Hot and Deadly (1982) User Reviews

Almost sounds like the title to a generic Lab dog film...

[Aaron1375 · 4/10 · 1 March 2022]

This film is odd, but entertaining in an amusing way as there is quite a bit of carnage and then the film will shift tones and almost be comedic in nature. Kids being shot and then fat guy cannot quite climb. Guy getting his head blown off at close range, fat guy accidentally punches his buddy out amidst a fight! That is the type of stuff this film was delivering as it seemed to want to be a super violent film at times and at others a bit more lighthearted...

The story, a group of mercenaries breaks into a house and grabs a older man while gunning down the family. I am assuming the guy who said 'no' is the one who later shows up at a house with plans to publish a book to expose the evil deviants...all through the movie I kept thinking, "wouldn't taking your story to a newspaper or a news program be more successful?" Anyhow, they go in and get him, but one of the guys doesn't care too much for this new job and soon he and the guy's who has written the book and is captured sister flees trying to evade the deadly organization of people in suits who like to scream when kicking! We get publishers fighting, we get dips in the pool (why is a fight always over when people fall into a pool in a movie, is getting out never an option?) and we get recruitment, joint smoking we get it all! We also get a fairly weak final stand off...

The cast is largely not one I recognize, the lead guy kind of looks like Jan Michael Vincent, but isn't and the reporter looks like Loni Anderson, but isn't, but no one I have seen a lot of.

So, not a really good film and it does go all over the place, but still, it was a fun watch. Actually had some good kills in it, but at the same time the strange shifts were so out of place at times. The lead guy's girlfriend is killed and the next thing you know he is having a montage out of nowhere with the sister! The film will keep you on your toes with all the tone shifts!

Cheesy fun

[jessecrowder · 31 March 2004]

Just bought myself a copy of "The Retrievers". First of all I must say that the trailer for this schlock is by far more entertaining - but that seems to be the case with many B-grade actioners. The plot isn't half that bad and maybe in hands of some real filmmaker, it could have actually worked. Now the only reason to watch this reasonably forgotten gem is it's undeniable cheese -value. Action scenes are slow but frequent so you don't have to press the fast forward in your remote all of the time.

There is one guy, whose name I didn't catch, who posses some martial arts skills. His kicks are fast and quite flashy - especially when he's fighting the hero in the end. This is mostly because Max Thayer doesn't manage to be even a bit believable in his action scenes. His kicks are knee -high and I've seen more impressive punches thrown by 5 -year old boys.

Acting is total garbage and I was expecting gratuitous nudity. There is none. Well, there was one female character who's supposed to be some kind of literary agent - I suppose. She looks like a contemporary adult film star and is having a bubble bath for no obvious reason in the middle of the film.

This balances on the level of "being just plain bad" and "being just SO plain bad that it's actually good". I'd be hard pressed to go through it again, but it's a good addition to your 80's STV - action movie collection.

PLUS Katey Sagal (aka. Peggy Bundy) sings the song over closing credits. Well, you have to start somewhere... I also noticed director Rowdy ("Road House", "Striking Distance")Herrington's name in the credits. I believe it was in the grip -department or something.

Avoid if you like to actually enjoy your movies. Get it if you have a soft spot for geriatric Kung-Fu and painfully bad acting.

Oh, Brother

[NoDakTatum · 1/10 · 7 October 2023]

Tom (Max Thayer) is recruited by a secret government agency to place wiretaps. The wiretappers are retired, so Tom becomes a "retriever," an elite force that retrieves people for the company's gain. He helps retrieve Danny (Lenard Miller), but Tom has had enough of the violence, and spares Danny's sister Janice (Shawn Hoskins). Turns out Danny wrote an expose on being in the company, and Tom and Janice run around trying to get the book published with the rest of the Retrievers hot on their tails.

This film is violent. Not full of action or adventure, but violent just to be mean and violent. I can handle violence in films but this movie is also badly done. Badly written? That, too, but I am talking about handheld camerawork that had my stomach churning. I am talking about introducing a fat character just for the tuba on the soundtrack, and the laughs from how huge he is. I am talking about the shootings of unemployed drunks in one scene, and a racist term in the closing credits. I am talking about Katey Sagal singing one of the worst movie songs of all-time. I am talking about spotting a boom microphone or its shadow not once, not twice, but three times. I am talking about an opening scene that has a gunman mow down a children's birthday party, killing adults and kids. Hong's direction is terrible. The fight scenes are so poorly choreographed, I was giggling as henchmen and heroes rarely connected with their fake punches, yet still fell back injured. The cast is awful, all the villains meld together and look alike. Max Thayer is a weak leading man, but he is given a part that no one could play. Sure, Tom helped kidnap Danny, but Janice falls in love with him anyway. The movie takes so many leaps in logic I just sat back, stunned. "The Retrievers" is awful. There are no redeeming moments, plot points, or characters. Unless you are a young film maker who needs to know what NOT to do, you will want to skip it.

"Retrieve" this classic tonight!

