Maximum Force

Sam "Remember Flash Gordon?" Jones stars as a martial arts expert/cop who is brought in by a mysterious cop (John Saxon) who gets the three toughest cops (Jones, Sherrie Rose and Jason Lively) to take down mobster Richard Lynch who has corrupted the town in his deals with prostitution, drugs and all that jazz. Lots of shootouts occur. You have to love PM and their consistent goal to provide action movies of such stupid magnitude yet ultimately diverting. In Maximum Force we get what could be a blue print in making a low budget guilty pleasure obscurity. With any C.movie you have to have talent across the board to keep it interesting. You have Sam Jones as your token stardom eluding leading man (He was Flash Gordon for goodness sake!) and you also have the washed up old fogies who have seen better days. In this case this category extends to Mickey Rooney, John Saxon and Richard Lynch as all of them act only for the paycheck involved. Then of course you have the never was actors such as Sherrie Rose and Jason Lively who basically never went on to do anything big or ever hit it big. You combine this list of talent and then plug in some high energy action set-pieces and you have Maximum Force, quite possibly the greatest C.movie ever made. Also add in a shot of the admittedly sexy Sherrie Rose in a thong and you have the textbook of how to make a movie that people enjoy at 2 am.

* * Out of 4-(Fair)

Awesome film is what came to mind whilst watching this Pm entertainment Masterpiece!!!

A group of renegade cops are teamed up by the great John Saxon (A B-movie & Horror Genre Legend R. I. P) as tough Captain named Fuller, this guy has been trying to bring down a crime lord (played greatly by Richard Lynch) & he's been on that case his whole career & it's time to finally end it before he retires & so he gets a team together of tough cops who each have been trying to bring down the same crime lord for their own reasons.

The team are, Sam Jones (Flash Gordon, Silent Assassins) who is a "Punisher" type of renegade cop, he's hard-as-nails & really would make a great "Punisher" or would've back in the day.

Sherrie Rose (King of the Kickboxers 2) is a tough chick, she's super sexy & super deadly & is great here & is a very good underrated actor.

The final member of this vigilante cop team is the excellent Jason Lively (Night of the Creeps) who is a tech-wizard & has some great moments with his remote-controlled cars armed with explosives & he's a funny dude.

I loved this team of cool characters & the Noir style story & the beautiful cinematography that really shines throughout the film, just look at the beauty of the warehouse scenes where our cops are training!!!

"Maximum Force" is an excellent film, the low-budget doesn't matter as you can't judge a film by it's budget because some cheap flicks are way better than some mega budget films such as "Force" this is a super entertaining & perfect late-night Thriller that's got Awesome action scenes & bloody shootouts & a cast of actors who are really enjoying their roles.

Other parts are filled out with the veteran actor Mickey Rooney as a corrupted politician type who clashes with Saxon's Captain Fuller & the crime lords deadly bodyguard played by Jeff Langton.

From the Awesome music, stunning cinematography, great characters, cool action scenes & great performances make MAXIMUM FORCE a great movie.

I wasn't really aware of the Movies of the PM Entertainment Group all produced and nearly all directed by Richard Pepin & Joseph Merhi, having seen a few now I realise that they're similar in vein to the 'Cannon Group' or 'The Asylum' releases....Cheesy Trash, but Enjoyable all the same.

Maxmimum Force 'stars' B Movie regular Sam Jones along with Sherrie Rose (as eye candy) & Jason Lively as three renegade cops who are recruited by their Captain (John Saxon) to team up to bring down a big time gangster Max Tanabe (Richard Lynch) who pretty much runs the city and has the Police Dept, including Chief of Police (Mickey Rooney clearly slumming it) in his pocket with bribes.

It's not great and it's not even a good movie within it's genre, but for a low budget STV release, full of plot holes you could drive a truck through but it's cheesy fun which is full of action and explosions, the acting isn't the best, but that's neither here nor there in these types of movies

** out of *****

"Maximum Force" is a perfect example of where less would have been best. There are several scenes that are simply unbearably long. The endless training session in the warehouse should be skipped entirely as it is beyond boring. A close second on the tedious scale would be the repetitive exploding remote control cars scene, which goes on and on. The acting by Sam Jones , Sherrie Rose, and Jason Lively is not even close to average. The welcome appearance of Richard Lynch, John Saxon, and Mickey Rooney, elevates the acting grade somewhat. If you are a fan of Lynch, I would seek this one out. Even though he plays his usual "slimeball" villain, he is so good at it. Overall the film is extremely uneven, mostly because of the previously mentioned long dead spots. Nevertheless it is watchable as long as you have the remote in hand. MERK

At first glance, MAXIMUM FORCE is a standard action B-movie, but while it probably never aspired to be more than a direct-to-video adrenaline package, what we have here is actually a missed opportunity at a potentially great action outing. With a fantastic cast to its name and action filmmaker extraordinaire Joseph Merhi directing, this should have amounted to a higher rating than I'm giving it now. The film has its moments, but loses out due to misuse of its performers and a mediocre plot.

The story: In a last-ditch effort to apprehend an untouchable crime lord (Richard Lynch), a secret strike force of dedicated cops (played by Sam Jones, Sherrie Rose, and Jason Lively) is assembled to take the fight directly to him.

I like seeing Sherrie Rose in action roles and Jason Lively is fun enough to watch, but Sam Jones' staid role stifles his usual charisma and likability. Richard Lynch can play an evil character with the slightest of effort, but he hardly does anything here besides hold ominous meetings with other bad guys. Other members of the dramatic cast include John Saxon, Mickey Rooney, Sonny Landham, Ken Davitian, and Michael DeLano, and while they do well enough with the screen time they have, they are all relegated to fairly limited roles with little to no action. This is all the more disappointing when considering that this is one of PM Entertainment's "serious" action films – one that tries to convey moments of genuine drama and some semblance of a social message. Why have all these cool actors if most of them are only in one or two scenes?

I had not expected this to be a martial arts movie, so imagine my surprise when the number of full-length karate fights neared a dozen. The extended martial cast includes Ken McLeod, Steven Ho, Dino Homsey, Dennis Keiffer, Zak Lee, Satch Williams, and Roger and Ron Yuan: a genuinely good hand for martial arts enthusiasts. The fights scenes end up being hit-and-miss, partially due to the fact that not all of the above-mentioned performers get to fight. Sam Jones and Sherrie Rose look surprising adept at martial arts and both get at least one decent match; Jones' showdown with Jeff Langton probably constitutes the best brawl of the film. Nevertheless, a bit more flair in general would have helped make more of the matches memorable. The non-kickboxing action portions are even blander and consist mainly of explosions.

What eventually keeps the movie from a higher rating is its limited energy. Merhi and PM tend to be great at delivering rollicking adventure flicks, but this one feels particularly restrained and suffers for it (perhaps they had to put up a serious front to get some of the more famous actors to sign?). The storyline tries to make its points about police corruption stick and make some of its deaths meaningful, but the film simply lacks both the finesse and the legitimacy for that. Treat this one strictly as a digital rental.