Mask of Death

An average effort by action hero Lorenzo Lamas. This movie is just another example of the stereotyped role we've come to associate with him: slick hair, sunglasses, black leather and boots, fearsome. I thought the role reversal from the ruthless criminal to the more sensitive cob, and vice versa, was a big flaw. The intention was good, but somehow, between Lamas's lame acting and the more than shallow script, everything fell apart. This movie was was lame and boring. I'd expected more from it, particularly with famed actors such as Chong and Star Wars hero Billy Dee Williams. Wave this one goodbye before you've even said hello.

This movie sets a bad example for society. In "Mask of Death" shallow, ruthless characters hurt other people just to succeed. It's another lame story about greed, money and power. There's an excessive amount of violence and the characters are underdeveloped. The bad acting and direction don't help the movie either. The whole movie is typical low budget trash and has nothing that makes it worth watching.

With the luxury of writing this review in real-time while watching this film on television I should have the luxury of remembering any good parts. Unfortunately, there are none to be found here. The only remarkable thing about this film is that it uncategorizable -- it can't be considered a drama as everything is too predictable to be dramatic, it can't be called an action pic as the "action sequences" are hokey and unbelievable. It could be considered a crime picture as it's a crime that anyone wasted the resources to produce, market and broadcast this turkey. Lamas and Williams come off more smarmy than urbane, Rae Dawn Chong is not the hottie she used to be, the cop dialog is stilted and awkward and the production values are unremarkable and veritably scream Direct-To-Video. This film's only value is as a "How-To" guide for prospective B-movie directors. Run, Don't Walk to Avoid This Movie.

What worse then a movie with Lorenzo Lamas? A movie that has two Lorenzo Lamas's. In a loopy plot that casts him as a cop named McKenna who goes undercover and imitates his evil lookalike when the Russian mob led by Frank Dallilo (Conrad Dunn) kills McKenna's wife. A poor movie all around with no real merit, casting Lorenzo Lamas in two roles is even worse then when Jean-Claude Van Damme played two roles in Double Impact.

(1995) Mask Of Death ACTION

Straight-to-rental action cheapie vehicle starring Lorenzo Lamas playing two roles- one as Detective McKeena and the other as bad guy hit man Lyle Mason. Anyways, as a result of a botched exchange between two criminals regarding a gov't chip, Mason escapes by boat with Billy Dee Williams character as the FBI agent in charge of the whole operation on his trail by means of helicopter, but he had to be flown down because it was shot at. And while escaping by boat to a local beach where the McKeena coincidentally happened to be at gets caught up in the middle resulting his wife to be killed during the crossfire by one of the two escapees. And if that wasn't enough a car crash ensures with one of them getting away with the chip on his hand, the Billy Dee Williams character then forces detective McKeena while still recovering in hospital to pose as the bad guy Mason since he looks similar to him even though the real one has been shot dead. The rest of the film dwells on this point whether he can get away with this new undercover disguise or not, except that it's so badly made- no one really cares. .