Raw Deal (1986)

Directed by John Irvin. Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Kathryn Harrold, Darren McGavin, Robert Davi, Sam Wanamaker, Steven Hill, Paul Shenar, Ed Lauter, Joe Regalbuto, Blanche Baker. [R]

Small-town sheriff Schwarzenegger, a former federal agent now living in “exile,” is recruited by old friend McGavin to take on the Chicago mob syndicate responsible for killing his son. Brainless action pic executed with the bare minimum of energy and style, redeemed a bit by Ah-nuld’s knowing sense of humor…though some of the funniest bits are still probably accidental, like Baker’s single-scene “performance” as the hero’s hard-drinking, harder-whining wife. Even the execution of its bare-boned idiot plot is mishandled, resulting in multiple instances where it’s a struggle to figure out who some characters are and why they’re doing the things they’re doing (did most of Hill and Lauter’s scenes end up on the cutting room floor?). To genre fans, a comic book-style shoot ‘em up without a single set piece to remember is a raw deal, indeed. “Tied” for the honor of being the first film released by the short-lived De Laurentiis Entertainment Group—it shared a launch date with DEG’s oh-so-similar My Little Pony: The Movie.

38/100