to have giant mutant rats and be kind of like C. H. U. D. but instead only has a homeless guy who occasionally bites someones. Yes, the millionaire evil brother is cleaning the homeless up by sending them out of the city which is totally illegal.
That said, Rick Zumwalt - Bull Hurley from Over the Top - is in this and I can't fault a movie that has both him and Daisy Duke in it, much less John Saxon. Vic Tayback's role is so small it had to be him stopping at catering and walking on to pay for the craft services he quaffed down.
Not the movie I was hoping for but what can you do?
The "Criminal Act" is on the audience
udar5510 August 2013
Warning: Spoilers
Reporter Pam Weiss (Catherine Bach) and her photographer Sharon (Charlene Dallas) discover a series of hidden tunnels underneath their building. In doing so, they uncover an unscrupulous businessman named Lance Ballard (Victor Brandt) just might have a connection to the recent reports of missing bums. Together with Lance's handsomer brother Ron (Nicholas Guest), they team up to figure out just how they are making these folks disappear.
A perfect example of "great cover/bad movie" exists with this late 80s thriller. The awesome art would have you think you are getting a C.H.U.D.-level "creature roams the sewers" flick. Instead, you get a painfully bland story about a businessman wanting to get bums from out of his planned projects. Wow. You won't get any thrills here as director Mark Byers does everything flat and cheap (notice their one set for the sewers used over and over). The craziest thing about this flick is that screenwriter Daniel Yost had another film out the same year and it was the classic DRUGSTORE COWBOY. Vic Tayback has a small role at the beginning as "The Exterminator" and tiny guy Cork Hubbert, the lead from UNDER THE RAINBOW (1981), is the villain's right hand man.
A perfect example of "great cover/bad movie" exists with this late 80s thriller. The awesome art would have you think you are getting a C.H.U.D.-level "creature roams the sewers" flick. Instead, you get a painfully bland story about a businessman wanting to get bums from out of his planned projects. Wow. You won't get any thrills here as director Mark Byers does everything flat and cheap (notice their one set for the sewers used over and over). The craziest thing about this flick is that screenwriter Daniel Yost had another film out the same year and it was the classic DRUGSTORE COWBOY. Vic Tayback has a small role at the beginning as "The Exterminator" and tiny guy Cork Hubbert, the lead from UNDER THE RAINBOW (1981), is the villain's right hand man.
not as criminal as the other reviewers would seem to have you believe
thefountainmenace27 March 2003
This is not that bad for an eighties horror. I had to weigh in because of the overwhelming amount of bad reviews. Yes, the premise of odd tunnels directly under a newspaper building containing a Ratman (who does look a bit like Tiny Tim) and a bunch of jailed homeless people is not only stupid, but barely even coherent here. But it has quite a bit of camp value with John Saxon, Catherine Bach and Mel from Mel's Diner in the 70's sitcom Alice. Enjoyable little hour and a half flight for genre fans. That is, admittably bad 80's horror fans.
Rat, singular. And normal sized.
BA_Harrison14 October 2019
Warning: Spoilers
Four years after hanging up her Daisy Dukes, Catherine Bach starred in this incoherent mess of a movie of the type that makes one wonder what they were putting in the water back in the '80s. How anyone could write a script so utterly inane and not immediately consign it to the shredder is beyond me.
The plot summary on IMDb promises giant rats, as investigated by intrepid reporter Pam Weiss (Bach) and her photographer Sharon (Charlene Dallas). The ladies find no evidence of over-sized rodents (the only rat in the whole film is regular sized and very dead), but they do discover a scheme by unscrupulous property developers to rid a planned site of down and outs by abducting them, using an old network of tunnels to smuggle the bums onto a ship at the city's docks.
Other reviews mention the appearance of a 'rat-man' who lives in the sewers, but don't get too excited: he's just a regular guy with lanky hair (Scott McKay) who, with the help of old vagrant Apple Bob (Syd Beard), helps to rescue the roving reporters with a well-aimed Braeburn.
