Twice Under (1989) Poster

(1989)

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4/10
"The Power Of Rock N'Roll!"
tarbosh2200013 May 2010
Warning: Spoilers
"The Power Of Rock N'Roll!"

"Twice Under" is among the worst "movies" we've ever seen.

"Twice Under" is the saga of Rick Chambers (Borger) a teen who loves blasting his rockin' tunes by any means necessary. Even his room is filled with at least 14 ghetto blasters. While he jams to his tunes, he likes to be shirtless and throw darts at his bitchin' dartboard. Rick happens to be the son of a Vietnam vet and is half-Vietnamese himself. His dad, Ed fought in the tunnels of Nam' and now works underground in the sewer system near his home. His only decor in his office is a lone sombrero.

All of Ed's platoon carried a skull of a rat on their dog tags, which they called the "rat jaw". There have been some murders around town where a rat jaw has been left at the scene. Maybe "Dagget" isn't dead like previously thought. After all, he does have a viewmaster taped to his face and he can "see in the dark". He does keep calling Ed's house and bothering him. When Ed and Rick's girlfriend, Cammy go missing, it's up to the Rickster himself to save the day.

When we first meet Rick, he and Cammy are sitting in her car and doing some wicked air drums without the aid of hit stix or hit stix II. The scene goes on far, far too long, practically the whole song. He even air drums while walking to his house from the car, making a sandwich (which consists of several piles of baloney and cheese...no bread), and into his room where he air drums some more. Rick is possibly the most radically awesome dude ever. He has not one, but two popped collars. He is the type who would slam a 'Dew while snowboarding out of a helicopter.

Rick is also a whiny and ineffectual "hero", when he's not lounging around, giving the audience some gratuitous underwear shots, he's screaming "Nooooooooo!!!" at the top of his lungs when he thinks his dad is dead. We know as an audience that he went to a funeral because he has a little flag that says "FUNERAL" on his car, in which he sadly removes, and he is too morose to rock out to his jams. But when push comes to shove, he puts on his suspenders and his belt and attempts to rescue Cammy from the way too extended kidnap scene. He does it the only way he knows how: By carrying ALL his ghetto blasters in one bag along with his entire dart set.

Eventually there is a groan-inducing "swordfight" between Rick and Dagget where they both wield manhole cover openers.

For most of the cast and crew, this is their first and only production to date. Everything about the movie is amateurish. The running time claims to be 90 minutes, but it feels like days because of the extreme pacing issues. The rockin' soundtrack is by far the best part of the movie, yet the credits never reveal who the artists are.

Don't go underground tonight and beware the rat jaw....seriously, beware!

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4/10
This one belongs to the sewers
vasilbiga21 April 2024
Although I'm not of the same mind of those that declare that this is the worst movie ever made (we all have seen way worse than this), I do agree that this movie is really bad nevertheless. The amount of stupid things and situations per minute is countless. Specially the resolution of the movie which implicates the use of lots of boombaps (that our hero has for some reason displayed all around his bedroom) and a handful of fireworks; The acting, although not terrible, can come off as a bit forced and hammy. And the villain is too cartoonish to take him seriously. Also the pacing of the movie is one of its biggest flaws, as the action is never allowed to flow naturally and is constantly getting interrupted.

Still, I came here for my good portion of '80sness and I got served: From the clothes, the hairdos, the corny 80's music, the cheesiness (the dance of Rick from his girlfriend's car to his house is too harsh to handle, mind you. And it lasts for almost the whole song), so I won't complain. Final rating: 4 out of 10 (one extra point for the cool artwork). This one is hard to give it a pass, even by my standards, sorry.
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3/10
Oddball low budget action-thriller effort from Indiana
udar5527 September 2022
A psychotic Vietnam vet named Dagget (Ron Spencer) is killing people in the sewer system under Indianapolis, Indiana. He taunts and eventually kills his former commanding officer Ed Chambers (Jack O'Hara), a fellow "tunnel rat" in 'Nam who he believes left him there to die. Not finished with his revenge, Dagget kidnaps the girlfriend of Ed's half-Vietnamese son Ricky (Ian Borger) and forces the kid to play a game of cat-and-mouse under the city.

