DEATH AND VENGEANCE is another Jack Reed TV movie featuring star Brian Dennehy, who also wrote and directed the thing. I've seen three of these now and DEATH AND VENGEANCE is by far the best of the trio, a film which overcomes the trappings of the TV movie experience and the lack of budget to deliver a surprisingly deep and meaningful story.
Sure, the budget is low and the action scenes hardly impress, but story always trumps action and in this respect the film delivers. The movie features two plot strands and both are equally interesting. The first has decade regular Joe Morton playing a political candidate whose drunken son accidentally kills a woman while driving one night; his powerful allies attempt to get the kid off scot-free. The second has some Russian immigrant brothers causing havoc in the city by bumping off various criminal rivals.
Brian Dennehy holds the whole thing together as usual but the heart of this film belongs to the excellent Charles S. Dutton whose scenes with Morton are very finely staged. The film has plenty of interesting ingredients from the feisty female victim who employs some STRAW DOGS-style home defence to the feral gang of kids who enjoy violence for kicks. Of the supporting cast members, Peter Outerbridge looks like a young Peter O'Toole and has the gravitas to match, and old-timer Anthony Zerbe is here too. For a TV movie from the 1990s, this is very good indeed.
Sure, the budget is low and the action scenes hardly impress, but story always trumps action and in this respect the film delivers. The movie features two plot strands and both are equally interesting. The first has decade regular Joe Morton playing a political candidate whose drunken son accidentally kills a woman while driving one night; his powerful allies attempt to get the kid off scot-free. The second has some Russian immigrant brothers causing havoc in the city by bumping off various criminal rivals.
Brian Dennehy holds the whole thing together as usual but the heart of this film belongs to the excellent Charles S. Dutton whose scenes with Morton are very finely staged. The film has plenty of interesting ingredients from the feisty female victim who employs some STRAW DOGS-style home defence to the feral gang of kids who enjoy violence for kicks. Of the supporting cast members, Peter Outerbridge looks like a young Peter O'Toole and has the gravitas to match, and old-timer Anthony Zerbe is here too. For a TV movie from the 1990s, this is very good indeed.
