High-Octane
Summary
Killing Streets is a little slow at times in terms of pacing, but the finale more than makes up for it and it’s hard to resist watching Michael Paré and Lorenzo Lamas team up to take out the trash for the explosive final showdown.
Plot: When he’s informed that his twin brother has died in Beirut, basketball coach Chris Brandt (Michael Paré) flies to Lebanon to investigate for himself. His brother was a U.S. Marine who, according to the military, died in an explosion during an anti-terrorist operation. At the U.S. Embassy, Craig meets with Charles Wolf (Lorenzo Lamas), who backs up the official story. Nevertheless, Craig has the uncanny feeling that his brother is still alive — and that he’s the only one who can save him.
Review: 1991 was a good year for action stars playing dual roles with JCVD in Double Impact and Killing Streets (produced by Menahem Golan) starring Michael Paré playing twin brothers; this is arguably more of a thriller than the action-packed Double Impact, but there’s enough action in the finale to make this well worth checking out. Not only does this have Michael Paré, but for the climax he teams up with Lorenzo Lamas to rescue his brother for a bullet riddled an explosive finale.
I like seeing Lamas playing more of a bureaucrat (with short hair too) where for the first half of the movie he is on opposing side from Chris, trying to get him out of the country; he soon realizes Chris is stubborn and not going to leave Lebanon without his kidnapped brother. Eventually Wolf (Lamas) teams up with Chris to rescue his brother and goes into full on action hero mode.
It’s funny how in so many of these movies in the 90’s there is always a helpful taxi driver and this movie is no different with Gabi Amrani helping our boys out as the cabbie with a heart of gold, Gilad.
Alon Abutbul is sneeringly evil as the villain Abdel, who spends most of the movie being a dick to Craig Brandt (Also Paré), but he gets a thoroughly satisfying comeuppance in the end.
It’s really the final 20 minutes which make Killing Streets worthwhile as that’s when things explode and bad guys get shot; we get a couple of set-pieces earlier on with an impressive car chase around the 50 minute mark and a fight.
This movie takes it self more seriously than Double Impact and goes more for a grittier feel and the performances all round are decent. I’ve always thought Michael Paré had one of the coolest voices however, I wouldn’t have been too pleased if that was my face on the poster (below) where Paré looks more confused than anything.
Overall, Killing Streets is a little slowburn at times and could have maybe done with a bit more action but the story is interesting enough and the final 20 minutes ramp up to make this a fun watch.