When it comes to Indiana lensed action features, this is no Terror Squad (1988). But then again, what is? This was the second feature from director Dean Crow, who previously gave us the backwoods thriller called, uh, Backwoods (1987). You always have high hopes a regional film can succeed, but this one is just kind of there. The film's biggest asset is the location of Pogue's Run, the underwater creek/tunnel system beneath the city. But this ain't no C. H. U. D. (1984). The acting is pretty hammy, the styles and songs are very '80s, and the script feature one of the dumbest bits I've seen in a loooong time. While in the sewer, Ricky finds his dad is still alive (police misidentified the blown up body). Anyway, he says to his dad, "We need to get you out of here." But the dad replies, "I've already left. I went home and got you supplies." So you left safely and didn't go to the police? Okaaaaaay. At least you brought back a big arsenal of guns and knives, right? Nah, he brought the son's collection of darts, fireworks and boomboxes! Yes, he dragged like 5 or 6 big boomboxes into the sewers. You know, so they can annoy the psycho by playing Hendrix's National Anthem (that really happens). The dad then hides in a hole in the wall while the son fights for his life for 25 minutes. Uh, thanks, Dad?
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2/10
Phew! What a stinker!
zeppo-229 July 2005
Well, it would stink as all the main action is set in the sewer tunnels. Good job this film wasn't in 'smell-0-vision' or something similar.

The story itself is very pedestrian and the type of thing we have seen many times before and done better. An embittered man plots revenge on an ex-colleague. In this instance it's an ex-Viet Nam vet who kills sewer workers to bring in our hero who he blames for leaving him for dead in the jungle.

It sounds very familiar, doesn't it? And might have worked as an episode of some TV series like the 'A-Team' but not as a full length film. Even at a fairly short running time of 82 minutes, it still feels heavily padded out. It doesn't help that the director has no sense of pacing at all, far too many overlong lingering scene shots when the action should have moved on.

There's also the cringe-worthy soft rock, sub-Pat Benetar '80's music which acts as the soundtrack throughout the film. And also as the crux of the film when the hero's son uses ghetto-blasters playing the music in the sewers to distract the villain. When he shoots up the players, you can't help been on his side in that instance.

All in all, a pretty dull film which rumbles to it's predictable conclusion long after the viewer has lost any interest.
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1/10
It's so bad... it's bad
Soulbender17 May 2006
Warning: Spoilers
This one had me and my friends in stitches back when it came out. In fact, I'm amazed it made it all the way to the European market (straight to video, though), where it was marketed under the name "The Rat Jaw Killer". This movie became the yard stick of bad movies to my group of friends. Only a few movies such as Slugs and Highlander 2 have attained the less than honorable "Rat Jaw Alert" for exceptional crappiness. When the movie disappeared from stores, we regretted that we never actually bought the movie. After about 15 years of searching made difficult by the fact that it was marketed under an alternative title, one of my friends actually stumbled upon it and got it, much to my enjoyment/anguish. There aren't a lot of good things to say about this movie. The acting is horrible, the characters are way over the top (for instance our hero has about 20 ghetto-blasters in his room, all set to the same radio station) and the soundtrack is full of corny 80's soft rock. Naturally, the plot is awful, but the worst part is the pacing. Unnecessary scenes are dragged out, and the story skips through parts that would require actual acting and directing. For instance, when one of the main characters is blown up in a sewer, we get a 1 minute super slow motion shot of the manhole cover flying, landing and rotating on the ground until it is completely still. Cut to scene where son of dead man returns from funeral (which you can only tell from a little flag on his car saying "Funeral"). This could be the worst movie of all time.
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