This is one more uninspired 80s "We're gonna drive the punks outta this town if it kills us!" crime drama in the mode of "Class of 1984," the "Death Wish" sequels, and so forth. Many of those films have significant camp value, but despite some other posters here claiming this one is a riot, it's more a watchable C-grade mediocrity than anything memorable.
It's good to see Gerrit Graham top-billed for a change, although really he's not a primary figure among the four Vietnam vets who ride into an anonymous inner city to avenge a buddy killed by members of the gang that's terrorizing the whole neighborhood, and his character makes an early exit. There's not a lot of spark or magnetism among the other good guys, though I guess at this point seeing Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs of "Welcome Back Kotter" play a poker-faced tough guy was a novelty. The bad guys (the usual only-in-movies multiracial crew of overgrown delinquents, this time without any actual "punk" styling) aren't particularly flamboyant or memorable by the standards of this subgenre, though they do briefly pull a "Dirty Harry" on a schoolbus in the last 15 minutes.
I'm not sure why this was the last feature Charles Sellier directed (among three in two years, including the cult horror "Silent Night, Deadly Night"), except he was a successful producer before and was a successful producer afterward, so maybe he just found sticking to that role easier. Anyway, you've seen better films of this type, and you've seen worse.
It's good to see Gerrit Graham top-billed for a change, although really he's not a primary figure among the four Vietnam vets who ride into an anonymous inner city to avenge a buddy killed by members of the gang that's terrorizing the whole neighborhood, and his character makes an early exit. There's not a lot of spark or magnetism among the other good guys, though I guess at this point seeing Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs of "Welcome Back Kotter" play a poker-faced tough guy was a novelty. The bad guys (the usual only-in-movies multiracial crew of overgrown delinquents, this time without any actual "punk" styling) aren't particularly flamboyant or memorable by the standards of this subgenre, though they do briefly pull a "Dirty Harry" on a schoolbus in the last 15 minutes.
I'm not sure why this was the last feature Charles Sellier directed (among three in two years, including the cult horror "Silent Night, Deadly Night"), except he was a successful producer before and was a successful producer afterward, so maybe he just found sticking to that role easier. Anyway, you've seen better films of this type, and you've seen worse.