Stuart Margolin makes his most breathtaking, undisciplined work in his unfortunately overlooked farcical chronicle of American paramedic life in South Central during the decadent and confusing mid-1980's. Margolin innovative use of experimental lighting techniques and lenses developed by NASA to translate Los Angeles'city scape will leave you rocked with emotion and begging for more. Christopher McDonald is in top form delivering a seamless portrayal of Mad Mike: a jaded but dedicated paramedic struggling to maintain a grasp on his fleeting morals in face of the demands in a decaying and stubbornly self-destructive society. Along with a powerhouse performance by George Newbern as Uptown, Mad Mike's partner returning to his once prosperous neighborhood to clean up dead children laid to waste by gang warfare. If you like this film as much as I do, do yourself a favor and get a copy of Margolin's next film 1990's B.L. Stryker: Plates starring Alfie Wise, Ossie Davis and Burt Reynolds, another unrecognized experimental classic.
