Night of the Wilding (1990 Video) User Reviews

Not as bad as some

[yonhope · 5/10 · 29 May 2007]

The story is not great. The acting is not inspiring. The direction is OK but not believable. This movie suffers from what many films can't shake. They needed to fill some time so you let the heroes do very stupid things nobody would really do, just to get to the car wreck or the shooting or the fight.

Watch for Richard Munchkin as the jury foreman at the end of the movie. Richard directed many action movies. I used to do stand up comedy with Richard in Las Vegas in the 1970s.

Speaking of the jury, you will notice that there are two different trials separated by a year or longer in this movie, and yet it is the same jury but they sit in different chairs.

Robert Dickey is the best part of this film. His character has some dimensions and is not just always the same level of hostility. He finds some decency in his portrayal. Robert had teen idol good looks and a great voice.

The car wreck is, as some have noted, just preposterous. It should be exciting, but it just looks silly. Eric is OK. The scenes of downtown L.A. are nicely filmed. Dialog is something a sixth grade student might write for an essay. Each speech is about the same length. Even the courtroom drama is kept at a Barbie Doll mentality.

It is an OK movie that has some nudity and violence, but not anything that will get your heart going.

Tom Willett

While there is some clunkiness, especially in the acting department, Night of the Wilding is really not that bad.

[tarbosh22000 · 5/10 · 9 December 2011]

PM goes for something different here, taking a break from out-and-out action movies and delivering a courtroom drama inspired by the then-new show, Law and Order.

Joseph Gainer (Estrada) is a high-powered Beverly Hills defense attorney who has never lost a case. Constantly defending scumbags and releasing them back out into society seems to be getting under his skin however. Three teenage psychopaths, led by Carl Sloan (Allan) - the other two being the token "weak link" who has somewhat of a conscience about their evil deeds, Alan (Dickey) and Carl's right-hand man, Martin (Ganis) break into a house and assault and rape Betty Truesky (Austin) and Doris (Kimberly Spiess, better known to adult film fans as Carol Cummings). They also attack another member of the family, a man named Bill Paxton! (Verroca, sadly not Bill Paxton). Gainer ends up as one of the lawyers defending the little jerks, and the prosecutor is his former wife Marion (Kathrin Lautner AKA Middleton). They still have a rapport, and issues of law and justice are continually coming up. What will be the fate of Betty, Doris, Carl, Martin, Alan, Joseph and Marion? Like the aforementioned Law and Order, PM and director Joseph Merhi do a "ripped from the headlines" type of story about the incidents of "Wilding" in the late 80's/early 90's. The title "Night of the Wilding" is somewhat misleading for a courtroom movie like this. It's not exactly in the same league as Night of the Kickfighters. Plus, is a home invasion /attack really wilding? No one is sure exactly what "wilding" is, but we're pretty sure it's out in public. Not in private. This movie brings up questions like that. Can you "wild" in the privacy of your own home? Estrada, who is perfect for a role like this, does reasonably well. Some of his clothing, especially his out-of-the-courtroom casual wear, is quite something. Sure, he has a mullet, but you know he's one of the good guys because the evildoers have longer, eviller mullets. It's weird - at times the film seems to go as close to an authentic legal drama as it can - and other times what happens plot-wise is utterly absurd. Add some odd clarinet music on the soundtrack, and Joey Travolta for some reason and the result is Night of the Wilding.

The obvious highlight of the film occurs right towards the end and involves a baseball field. That's all we'll say. Watch out for it.

While not what you'd call a classic or a typical PM, we give them points for not simply churning out another blow-em-up movie, but we're not sure this more dramatic approach reached its target audience. After all, PM makes the BEST blow-em-ups, and that's what fans want. It's nothing to be ashamed of. Fans of TV-movie style courtroom dramas probably never found this movie in the first place, while PM aficionados (I assume they're out there) more than likely won't be adding this to their top 10 list of favorite PM's.

While there is some clunkiness, especially in the acting department, Night of the Wilding is really not that bad (especially considering some of the unintentional laughs), but don't go in expecting fireworks.

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A complete waste of time.

