A female assassin known as Quick lives for her sleazily shady boyfriend police agent Muncie. Crime kingpin Matthew Davenport wants to get his hands on his double crossing accounted Herschel Brewer, who's under witness protection. For one last job, Quick is hired by Davenport to bring Brewer back alive, and Muncie gives her the details of the whereabouts. After the job, she learns Davenport had other things on his mind about her outcome, but she takes off with Brewer and heads to L.A. to pick up the three million dollars he secretly stole from Davenport, so she and Muncie could take off together.
What an entertainingly good slice of systematically sleek and bravura thrills, which in tone feels like something out of the 70s drive-in crime features. This neatly etched cheapjack b-grade road movie is purely pulp at heart with a mixture of elements involving assassins, law-abiding and corrupt cops, drug bigheads and hidden doe set on the road. Pretty much reminded me off "True Romance". A frigidly hardboiled script is basic fodder with underling wry humour, but there are some vague moments and strained possibilities creeping into the generic plot. These are however balanced out by some fine touches of cleverness and manipulative intrigue. There's nothing spectacular here, and the budget goes on to assure that, but the performances is what lifted this for me. The alluring Teri Polo is sensationally potent in her cheerily feisty role as Quick (though she does get depress after knocking someone off at the beginning) and an energetic Jeff Fahey is magnificently cast as the insidiously seamy Muncie. He chews up the scenery. Martin Donovan is an exceptional choose as gawky accountant Brewer and Tia Carrere brings a lean viewpoint to her cop/partner to Muncie. A reliably relaxed looking Robert Davi must feel at home in the part, because he's doing it pretty easy as drug lord Davenport. Michael McGrady, Miguel Sandoval and Kevin Cooney also appear. Director Rick King does an mechanically raw job, but it's broken up by few twists, fetish make-outs and a healthy dose of scorching shootouts and compelling standoffs. He paces it all extremely well. Sturdy photography gives it a bit of grit and the persistent musical score sits more in the background, but is silkily arranged to fit in.
This little unknown crime/thriller film was an enjoyable surprise and works largely due to the committed (a radiant Polo and flamboyant Fahey) performances and Rick King's no-bull style. Nothing great, but likable.
