The first of two b-movie actioners Billy Blanks & Roddy Piper did in the 90's, 'Back In Action' is a solid ride. Good fight scenes, tons of bullet play, car chases, stuff blowing up in the standard story affair about cops, the mob, drugs & kidnapping people. Sure it's cheesy, don't reinvent the wheel, but heck if I didn't enjoy the trip.
Det. Rossi (Roddy Piper) is part of an undercover drug buy that goes bad while Billy (Billy Blanks) an ex-special forces cab driver tries to rescue his sister who's involved with one of the dealers. The hard nosed cop wants to bring down these men after they escape and ultimately their boss Kasajian (Canadian actor Nigel Bennett). While Billy has to continually come to his sisters aid (whenever she wants it or not) and the two men unofficially team up to settle all scores.
There's a fun dynamic going on here with Billy being the clean, sharp martial artist and Piper being a straight up bruiser who delivers a satisfying wrestling move or two during the flick. They don't see eye to eye at first and there's this reoccurring gag of Blanks kicking the gun outta Rowdy's hand whilst they brawl. Notch up a decent explosion or two alongside the fisticuffs, gunplay too.
'Back in Action' had a box cover back in the VHS dtv days that made me steer clear of it. Now in hindsight, I don't know why I did. It's obviously not of a high budget or housing a fresh story, but the action going down on the streets, alleys, piers of Toronto is fun. Really solid b-movie fun.
