Deadbeat at Dawn (1988)

User Rating:

6.6/10   

Director:

Jim Van Bebber

Writer:

Jim Van Bebber (writer)

Release Date:

14 May 1999 (UK)

Genre:

Action | Crime

Tagline:

He quit the gangs. They killed his girl. He became...

Plot:

After one too many encounters with The Spiders (a rival gang), The Ravens' leader's girlfriend tells him to quit the gang or it's Splitsville...

Plot Keywords:

Gang | Revenge | Murder | Heist | Shotgun

Cast

Paul Harper	...	Danny
Jim Van Bebber	...	Goose
Megan Murphy	...	Christy
Ric Walker	...	Keith
Marc Pitman	...	Bone Crusher
Maureen Gentner
Tom Burns
Steve King
Dave Parker	...	Drive-thru attendant
Bill Stover
Carol Lee
Mark Gillespie
Tom Harris
John Bradley
Lili Hendler

Runtime:

80 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-18 | UK:R | USA:Unrated | Spain:18

Filming Locations:

Dayton, Ohio, USA

Company:

Smodeus Productions Inc.

Quotes:

Danny: [after being slapped] If you ever do that again, I'm gonna pull your eyeballs outta your head and eat 'em.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in In the Belly of the Beast (2001)

Dude, The Eighties Rule!

It had the look and feel of scores of tapes I rented in the VHS heyday. I was immediately mesmerized by the army of eighties metal heads, a sight I haven't seen in many a moon. I love it!

Except for the abundance of leather (that s**t was expensive) this was what the teens I knew back then looked like. The denim, the hair, bandannas, and the preoccupation with bad-ass knives, throwing stars, nun-chucks, and bad Karate moves were all the order of the day.

The closest Hollywood ever got to portraying the look and talk of these kids was The River's Edge but if the dudes I knew made a movie it would probably look like Deadbeat At Dawn.

As far as the movie goes, the script was all over the place but good photography and editing help immensely and the action scenes weren't too bad either. I only wish that the momentum of the first scene and the last scenes had been sustained throughout. It could have been the eighties answer to The Warriors!

In the interview accompanying the film on DVD, Van Bebber places the blame for the old style action movie's decline on CGI but he's only half right. The rest of the blame falls on the government run schools and the media, who've been largely successful in their attempts to feminize boys.

They took away the throwing stars and nun-chucks and replaced it with political correctness so that today's teen's idea of a good martial arts movie is Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle and their favorite action stars are metro-sexual wieners like Brad Pitt and Matt Damon!