Sexy, R-Red 80s Action Thriller is an unfairly neglected revenge and redemption
Written by Robert Scucci | Published
There's nothing I love more than a basic plan that lets you lean into it and have fun with how it plays out. I'm not even looking at the face here. I think it's a model that works for commercial filmmaking because, if we're real people, we all watch the same movies over and over again with different themes. There are expected genre conventions that allow filmmakers to whip out a storyboard quickly, engage great talent, and let them chew the hell out of a place.
In 1989 LA Bounty it's just another “lone bounty hunter out for revenge”, but it works because Sybil Danning is serious as a heart attack in the lead role, and then she has to deal with Wings Hauser, who seems to have very little fun acting as a murderous psychopath.
You know every beat that goes into this one, but you'll want to stick around because the exchanges that happen between those beats make your entire viewing experience worthwhile. And at the end of the day, aren't we all just trying to be happy?
Mayors, Mobs, and Murder
LA Bounty begins with the kidnapping of Mike Rhodes (Robert Hanley), a mayoral candidate in the upcoming election. A lone bounty hunter, Ruger (Sybil Danning), intervenes, allowing Mike's wife, Kelly (Lenore Kasdorf), to escape traumatized but safe. We find out that Mike was kidnapped by psychoactive drug kingpin Cavanaugh (Wings Hauser), who spends most of his time painting pictures of naked women and killing people at will when he doesn't deal with the unimaginable amount of drugs in his gang.
When Cavanaugh learns that Kelly is still behind, he sends his men to ambush him, but Ruger is one step ahead of him, and he is furious. It's not the first time Ruger has run with Cavanaugh, but he hopes it won't be the last. Previously, Ruger worked as a drug lord trying to take down a kingpin, but resigned from the force after murdering his partner in cold blood, making his current security job more personal than Kelly would like to be involved with.
Meanwhile, Lieutenant Chandler (Henry Darrow) works closely with Mayor Burrows (J. Christopher Sullivan), who wants to know who is behind the kidnapping. As the election approaches, the only thing he cares about is saving his reputation, and he does not want the public, or any of his members for that matter, to think that he has anything to do with the kidnapping of his rival.
Sybil Works, Hauser Is Next Level
While LA Bounty he didn't advance Sybil Danning's career as much as he thought it would, he did everything he should be doing here. Ruger is a woman of few words, but she can hold her own in action scenes. He convincingly portrays a merciless bounty hunter with an ax to grind, while still bringing plenty of B-movie energy to the fore. That's not a bad thing, but he was clearly hoping this blur would be his ticket to action-thriller franchise stardom, which is within reach if I'm being brutally honest. The film's $2.2 million budget leaves it rough around the edges, and he does well within those limits, so credit where it's due.
The real star of the show is the LA Bounty by Wings Hauser as Cavanaugh. He's so delightfully twisted that he leans into the ridiculous, but the contrast between his personality and Danning's makes for some genuinely entertaining moments. Cavanaugh thinks he's a brilliant artist, but we don't see what he's drawing until the third act, which makes you want to rewind everything and revisit every scene set in his place. In the beginning, when he philosophizes and talks about his evil plans, you create a picture in your head of a beautiful photorealistic picture or an abstract art with crazy details. The last thing you see is a retelling of everything that came before because you are artfully mocking.
The final action sequence has its limitations, but there are a few big kills that make the juice worth the squeeze. One thing that I liked, that I've been thinking about a lot lately, is how we need to bring back the inventory. Sometimes all you need to make a low-budget action movie is a few explosions going off, a floor littered with shells, and a badass hunter rocking an Atomic Blonde haircut decades before Charlize Theron did.
From this writing, you can broadcast LA Bounty free on Tubi.
