Firehead (1991)

Director:

Peter Yuval

Writers:

Jeffrey Mandel
Peter Yuval

Genre:

Action | Thriller

Tagline:

The Power to Destroy the World...And the Will to Save It

Plot:

A government agent assigns a scientist to help one of his agents track down a Russian defector who is a cyborg...

Plot Keywords:

Cyborg | Telekinesis | Paranormal Phenomena | Pyrokinesis | Independent Film

Cast

Christopher Plummer	...	Col. Garland Vaughn
Chris Lemmon	...	Warren Hart
Brett Porter	...	Ivan Tibor
Gretchen Becker	...	Melia Buchanan
Martin Landau	...	Adm. Pendleton
George Elliot	...	Fallbright
Edmund Kearney	...	The President (as Ed Kearney)
Douglas Simms	...	Taggart
Lauren Levy	...	Smith
Ralph Sims	...	Shaw
Thomas C. Smith-Alden	...	Devries (as Thomas Alden-Smith)
Eugene Walters	...	Simon
Robert MacDowell	...	Spector
Graham Timbes	...	Russian Commander
Ann Thornton	...	Reporter
Michael Simpson	...	President's Agent
Kyle Weir	...	Reporter
David Scott	...	Special Operations Agent
Emile Jones	...	Guard
Kelly Worrell	...	Special Order Girl
Frank Aplin	...	Deputy Sheriff
John McConnell	...	Computer Man

Directed by
Peter Yuval

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Jeffrey Mandel
Peter Yuval

Produced by
David Winters	....	executive producer
Marc Winters	....	executive producer
Peter Yuval	....	producer

Original Music by
Vladimir Horunzhy

Cinematography by
Paul Maibaum

Film Editing by
Steven Nielson

Casting by
Billy DaMota

Art Direction by
Buz Crump		(as Buzz Crump)

Makeup Department
Cathy Arnold	....	assistant makeup artist
Brenda Hearn	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Cathy Gesualdo	....	unit production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
William Brett Haas	....	second assistant director
Larry Litton	....	first assistant director

Art Department
Michael Alexonis	....	assistant art director

Sound Department
Bruce Irvine	....	sound effects editor
Whit Norris	....	sound mixer
Steve Scoville	....	dialogue editor

Camera and Electrical Department
Allen Barnwell	....	gaffer
Randy 'Mongo' Halpern	....	second assistant camera
Alan Henry	....	gaffer
Timothy Sheffer	....	first assistant camera (as Tim Sheffer)
Ricky Sylvester Jr.	....	key grip

Editorial Department
Mark L. Johnson	....	assistant editor

Music Department
Gretchen Becker	....	vocalist: theme song

Other crew
Joshua Weisel	....	production assistant

Production Companies

• Action International Pictures (AIP)
• Coppola Films
• Sovereign Investments
• Winters Group

Distributors

• Action International Pictures (AIP) (1990) (USA) (theatrical)
• Action International Pictures Home Video (AIP) (1990) (USA) (VHS)
• Echo Bridge Home Entertainment (2007) (USA) (DVD)
• Image Entertainment (????) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• Pyramid Distribution (1991) (USA)

Runtime:

88 min | Germany:80 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

Iceland:12 | Germany:12 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Mobile, Alabama, USA

Company:

Action International Pictures (AIP)

Soundtrack:

Firehead

What are you waiting for? Detonate!

I purchased Firehead because I like bad movies and, well it's called Firehead, isn't it? It's terrible. Inexcusably bad. But you probably already guessed that or, heaven forbid, watched it and knew.

It concerns a Russian super-soldier with telekinetic abilities who defects to the US ("I'm going to find a free country") and eventually turns on his American handler as well. Christopher Plummer plays his former boss, Vaughn, who is part of a shadowy secret group that wishes to rule the world. I'd explain more of the plot, but it's a fun combination of dumb and nonsensical, so I won't. It doesn't matter anyway. Suffice to say that Vaughn decides it's a good idea to enlist a chemist to track down a rampaging super-powered defector blowing up factories. But fear not! He has assigned an assassin to tag along and take out this raging Russian. An assassin who frequently gets surprised by people sneaking up on her, sure, but an assassin no less. It goes pretty steadily downhill from there.

The only reason this movie gets even two stars out of me is wholly because of the performances of Martin Landau and Christopher Plummer, who manage to prove they can float on top of sewage. I suspect they owed somebody favors. Big, big favors. They're good enough, in fact, to be part of the problem. They'd raise the bar back up off the ground, and I'd foolishly start expecting good things only to be hit upside the head again with, for instance, a government-trained professional gunman shooting down a very narrow hallway at our protagonists walking side by side and missing. That sort of thing.

Such a vast, uncountable amount of bullets are fired at our two (sometimes three) protagonists that I started to be concerned with the quantities of wasted metal that would go unrecycled when said bullets inevitably missed. This movie features perhaps the worst gunfights I've seen in a movie. If you kinda run and then maybe duck and then sort of look the other way when someone's unloading their clip at you, even if you're completely out in the open, you'll be just fine in the world of Firehead.

If you come to Firehead hoping for a good movie, then seriously, what's wrong with you? It's called Firehead. If you're hoping for a hilarious bad movie, then you're headed in the right direction. It's not one of the best of the worst or anything--there are some slow moments, but it seriously shines in spots. It has awful, awful gunfights. Constantly. It has probably the worst little girl actress I've encountered delivering some inspired lines. In also has an ending so dumb, tangential and inexplicable that I was amazed. And it has enough little unexpected bad moments, one of which involves a squeaky toy, to keep you interested.

2/10 for quality. 6/10 as bad movies go.