Review of Messenger Of Death

Introduction

This is Charles Bronson`s 1988 outing for director J Lee Thompson (Ice Cold In Alex, Guns of Navarone).

When Orville Beecham`s (Charles Dierkop, the little flat-nosed cop from "Police Woman") family is massacred, he is taken into protective custody. Investigative journalist Charles Bronson shows up to use his fists and various weapons to get to the truth and the real motive for the crime.

"Messenger" is a pretty run-of-the-mill actioner in the Charles Bronson style - a lot of people wind up deaded and he doesn`t. With its gothic-horror-film title sequence, this Cannon production (Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus) is like most Charles Bronson pictures hard stuff to take. The opening massacre of women and children sets the tone for a grubby little thriller about blood feuds and land deals.

Romantic interest (such as it is) comes in the form of Trish Vandevere, Bronson`s regular female co-star following the passing of his wife Jill Ireland.

Video

Presented in the original 1.85:1, the image is clean, colourful and sharp, and that`s about as much as you can say about it. The scenery`s okay if you like the American mid-west.

Audio

Recorded in the grandiose sounding "Ultra-Stereo", the soundtrack is presented in bog-standard Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround.

Features

You get subtitles, and that`s it. Not even a scene selection menu. You can pick your language and your subtitle language, but that`s it. No trailers, no pack-drill.

Conclusion

I can`t stand Charles Bronson movies. I have nothing against Charles Bronson himself, in fact I have seen movies I have liked him in. I just can`t think of them for the moment. This movie, and the kind of stuff he made for Michael Winner (a director I like), I just can`t get my head round. They`re bleak, nasty movies with no up-side but plenty to get you down or wound-up. You might get something out of this movie if you`re a fan. All I got was a bad taste. No way to remember a fine actor or a fine director.