[tarbosh22000 · 6/10 · 5 September 2010]

"The Company" is an elite team of top-secret mercenaries who go around the world dispensing death in a ruthless manner. When nice guy Tom Cattrall (Thayer), who is an unassuming TV repairman and resembles author Stephen King, gets ensnared in this dark organization because they want his wiretapping skills, he soon gets on their bad side. A former member of The Company, Danny Burke, wrote a tell-all book about their dirty dealings and now The Company is after him big time, and Tom and Danny's sister Jan (Hoskins) have fallen in love. As if that wasn't enough, Tom and Jan enlist a book publisher and a cadre of hobos they hired to rent out an abandoned warehouse and SELF-PUBLISH Danny's book. Can they finish the book and get it out to stores in time? Or will they all fall prey to The Company's nefarious tactics? In the first five minutes of The Retrievers we get some classic staples some movies don't have in their whole running time: the classic neck snap, guy falling out of a guard tower, fan favorite decapitation (this time with garden shears) and someone yelling "noooooo!" -- that's what's good about The Retrievers - it's fan-pleasing fun from start to finish.

Even though the film was released in 1982, it has a pleasant 70's feel to it and the movie does resemble Death Machines in many ways. It has some funky tunes on the soundtrack and shag carpet graces many floors in the film, among a lot of other 70's decor and clothing. I loved that alone, but it's also violent, fast paced and has plenty of funny dialogue. What's not to love? It is worth noting that there is a last-minute character we all love, in the vein of Bear, Machine Gun Joe, The Dead Man and The Cowboy (Maximum Force (1992), Provoked (1989), Chains (1989) and Maximum Breakout (1991) respectively) - this time it's a morbidly obese man named Big Mac (can they do that?) he eats apples and throws them at bad guys. Also tuba music plays when he walks. Fat guy humor for ya. Go Big Mac! There are some cool movie-making techniques used in The Retrievers: hand-held camera for some fight scenes and some tastefully-done sped up action. There is a very cool montage during the bookmaking sequence. It ends on a freeze frame as all action movies should. Also in the credits there are some interesting things: Katey Sagal of Futurama fame sings the stirring end credits song and future Road House (1989) director Rowdy Herrington also gets a credit. And in case you wanted to know who played the "Wetbacks", that's there too. "WETBACKS" gets a credit!!!! We didn't make that up, it's an actual credit. You won't see that again in these PC times.

This seems like it would have played at drive-ins at the time. It was also released on Vestron in the 80's. Sure, it falls prey to some low-budget bugaboos such as seeing the boom mike/mike shadows, underlit scenes and some terrible acting/non-acting (watch out for the book publisher saying "your work ethic is terrible)...but The Retrievers is cool, entertaining fun that 80's action fans should love.

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ONE OF THE MOVIES STILL IN MY MIND

[fab-one · 8/10 · 5 June 2002]

This is definitely one of the few movies still in my mind. I watched this when I was still in second year high (around 1984 here). Nevermind if this movie is not a classic, but this is surely a hard action and one of the best movies released that year in our city. Action flicks were then making money here.

Slow Moving Action film.

[Serpent-5 · 11 May 1999]

This boring action film directed by guy who made KILL THE GOLDEN GOOSE and the comedy THEY CALL ME BRUCE? stars Max Thayer (last seen in ILSA: HARLEM KEEPER) as a man who is recruited by a organization who does the dirty work for powerful people. When on a routine mission to stop an ex-merc from writing a book on something that happen in the past, Thayer realized what the organization doing is wrong and teams up with the ex-merc's sister to help her brother's return and print the book her wrote about the organization. The fight sequence looks badly staged (even though it was supervised by Master Bon Soon Han). Music is stock music used in many other films like Andy Sardris's SEVEN to DRAGON VS. NEEDLES OF DEATH ad music. The film even ends in a sloppy end credit song, which wasn't even credited. Not recommended, unless you just want to see an action film.

Dumb action pic, with the CIA as bogeyman

[lor_ · 11 February 2023]

My review was written in June 1984 after a screening at Rialto theater on Manhattan's 42nd St.

Made in 1981 under the title "The Retrievers" but just recently released domestically, "Hot and Deadly" is a substandard action cheapie loaded with martial arts fighting scenes. Director Elliot Hong (credited with one t on-screen, two t's on the one-sheet poster) did a poor job here, but went on to make the pleasant Johnny Yune vehicle "They Call Me Bruce" (aka " A Fistful of Chopsticks").

After an annoyingly fake and cryptic opening reel (the impact of which is only made known much later in the film, pic develops around a nondescript hero Tom (Max Thayer), recruited by a buddy to find fortune by joining the Company (i.e., the Central Intelligence Agency). Tom is quickly disillusioned when on a mission to pick up Danny (Lenard Miller), who's written an unpublished expose of the CIA based on his experiences as an operative, an innocent bystander is ruthlessly murdered by his partner Phillip (Bud Cramer).

Tom protects Danny's sister Janice (Shawn Hoskins) against Phillip, suberts their mission, and goes on the lam with Janice in tow. While attempting to get the manuscript published, duo also finds time to fall in love (with a truly silly insertion of the 1960s standard lyrical interlude montage plus ballad-over, right in the middle of a reel of chases) and to try and spring Danny from his captors.

Hong fails to find a tone for this nonsense, mixing some tongue-in-cheek action gags with the usual ruthless ultraviolence. Acting is flat and color quality is relentlessly ugly.