[Susie-7 · 1/10 · 7 June 1999]

This movie is so unbelievably awful that I don't think it is even possible to express it in words. I do not understand why such a piece of crap was ever made, why some studio released it, and why some television station paid for the rights. The movie starts off all right, with a decent story about three guys on trial for rape and assault. One of the victims has a somewhat shady past, so the movie explores the "victim on trial" phenomenon that has been dealt with in so many other movies, and usually done better. But still, it seemed like this movie was going to be passable, even if the acting left a lot to be desired.

I won't give away all the details, in case someone actually wants to suffer through this movie.

What appeared to be a courtroom drama degenerated into some ridiculous, I don't know, slasher flick, almost. It's fine to make the bad guys completely psychopathic and without redeeming features, but this movie fails horribly in making these characters even remotely believable. Forget Silence of the Lambs or even a Leprechaun movie; the Leprechaun movies look like Oscar contenders next to this crap, and the villain, despite its lack of depth, almost seems like a Hannibal Lecter next to this garbage. In addition, the courtroom scenes are poorly done, and often the prosecutor's questioning of witnesses is completely left out, making the defense's cross-examination quite meaningless and without context. The chase scene at the end of the movie is also horribly shot and directed. It is painfully obvious that old Erik Estrada has slowed down a lot since his CHIPS days, as he clearly is running after the bad guy at a significantly slower speed than the bad guy is running; Estrada also climbs over obstacles more awkwardly and less quickly- yet he maintains his distance from the bad guy, never trailing or having to stop to catch his breath, like he obviously had to. If the makers of this film wanted a realistic sprinting chase, then they should have picked an actor who could keep up with a young guy. The car taking flight over the baseball backstop, if that's the right term, was also amazingly implausible.

If ever there was a textbook example of how NOT to make a movie, this is it. This movie is awfulness at its worst (or best). I recommend avoiding this movie like it's the plague.

This movie was absolutely hilarious, errrg, awful!

[bj_dougherty · 1/10 · 10 December 2004]

I must confess that I did rate this movie as a 1 for being "awful", but "awful" in a good, humorous kind of way. What makes this movie somewhat odd is the fact that it is supposedly based on a true story, on a real life Night of the Wilding. But clearly this film does not do the original tragedy any justice whatsoever. Erik Estrada is the only semi-big name in the movie which was obviously why he was cast for the lead role... all too often cheap and pointless movies like these are made as vehicles for the furtherance of a B-star's career. Yeah, annoying characters, pointless nudity (you've got to love those 2 minute scenes which feature a woman in a shower which have nothing to do with the plot), combined with a ridiculous stunt featuring an out of control car which somehow does a flip on the dugout and twists in the air, finally landing on the infield itself (I actually rewound that scene and watched it 5 times in a row because of it's downright absurdity). I probably wouldn't recommend this film to anyone except for a die-hard CHIPS fan or a fan of awesomely bad movies.

Awful,terrible, shockingly bad!Yet Hilarious!

[liamconnolly99 · 11 July 2003]

I had the (mis)fortune to watch this in a Hotel in Thailand when I was trying to get to sleep - it has to be the most ridiculous movie ever made - but for that reason alone it is worth watching - I have never laughed so much from a non- comedy in my life! Everything about it is terrible - the acting is hammy and unconvincing, the direction is staid and formulaic. The story is just plain ridiculous - the characters being the most unbelievable bunch of losers in movie history (with some of the worst hair ever!) . If you want to laugh without mercy at one of the worst TVMs ever - this is the one!

Jumping One Wild Night

[charlytully · 1/10 · 13 October 2007]

It was in the early nineties when I rented this flick to watch with the gang. The groanibel level in the room was hitting about 110 by the time bad boy Carl had wiped out the rest of his posse and started to dive in and out of plate-glass windows at the prosecutor-lady's house. But then--before her ex-husband (Carl's defense attorney) floors him in the swimming pool--a sedan suddenly leaps COMPLETELY OVER the 20-foot-high backstop during a sandlot game through which the pair are making tracks. We just looked at each other, jaws agape, thinking what the h--- was THAT?! Maybe some sort of lost screen test for the movie Christine? Then my buddy Jeff Connolly blurted "I was going to be charitable and give this crap two stars for Julie Austin's knockers, but then that effing car jumped the effing backstop . . ."

