Raw Deal (1986)
The government gave him a raw deal. Nobody gives him a raw deal.
Got a movie that I want to watch dropping this month, but it has the audacity to drop on a Friday instead of today when it would line up perfect for a review-watch. Well, that will have to wait for next week so instead I play the game of pulling up a cheese wheel of trialers and making someone else pick which one - and I’m not loosing regardless of what get’s picked. Travel back in your time machines of a video player, tonights about to get a whole lot more muscle-y and action bound. Tonight, someone is about to get a Raw Deal.
There once was a fed who got sidelined to being a normal cop out in nowhere because he got a little to rough with some scum of a human who probably deserved it. We get introduced to a hit squad taking out a witness and his protection detail first though - remarkably smooth as long as you aren’t one of the good guys. Sad for one of the agents, but his son was on that protection detail - and now he wants nothing more than revenge. Knowing there’s a leak in the agency, he goes rogue and recruits our now-nowhere based cop to infiltrate the organization and get him some vengeance - justice be danged! Enter a runtime of criminal actions and some fun lines, as we race to find out who the leak is and if the good guys make it out unharmed.
It’s an older Arnold movie. The acting is good enough for what you expect out of it - perhaps not the strongest showing on the whole, but not really bad at all either. All considering what it could have been, the cheese levels are kept relatively decent, with really the only detriments to the acting side just being some deliveries that aren’t quite as well done as they can. Don’t get me wrong, love the heck out of some Arnold, but especially in the earlier years he wasn’t exactly hitting that feeling of range that he got in the later years. Some of the actors on the baddies side do a wonderful job, and some of them are a little bit over the top or stereotypical - which I don’t necessarily feel is a problem of actors not trying anywhere in the movie in so much as I don’t think the direction or the writing really wanted anything else out of it.
The characters themselves are there. Character building isn’t really so much a thing - although we do have some decent character representations on screen. Bad guys might come off as pretty one note - we aren’t talking depth-filled elaborate villains here - but for the most part it also doesn’t just play them off as super cheap stereotypical “we want to make them as scummy as possible so you hate them and want them to die” kind of characters. We get a pseudo-romance between the main and the lead female character, although it never really progresses to actually be a full on movie romance (which is somewhat a nice change of pace considering the main is a married man, so to point about characters not having a ton of development but still feeling like characters, an honest married man is something not always in movies).
Can you guess who isn’t a cop? Answers tonight at ten.
Setting is modern for what it is, although not necessarily modern in the sense of when I’m writing this. In turn, most all the costumes are what you’d expect of real world wearings and look fitting. Fancy suits, common clothes, spicy lingerie, and of course some bulging muscles. The buildings and streets also all look believable, so as far as the feeling of things it’s all about where you’d expect it to be trying to be a serious crime movie. Yes, there’s still some movie touch ups when it comes to things like explosions and gunfights where the hero couldn’t get touched by a projectile if it was guided, but for the most part world-wise it feels good. Everyone you need to tell apart feels like they look unique enough it’s not hard to do.
Action scenes are exactly what you would expect out of an 80’s Arnold movie, except perhaps with a little less muscle on display. Gunfights usually contain more environmental damage than body counts, and plenty of squibs are popped off to make folks look like they are getting all shot up. There’s also some fist fights in there, and it’s all done pretty much interchangeably with most other 80’s action if you ask me. This isn’t a bad thing for me - I like that stuff - although I would note it does feel to have less one liners than you’d normally get, far less feeling like there’s a winking at the camera during each action scene. It does have a few moments of one liners, or something that intentionally or not is funny during an action scene or otherwise - but it plays it pretty straight given what the common person would expect seeing Arnold as the headliner. He’s kind of bound to that image of Kindergarten Cop and Predator you know?
Audio works fine, and it does have a few cheating songs that stick around with me afterwords. Who doesn’t know Satisfaction? For the most part though, it all does the standard movie job of helping support the scenes, and that’s perfectly fine. Line deliveries aren’t generally bad and although some are pretty good I’d largely throw the bulk of it to being passable but not super impressive. If your the thinking type, not to be rude but I’m not sure why your watching an 80’s Arnold movie. That said, there is probably stuff you could gleam from this movie if you wanted to dig into it, like justice versus revenge, corruption, morals, and probably a few others if you really sunk in there. As we know, I’m not the one who sinks in to a movie to be super thoughtful - it’s one thing if it’s an artsy-fartsy movie and I know that going in, but if I’m turning my brain onto philosophical mode to watch an Arnold movie I’ve probably made a mistake somewhere.
The most unbelievable part of this movie is anyone thinking they stand a chance against Arnold.
It’s a fun enough movie, especially if you like that kind of flick. It’s almost more of a criminal thriller than it is an action movie at times, but it does still have plenty of action throughout it to keep you interested. Most the elements are put together well enough that it isn’t really bad in any meaningful ways - but to say it stands out at all would be a stretch, especially for the given story it has. Fun enough to check out at least once, but perhaps not something people will constantly come back to over options like Lethal Weapon or even other Arnold movies. I do enjoy that the subtitles gave me a nice moment of Arnold-ism when he jumps out of a car though.