A really bad zero budget thriller from Joseph Merhi. This one opens with a halfway decent massacre (for the budget) before descending into tedium with a laborious kidnapping plot. We're stuck with the lunkheaded hero for long stretches and he simply isn't very interesting, and moments where it picks up later on are few and far between.
4 Reviews
Warrior in the Glass Jungle
kapelusznik189 March 2015
Warning: Spoilers
***SPOILERS***Utterly ridicules movie about an L.A taxi driver being recruited by the mob to drive around the city for days on end with some $5,000,000.00 locked in his car trunk until the time was right for him to hand it over to them. The taxi driver Cutler Irving also has both his wife and brother kidnapped, in the case of his wife Mary, and murdered, his brother Frank, as a result of his not fully cooperating with the mob! Cutler for his part just goes on driving his cab throughout the movie without as much as a care, or fare, in the world even picking up a French exchange student that was left homeless, by being kicked out of her hotel-room for being late with the rent, that he has a hot & heavy relationship with. That's until his wife, whom he thought was murdered, showed up alive and being the hero of the movie was forced, which seemed like against his will, to rescue her from her abductors.
We also have the added attraction of the FBI and LAPD using Cutler as an undercover and secret agent for them in getting the goods on the mobsters lead by the very hairy unkempt and obviously mentally challenged Tate, or is it Jake, the mob drug kingpin who's holding Cutler's wife Mary hostage. We get endless tours of the city of L.A and its surroundings in Cutler doing his job driving passengers around where if you watch closely he seems too be the only taxi driver in the entire city! Cutler despite his not being so interested in his job seems to have the best time in the movie, besides with his French girlfriend,driving around town without a care, or even fare, in the world! That by watching him you think he never took time to read the unintelligible script that he was handed by the film makers!
*****SPOILERS**** It's finally when Cutler got down to business that the movie started picking up with him taking out the mob single-handed Rambo-style not with any guns and explosives but a bow & arrow set he picked up at Tate's, who gets it between his teeth, hideout. Cutler also used his fists to take care Tate's mobsters as well which in him being a professional boxer, with a 21 and 0 record, was the most convincing acting he did in the entire movie. Lee Canalito as Cutler seemed to have trouble staying awake as well as focus in his role as a**-kicking taxi driver Cutler Irving but you can forgive him for that in the brainless material he was handed to work with. Canalito has since given up acting and opened up a popular GYM in his hometown in Huston Texas where unlike in his acting career he's far more successful.
We also have the added attraction of the FBI and LAPD using Cutler as an undercover and secret agent for them in getting the goods on the mobsters lead by the very hairy unkempt and obviously mentally challenged Tate, or is it Jake, the mob drug kingpin who's holding Cutler's wife Mary hostage. We get endless tours of the city of L.A and its surroundings in Cutler doing his job driving passengers around where if you watch closely he seems too be the only taxi driver in the entire city! Cutler despite his not being so interested in his job seems to have the best time in the movie, besides with his French girlfriend,driving around town without a care, or even fare, in the world! That by watching him you think he never took time to read the unintelligible script that he was handed by the film makers!
*****SPOILERS**** It's finally when Cutler got down to business that the movie started picking up with him taking out the mob single-handed Rambo-style not with any guns and explosives but a bow & arrow set he picked up at Tate's, who gets it between his teeth, hideout. Cutler also used his fists to take care Tate's mobsters as well which in him being a professional boxer, with a 21 and 0 record, was the most convincing acting he did in the entire movie. Lee Canalito as Cutler seemed to have trouble staying awake as well as focus in his role as a**-kicking taxi driver Cutler Irving but you can forgive him for that in the brainless material he was handed to work with. Canalito has since given up acting and opened up a popular GYM in his hometown in Huston Texas where unlike in his acting career he's far more successful.
Both boring and ridiculous
Tracer11 February 2003
This movie is BAD.
The premise is bad. The villains kidnap the hero's girlfriend so that he'll drive around New York City carrying 5 million dollars in his trunk. Why not just hide the money?
The pacing is bad. A huge amount of this movie is taken up by scenes of the hero driving around in his cab. JUST driving.
The flashbacks are bad. The flashbacks make up the majority of the movie. The hero flashes back to his girlfriend, then flashes back to a DREAM he had about his girlfriend, then flashes back to his girlfriend some more -- given the lengths of all these flashbacks, their relationship must have lasted since the late Renaissance -- then flashes back to earlier scenes in the movie.
The ending is bad. The hero faces down the bad guy, who puts a gun up to his girlfriend's head threatening to kill her, and the hero reaches behind his back and pulls out a *miniature crossbow* which earlier shots less than a minute before had established was NOT there. The hero shoots the villain through his wide-open mouth, which was probably wide open in astonishment at such a ridiculous Deus-Ex-Machina.
One video store owner said he would give 10 free rentals to anyone who rented The Glass Jungle from him and could say, with a straight face, that he/she liked the movie. No one ever got the free rentals. That's how bad this movie is. You can't even LIE about it being good.
The premise is bad. The villains kidnap the hero's girlfriend so that he'll drive around New York City carrying 5 million dollars in his trunk. Why not just hide the money?
The pacing is bad. A huge amount of this movie is taken up by scenes of the hero driving around in his cab. JUST driving.
The flashbacks are bad. The flashbacks make up the majority of the movie. The hero flashes back to his girlfriend, then flashes back to a DREAM he had about his girlfriend, then flashes back to his girlfriend some more -- given the lengths of all these flashbacks, their relationship must have lasted since the late Renaissance -- then flashes back to earlier scenes in the movie.
