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.
