Donato and Daughter

I think this is just a TV movie (for cable) but it has very good quality. The cast is great with Charles Bronson in a very good dramatic role that actually has some real feeling to it, not just the tough guy shooting spree type movie he's more famous for, though this movie has that too. It's a good story with good acting, well worth watching.

The title of my comments is a phrase that I have heard in the movie, coming from the mouth of little Cal. And I think that is an awful phrase to come from a little kid... It reflects perfectly the quality of the present movie, which can not decide if it wants to be a police adventure or a family drama. The fact is that it does not work as either of them. I have not read the book, but the script is really terrible, full of stereotypes and vacuums. In my opinion Charles Bronson's movies are getting worse and worse as he gets older.

Bronson copped it by the critics during the 80s for his work with cannon, but his fans stuck with him and while I wouldn't call them masterpieces they were still entertaining. Then into the nineties he was mainly involved in TV productions, but again these were a lot better than I expected. And I mean a lot. For a standard made-for-TV presentation; "Relative Danger" was an engrossingly glum crime drama, even with the routine scenarios and blaring stereotypes. This can be attributed to Charles Bronson's steadfast performance, along with his convincing chemistry alongside a hearty Dana Delany (playing his on- screen daughter).

In Los Angeles nuns are being brutally raped and murdered. This sees the pairing up of father and daughter, Mike and Dina Donato. Meaning they must work pass their past differences and frosty relationship, as they plan to tempt the killer out of hiding and into an elaborate trap they've set. However this killer goes about trying to twist it back onto the detectives, while getting somewhat personal.

Adapted off the novel of Jack Early, the script is heavy on family drama (giving it much needed weight) while at the same time balancing the disquieting serial killer framework with the investigative groundwork. What makes it work is because everything is kept grounded and the toying cat-and-mouse element between the Donatos and the serial killer (a perfectly neurotic Xander Berkeley) thrillingly punches away. You do get to see Bronson hand out some psychical punishment… vintage Bronson too. Rod Holcomb is competent in his direction letting the action and drama smoothly unfold with some sweeping camera-work capping it off. There's quite solid cast in support; Jenette Goldstein, Marc Alaimo, Tom Verica, Robert Gossett, Michael Cavanaugh and Bonnie Bartlett.

"Where was her god when this happened?!"

A Teflon Tough Cop (Charles Bronson) and his estranged, no less resourceful Cop daughter (Dana Delaney) querulously join forces in order to capture a deranged serial killer (Xander Berkeley) in this entertainingly zippy 90s TV thriller. While the pulpy text is all too familiar, the director's pacing is brisk, the performances are engaging, and, quite frankly, I can never tire of watching the dyspeptic Don of vengeance, Charles Bronson kick butt!!!! By no means an exemplar of Bronson's inimitable felon-fragging ouvre, but well worth a boggle if you are a Bronson fan who missed this one. Gifted character actor Xander Berkeley is on smarmily sinister form as the psycho yuppie with a perverse habit of sending nuns to their maker! Another fine synth score from Sylvester Levay keeps this gripping L. A. Set procedural ticking along nicely until its satisfyingly dramatic conclusion.

Most would be forgiven to not have known about this one off Bronson made for TV movie because originally it was a TV pilot, but it was not picked up as a series after it aired, and was shelved very quickly to be forgotten. Its IMDB rating of 5.7 is generous as there was good reason why it wasn't picked up. This would be the first of Bronson's LAST 5 movies made as his health we failing and he would die in 2003.

A typical TV series of the day but unfortunately an ageing 72 year old Bronson (3 years out from the death of his wife Jill Ireland from breast Cancer, and 6 years out from his last movie & 10 years out from his death)) looked very tired, sluggish, and more like a robot going through the motions and an actor on his last legs.

Dana Delany taking a quick pickup gig between Wild Palms and Tombstone roles played the feminist (a masculine role) of the Lieutenant in charge of the investigation.

This was Delany's worst rated roll in years and it showed. The audience never liked her role nor her relationship with Bronson. It would have been way better to just have Bronson as the main character and call the TV series Donato. Adding Delany as the Feminist Daughter Lieutenant was the mistake that got this TV series CANNED and put on the shelf forever.

This was NOT vintage Bronson as we had all come to love and know. It was sloppy, sluggish, poorly written and didn't do any of the two main actors any justice at all. Many times the lines and edits just didn't make any sense. The story line was common and well worn through many other TV series so there was nothing ORIGINAL.

Bronson would go on the following year to make his final Death Wish: The face of Fear movie, which was by far the worst of the series and an utter flop!

A year after that he would try and repeat the same failed pairing from Donato, this time with Angela Featherstone, of a father and doughtier in the "Family of Cops" trilogy, which were just as bad as this one and would be his last hurrah.