FLIGHT OF THE INTRUDER

year: 1991
cast: Brad Johnson, Willem Defoe
director: John Milius
rating: *

This John Milius Vietnam flick has low-budget written all over it, especially when it counts. The talented actors are wasted, and a romantic subplot that borders on ludicrious helps waste them, and action scenes that leave the viewer wondering not only "What's going on?" but "When it gonna end?" Perhaps Milius, who wrote a good percentage of "Apocolypse Now", in trying for another Vietnam epic, ends up with a "G.I. Joe" meets "Top Gun" in the process. This isn't even corny in an endearing sense, it's just plain bad.

MOTORCYCLE GANG

title: MOTORCYCLE GANG

year: 1994

cast: Carla Gugino, Gerald McRaney, Jake Busey, Richard Edson, Julia Mueller

rating: **

This is a bad made-for-TV film that's not so bad, at least the first half centering on a family consisting of a father, a mother, and a teenager daughter who - during the 1950s - move from Texas to California. On the way they run into the element that ruins the flow of the movie, and ironically it's the Motorcycle Gang, led by Jake Busey who resembles a flaky nineties surfer more than a fifties gang member and is about an intimidating as a housefly. This is where the movie hits a wall, and explodes. Sadly, once-great John Milius directed this.

MELVIN PURVIS G-MAN

title: MELVIN PURVIS G-MAN

year: 1974

cast: Dale Robertson, Harris Yulin, Steve Kanaly, Margaret Blye

rating: **

John Milius's "Dillinger" (1973) has everything you'll ever want in a gangster flick with a thousand bullets to spare. Warren Oates plays Dillinger and Ben Johnson plays Melvin Purvis, both to perfection. A year after the 1973 theatrical hit, Milius figured Purvis's story needed more coverage, and we get it here with this TV-movie written by Milius and starring Dale Robertson in the title role. But there's not enough Purvis and too much of the bad guys, who are, as opposed to John Dillinger: Machine Gun Kelly and his gang of bickering villains. So this is more or less a prequel to "Dillinger", and being that it was made for TV, it falls flat on many levels. While Harris Yulin is a dependable actor, his portrayal of Kelly borders on silly. Although the climax before the climax - a shootout between the G-Men and the thugs, is fairly good, reminiscent of the Milius film. All-in-all there's nothing gained/nothing lost here, 'cept an hour fifteen minutes where you could have watched something better.