The ending is bad. The hero faces down the bad guy, who puts a gun up to his girlfriend's head threatening to kill her, and the hero reaches behind his back and pulls out a *miniature crossbow* which earlier shots less than a minute before had established was NOT there. The hero shoots the villain through his wide-open mouth, which was probably wide open in astonishment at such a ridiculous Deus-Ex-Machina.
One video store owner said he would give 10 free rentals to anyone who rented The Glass Jungle from him and could say, with a straight face, that he/she liked the movie. No one ever got the free rentals. That's how bad this movie is. You can't even LIE about it being good.
The Glass Jungle is filled with fun characters, which is one of the movie's strengths.
tarbosh2200022 November 2019
Warning: Spoilers
Cutler Irving (Canalito) is a lovable lunkhead who drives a cab by day and practices his boxing moves by night. He's a simple man who never done nothin' to nobody. Trouble finds him in the form of Tate (Scala), a mob boss who forces him to drive around L.A. with five million dollars in the trunk of his cab. The exact reasons for this aren't made entirely clear, but the FBI and LAPD are wise to Tate so they try to use Cutler to bring him down. Meanwhile, Cutler has many flashbacks involving Mary (Frank of Mankillers), a French student who he becomes involved with. Will Cutler Irving's checkered past catch up with him, or will he be saying fare-thee-well...to his own LIFE?
Perhaps the ultimate "taxicab confession", The Glass Jungle is another low-budget labor of love from Joseph Merhi and the City Lights crew. Like all the City Lights films, and even the later PM outings, we as viewers can readily see that what these movies lack in finances and technical excellence, they make up for with heart and a scrappy charm. In other words, you can sense that Merhi and the gang were young, hungry, and just wanted to make entertaining movies. They succeeded time and again, and here, in spite of some of its flaws, is no exception.
Cutler Irving is a somewhat unorthodox action hero - a mild-mannered cabbie who, yes, is a boxer (as Canalito is in real life), but is soft-spoken (less charitable people may say unintelligible) and more of a lover and not a fighter. However, that all changes during the final face-off with Tate. Irving finally gets to show that he's a master of weaponry after all.
The location of the confrontation appears to be the same place where Jeff Bridges and Andy Garcia battled in 8 Million Ways To Die (1986). Of course, that movie didn't have Frank Scala as Tate, a man who seemingly has modeled his life after the style of Kenny G. And that includes how to be a scary and intimidating mob boss. That being said, The Glass Jungle is filled with fun characters, which is one of the movie's strengths.
As Cutler drives around, we get to see a lot of L.A. landmarks preserved in time, which, for us at least, was enjoyable as a time capsule. Some movie marquees are seen, so we know it must have been shot during 1988, as Robocop (1988) is showing, among others. The theme song, "Warrior In A Glass Jungle", by Lee Witherspoon and John Gonzales, blasts on the soundtrack and is a classic 80's fist-pumper. Just why we're supposed to be pumping our fist isn't exactly known. Maybe because Canalito was a boxer and Rocky movies always had songs like this.
The Glass Jungle is a small, modest movie and a good example of the independent filmmaking of the time. Just because it wasn't recognized or appreciated by the hoity-toity film festival circuit (i.e. Sundance and the like) doesn't mean it isn't a worthy and respectable addition to the independent-film canon. While it may not be as professional a product as our eyes are used to seeing today, we say check out The Glass Jungle for a glimpse of humble - and truly indie - filmmaking in late-80's L.A.
Perhaps the ultimate "taxicab confession", The Glass Jungle is another low-budget labor of love from Joseph Merhi and the City Lights crew. Like all the City Lights films, and even the later PM outings, we as viewers can readily see that what these movies lack in finances and technical excellence, they make up for with heart and a scrappy charm. In other words, you can sense that Merhi and the gang were young, hungry, and just wanted to make entertaining movies. They succeeded time and again, and here, in spite of some of its flaws, is no exception.
Cutler Irving is a somewhat unorthodox action hero - a mild-mannered cabbie who, yes, is a boxer (as Canalito is in real life), but is soft-spoken (less charitable people may say unintelligible) and more of a lover and not a fighter. However, that all changes during the final face-off with Tate. Irving finally gets to show that he's a master of weaponry after all.
The location of the confrontation appears to be the same place where Jeff Bridges and Andy Garcia battled in 8 Million Ways To Die (1986). Of course, that movie didn't have Frank Scala as Tate, a man who seemingly has modeled his life after the style of Kenny G. And that includes how to be a scary and intimidating mob boss. That being said, The Glass Jungle is filled with fun characters, which is one of the movie's strengths.
As Cutler drives around, we get to see a lot of L.A. landmarks preserved in time, which, for us at least, was enjoyable as a time capsule. Some movie marquees are seen, so we know it must have been shot during 1988, as Robocop (1988) is showing, among others. The theme song, "Warrior In A Glass Jungle", by Lee Witherspoon and John Gonzales, blasts on the soundtrack and is a classic 80's fist-pumper. Just why we're supposed to be pumping our fist isn't exactly known. Maybe because Canalito was a boxer and Rocky movies always had songs like this.
The Glass Jungle is a small, modest movie and a good example of the independent filmmaking of the time. Just because it wasn't recognized or appreciated by the hoity-toity film festival circuit (i.e. Sundance and the like) doesn't mean it isn't a worthy and respectable addition to the independent-film canon. While it may not be as professional a product as our eyes are used to seeing today, we say check out The Glass Jungle for a glimpse of humble - and truly indie - filmmaking in late-80's L.A.
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