For several years after that, whenever some borderline show suddenly dove into the deep end of the cesspool, one of us was sure to paraphrase Jeff about "jumping the effing backstop." Then Jeff got a writing gig and decided to take this concept beyond our immediate circle. Realizing only a few dozen people in the world had watched this movie long enough to even GET to the car-jumping-the-backstop scene, he fished around for a comparable but better-known example of "jumping the effing backstop" and came up with that business about the shark on Happy Days.

I picked this out from the close-out bin last week and watched it with my new crew. Our vote was unanimous: still one out of ten.

More wild unruly behavior, in a better wilding

[videorama-759-859391 · 7/10 · 22 July 2015]

"Here we go again", I thought to myself very early in this film, but boy was I wrong. I had known about this one, where I thought, "Why would Joey Travolta do exactly the same kind of movie?", based on a subject that really wasn't memorable, or worth bringing up. Or had this come out before the other Wilding. Wilding is an American term, for dangerously violent behavior by the misdirected youth to cure boredom, and it's frighteningly scary behavior, if seeing the other film. This time, the film shoots from the other end, with the legal side of the crime. Three youths, led by a real nasty piece of work, a tall red haired kid, who kind of creeped me out, I had second thoughts about going to sleep, crash a girl's birthday party, raping her and her friend, while beating the boyfriend with those bats. Prior to this, they had caused some ruckus, at the supermarket, where the birthday girl works, before assailing a customer, beating him to near death. The youths go to trial, defended by a guy (Estrada, quite good here) who's never lost a case, of cause using some underhand, below the belt methods. Estrada, was someone I really wanted to punch here, like others in the film of course. After watching this, I'd turned off by defendants, that pose the question, "Why the hell would you want to be one?" Well just looks where Estrada lives". The woman taking the victim trio's case used to be married to Estrada, where this little stifling, too close for comfort, relationship, isn't nothing new in these courtroom drama's, almost dome to death. I'll be honest, the film became really engaging, where first off the bat, I though to myself, "Oh no". But as I watched, I almost couldn't turn. off. I guess the one disappointing thing here, was seeing the minimal use of Travolta, an underestimated actor, who raises some laughs, playing a slick scuzzy lawyer friend of Estrada's. Yes we have a couple of actors, we've seen in a few of those City Lights films, ala Joseph Mehri, and Richard Pepin, the actress playing the magistrate, a really good thespian. I must say, Estrada held his own, though was a little upstaged by the ex wife, who fared better, giving a very real, effective, and authentic performance, but it was Travolta, who I loved to be honest. NOTW had some shock moments, things I didn't expect to happen, but these moments, mirror other ones in that long line of City Lights flicks. It was great how Estrada, who I really detested here at first, became the hero in the end, and I did like the heroine's heedless plan of attack, to catch these three, minus one arse****s. On the whole NOTW, is quite a good drama, though isn't flawless, with some laughable acting from some, and I mean as in bad = overacting. Some nice nudity, yes, violence inferred, not shown, like in the other Wilding, especially.

Topical but unrewarding

[lor_ · 22 May 2023]

My review was written in June 1990 after watching the movie on MCEG/Virgin Video cassette.

This topical video presents an interesting examination of the issues of random youth violence , but it cops out with an inconclusive ending. Title and theme should attract interest.

Story line mentions explicitly the famous Central park incident in New York (currnely in the courts) last year in which a jogger was raped and beaten, allegedly by a group of youngsters. In "Night of the Wilding", two sisters in L. A. are rpaed by a young trio of rich kids who get fabulously successful mob lawyer Erik Estrada to defend them.

Film becomes a war of wills between Estrada, who's in the midst of a crisis of conscience because he constantly defends guilty clients, and the prosecutor, lovely Kathrin Lautner. To make the B picture overly melodramatic, Lautner is Estrada's ex-wife and she's won every case she's worked on.

Prolific action helmer Joseph Merhi takes a more subdued approach this time out, covering many details of court procedure and maneuverings effectively. Payoff is unfortunatgely unconvincing as the ringleade of the young thugs, Isaac Allan, kills his comatriot and tires to muder his rape victims and even the d.a., ending predictably in his demise at Estrada's hands.