Although listed here as a thriller/horror, thrills and frights are in short supply; boredom and exasperation, on the other hand, are never far away. The biggest shock is seeing poor John Saxon (Enter The Dragon, A Nightmare on Elm Street) wasted in the pointless role of newspaper editor.
The plot summary on IMDb promises giant rats, as investigated by intrepid reporter Pam Weiss (Bach) and her photographer Sharon (Charlene Dallas). The ladies find no evidence of over-sized rodents (the only rat in the whole film is regular sized and very dead), but they do discover a scheme by unscrupulous property developers to rid a planned site of down and outs by abducting them, using an old network of tunnels to smuggle the bums onto a ship at the city's docks.
Other reviews mention the appearance of a 'rat-man' who lives in the sewers, but don't get too excited: he's just a regular guy with lanky hair (Scott McKay) who, with the help of old vagrant Apple Bob (Syd Beard), helps to rescue the roving reporters with a well-aimed Braeburn.
Although listed here as a thriller/horror, thrills and frights are in short supply; boredom and exasperation, on the other hand, are never far away. The biggest shock is seeing poor John Saxon (Enter The Dragon, A Nightmare on Elm Street) wasted in the pointless role of newspaper editor.
Humanoid Rats and former TV actors
fan4ad6 September 2001
This is one bizarre movie. I think it is tounge in cheek, but I am not sure. Lots of TV notables from Alice, Dukes of Hazard, etc. Strange sets and set-ups, a humanoid rat that does not look like a rat (looks like Tiny Tim), homeless people and the white slave trade.
Unfairly maligned
Leofwine_draca28 July 2017
Warning: Spoilers
I caught this on Amazon Prime under the title TUNNELS. It's very low budget little effort that openly copies the superior C.H.U.D., but that doesn't mean that it's not a worthwhile viewing. I see that most people hate it on here, but I liked it regardless; the film is cheap and cheerful, designed to entertain with funny one-liners in the script and nice performances from the supporting cast members. Catherine Bach and Charlene Dallas make for a good pair of heroines in the CAGNEY & LACEY mould, while the likes of John Saxon and in particular the unknown Ray Tillotson give some very satisfying supporting turns. Okay, so the eventual reveal of the film's villain is a bit disappointing, but the '80s atmosphere is spot on.
Phony and fake story
lor_14 April 2023
My review was written in July 1989 after watching the film on Prism video cassette.
Previously titled, more appropriately "Tunnels", "Criminal Act" is a shaggy-dog, made-for-video feature that promises fantasy and horror but delivers a cornball story of greedy real estate developers.
When a rat appears in their bathroom at work, newspaper reporter Catherine Bach and photographer Charlene Dallas are escorted to basement tunnels by the exterminator (Vic Tayback). They imagine the sight down there of monsters (humanoid rats). But after many a weary reel it turns out no monsters exist, only nasty guys kidnapping and killing street bums to pave the way for a multimillion-dollar real estate development scheme.
Though the two heroines make for a pleasant starring team, poorly scripted pic fails to deliver an interesting or credible adventure for them. Bac shows off martial arts skills kicking some bad guys and there's one plot twist involving a double cross. If not for the video boom, this pic wouldn't have been made.
Overlong, padded feature has a pointless scene tacked on after the end credits.
Previously titled, more appropriately "Tunnels", "Criminal Act" is a shaggy-dog, made-for-video feature that promises fantasy and horror but delivers a cornball story of greedy real estate developers.
When a rat appears in their bathroom at work, newspaper reporter Catherine Bach and photographer Charlene Dallas are escorted to basement tunnels by the exterminator (Vic Tayback). They imagine the sight down there of monsters (humanoid rats). But after many a weary reel it turns out no monsters exist, only nasty guys kidnapping and killing street bums to pave the way for a multimillion-dollar real estate development scheme.
Though the two heroines make for a pleasant starring team, poorly scripted pic fails to deliver an interesting or credible adventure for them. Bac shows off martial arts skills kicking some bad guys and there's one plot twist involving a double cross. If not for the video boom, this pic wouldn't have been made.
Overlong, padded feature has a pointless scene tacked on after the end credits.
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