No Man's Land

In a way, having a Porsche in a city like Los Angeles is a clear invitation for car thieves to take them, as demonstrated in "No Man's Land", the 1987 film that has a look of a movie made for television. It's no wonder since its director and writer, Peter Werner and Dick Wolf, are veterans of the medium. Ron Howard is listed as a producer.

"No Man's Land" is worth a look because in spite of its flaws, because it shows an interesting aspect of the complex relationship between a police undercover cop and the young man who is the master mind in the car stealing robberies plaguing the city. The interaction between these two opposites is well played by the two leading actors, B. D. Sweeney, and Charlie Sheen.

Charlie Sheen, gives a restrained performance here. In fact, this actor tends to go for intensity without the proper guidance of a good director. As the slick Ted Varrick, Mr. Sheen shows a subtle side that we don't see too often. B.D. Sweeney is also effective as the undercover man who falls for Ann, who happens to be Ted's sister. Mr. Sweeney has that clean look about him that makes him perfectly suited for the good natured Bill, the mechanic he pretends to be.

Others faces in the film includes Lara Harris who plays Ann, the woman in love with the man hunting her own brother. Randy Quaid is seen briefly as Lt. Bracey, who is responsible for getting one of his men infiltrate the car stealing ring.

"No Man's Land" has the ubiquitous car chases and visual effects of pictures of this genre. The cinematography of Hiro Narita shows us a lot of Los Angeles shopping malls and high priced stores where the car thieves love to steal the Porsches.

D. B. Sweeney plays a rookie cop and hobby mechanic who is persuaded by his boss (Randy Quaid) to go undercover in order to infiltrate and take down a luxury car theft operation ostensibly led by the flashy Ted Varrick (Charlie Sheen). Although not garnering the ravest reviews back when it was released, this film written by Dick Wolf has more aspirations for itself than it has been given credit for. As a look at the subculture of mechanics and garages, it is worthy and knowledgeable. And despite being far more predictable as a procedural, arguably lacking in suspense and nerve, you do ultimately care a little bit for Sweeney's character - and perhaps even Sheen's. The former brings the right level of blue-eyedness to his part, and the latter demonstrates that his talent was arguably underrated. The love interest is played by model Lara Harris. Also with R. D. Call as Sheen's rival.

I will preface this by saying I am an '88 Porsche 930 Turbo owner here. That's the silver car in the chase scene with the Camaro. Biased opinion I'll admit. I think this movie pretty much holds it's own as far as the story line goes. I love it, being a Porsche fanatic.

D.B. Sweeney is perfect in this role. Outside of Platoon, I think this is the best Charlie Sheen.

But, let's face it. The star of this movie is the drop dead sexy Porsche 911!

"The Fast And The Furious" completely stole from this movie. They substituted hopped up Hondas and Mazdas for the Porsches.

If you are looking for my opinion, watch this movie. If you want a good story line, great driving scenes, this is your movie.

If you are a Porsche fan, you probably have already watched this 100 times like me!

Randy Quaid in a rare dramatic role, and M. Emmett Walsh in a really minor role are of interest. Charlie Sheen is the bad guy for a change. The movie itself is very lethargic, with occasional car action waking things up. There is no nudity and a low body count. I can't see this as much more than a television movie of the week. The love interest is simply like an add on. The Porches are fine and everything, but as fast as the cars are, the plot seems to crawl, especially in the beginning. None of the characters are likable, and some are severely underdeveloped. Honestly, you want car chases, there are better choices. The best way I can describe "No Man's Land" would be underwhelming. It's watchable, but just barely. .................................. MERK

Once again I've got to say thank you to my Netflix 'recommended' queue, because thus far it's let me to several great movies that I never knew existed, including this one.

This was a truly good movie, with a fantastic storyline, great acting and a lot of style. Charlie Sheen turns in a terrific, understated performance, which makes you sadly recall that at one time he was a gifted young actor with a promising future ahead of him, and not an out of control bipolar freak of nature. This movie actually fell right in the middle of his golden period; shortly after 'Platoon' and just before 'Wall Street' and 'Young Guns'. He was pretty clearly at the top of his game.

The rest of the cast did wonderfully as well, especially D.B. Sweeney who handled the lead role admirably, and the incredibly beautiful and talented Lara Harris, who deserves far more work in Hollywood than she's gotten. The only character who seemed out of place was Randy Quaid as the no-nonsense lieutenant, but that's only because I've become so used to seeing him in goofball roles that it's now a bit jarring when he's serious.

I definitely enjoyed this film, and any fan of the police/thriller genre will surely enjoy it as well, as will fans of the time period in general. I'm glad I didn't pass this one over.