Death Journey (1976) User Reviews

Ego-booster for Fred Williamson

[gridoon · 4/10 · 2 August 2005]

5 minutes into the film: Fred Williamson's character, an ex-cop, is described by two other guys as "a man who doesn't play by the rules, but gets the job done" (does that remind you of anyone?).

10 minutes into the film: Fred beds his first woman.

15 minutes into the film: Another woman sees Fred naked and stares appreciatively at his "thing". He beds her too.

In the rest of the film, Fred beds two more women, gets hired to protect a stupid fat guy and is pursued by a lot of slow-witted, harmless villains whom he easily beats or kills. Throughout this "death journey", he wears the same black shirt, which is constantly unbuttoned, so as to give everyone a good look at his fit body.

Fred may be a lot of things, including "cool", but a convincing fighter he is not. The fight scenes are clumsy and the shootout scenes are laughable. The budget is so low that the film can't even show a car or a house explosion! All the supporting actors are so awful that it's hard to believe any of them ever worked in another film. (*1/2)

"Don't forget to dry your hair!"

[Hey_Sweden · 5/10 · 20 November 2023]

In the first of his "Jesse Crowder" series, producer / executive producer / director / star Fred "The Hammer" Williamson plays Jesse, ex-cop assigned to transport a nebbish accountant (Bernie Kuby, "The Karate Kid") from L. A. to N. Y. The accountant is due to testify against his former employer, a mobster, but Jesse has to accomplish the journey in a mere 48 hours.

Although hardly anything one could consider to be a "good" film (it looks like it was filmed on the ultra-cheap, for one thing), "Death Journey" is passably amusing nonsense. Even the action is rather incompetent, although there is absolutely no shortage of expendable bad guys for Jesse to beat up or shoot dead.

Even for a movie that, in uncut form, runs a mere 79 minutes, there's quite a bit of padding. In fact, The Hammer doesn't really get down to business for at least 20 minutes. Until then, he practices martial arts and pleases the ladies, but doesn't do much of anything else.

A lack of more familiar character actors to support The Hammer is a debit; a catchy but awfully repetitive music score is another.

It's a pity; if one is a Hammer fan, they will surely *want* to enjoy this more than they probably will. One thought that this viewer had was that you'd think screenwriter-turned-filmmaker George Gallo might have seen this once upon a time, since the premise is pretty close to the later "Midnight Run".

By the way, the poster art is a lie, promising a major action sequence aboard the train that never does happen.

Five out of 10.

Jesse Crowder as his worst!

[Serpent-5 · 26 March 1999]

Much as I am a Fred Williamson fan, this is the a very poor man's action film. Barely played as a main feature in Los Angeles area (mostly second feature runs with no ads), this movie has Jesse Crowder assigned to protect an overweight accountant across the state line to testify against a mobster. What could've been a blazing non-stop action films, this film takes the low ride and become very boring fast. The movie poster promised a top of the train running chase sequence which wasn't in the film. In fact, the video box claims he has to protect a girl (!). I am suprised Williamson didn't get any name stars to appear in this film, for most of his past works do have familar character actors (maybe they all turned it down!). The film is so non-budget that when Crowder's chauffer get out of car to open the door for Crowder, it was a two door car and not a limo (!). I love the Jesse Crowder series and Fred Williamson will always be a icon of the 70's action scene, and it's too bad I didn't enjoy this one.

Do It Any Way You Wanna

[nogodnomasters · 1/10 · 29 October 2017]

Only one witness left to testify against Rosewald (Patrick McCullough) and that is Finely (Bernard Kirby) an over weight accountant with all the stereotypes. There is only one man who can safely bring him to LA to testify and that is Jesse Crowder (Fred Williamson) expert in slow motion martial arts, avoiding bullets, and not much of an auto mechanic.

The whole idea was unconvincing. Bad guys are waiting for the duel about every 100 feet or so of the journey.

Bad VHS to DVD transfer. Available on multi-packs. Maybe the worst Fred Williamson film out there.

Guide: No swearing or nudity. Blurred sex.

Midnight Run on a Shoestring Budget

[abbazabakyleman-98834 · 7/10 · 13 April 2020]

Starting in the mid-1970s, Fred Williamson's began producing/directing his own films for his production company Po' Boy Productions. This film is watchable enough as Williamson plays Jesse Crowder, a loose cannon ex-cop who now works as a private eye. Crowder is assigned to bring overweight mob accountant Finley (Bernard Kuby) from Los Angeles to New York in 48 hours. His former superiors, however, are betting that Crowder can't handle the job, but he's out to prove them wrong.

Unfortunately, from the minute he and Finley leave the city, they are relentlessly pursued by a slew of hit men in a series of car chases, fights, and shootouts, and lots of comic relief from Finley's character. Though the editing drags on in some sequences, it does come off as an enjoyable action flick and Williamson would reprise the Crowder character in future entries.

Rather Pointless Action Film

[Michael_Elliott · 19 February 2017]

Death Journey (1976)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Former cop Jesse Crowder (Fred Williamson) is hired to transport a witness (Bernard Kirby) from the West Coast to the East Coast so that he can testify. The only problem is that a lot of people want the witness dead.

I'm really not sure what the hell DEATH JOURNEY is or is supposed to be. I started watching the movie and thought it was something made that went straight-to-VHS but then I was shocked to see that it was an actual theatrical movie from 1976. For the life of me I can't imagine how small the budget must have been and how few drive-in screens would actually play it. The film was directed by Williamson and you can honestly tell that wasn't his strongest field.

There are all sorts of problems with this film but the biggest is the actual screenplay, which is just downright silly at times. There's not a single second where you actually care about anything that is going on and to be quite honest you don't care if the witness lives or dies. With that in mind, there's really no suspense to anything that you're watching as you simply don't care what happens. It certainly doesn't help that the film manages to contain some of the lamest action scenes that you'll ever witness.

Williamson is at least mildly entertaining in his role, which of course requires him to bed several women, kill a few bad guys and deliver some one-liners. It seems they were trying to make him a DIRTY HARRY like character but it just doesn't work. The film is poorly made and just doesn't really have anything good going for it.