By Geno McGahee
When I was a kid, I went to the movies and began looking at the posters and saw the RAW DEAL movie poster and was quite taken by it. “They gave him a raw deal. Nobody gives him a raw deal” was the tagline and I immediately thought “Badass.” I didn’t really watch action films at that time…well, not real action films like MURPHY’S LAW or DEATH WISH. That poster was my first exposure to the 80’s R rated action films. I didn’t see it until years later and it’s been years since I’ve seen it. I feel like I gave myself a raw deal by waiting so long.
FBI agent Mark Kaminsky (Arnold Schwarzenegger) was forced to resign when he beat the living hell out of a child rapist and murderer. He took the job of the sheriff of a small town and it has hurt his marriage and made him feel like less of a man. He wanted to kick ass again, but he was forced to deal with the small town life.
The mob, led by evil mob boss, Patrovita (Sam Wanamaker), take out a bunch of cops and kill a witness that plans to testify against them. One of the cops that died was the son of Harry Shannon (Darren McGavin), and now he wants blood and when the law fails, he has to get his own justice in the form of Kaminsky. He convinces his old friend to fake his death and become Joseph P. Brenner. The mission is simple: REVENGE!
Brenner makes his presence known quickly and earns the trust of Patrovita. They team him up with the GOONIES guy, Max (Robert Davi), but it’s not a loving couple. Brenner is taking over Max’s job and even Max’s love interest, Monique (Kathryn Harold), but the cover is not holding up as well as hoped. Max and Patrovita are beginning to smell a rat and when they ask Brenner to kill a cop, he freezes, as he goes face to face with Harry Shannon. War is officially declared and Brenner/Kaminsky goes into kill mode, which leads him to a familiar face.
Marvin Baxter (Joe Regalbuto) was the prosecutor that ended the career of Kaminsky and has been playing defense as Shannon tried to get justice. Baxter is one the take and when Kaminsky goes to take out Patrovita and his crew, he comes face to face with Baxter and it’s revenge time.
RAW DEAL is a good movie, not great, especially when you figure in that Schwarzenegger is involved. He was still finding his groove. He had just come away from COMMANDO and I think that the idea was to make a more serious film and it is more serious but the fun factor is gone. RAW DEAL is absolutely worth a watch but it does not make it into a Arnie “must see” category. I do recommend it though and I also want to note that the DEATH WISH 3 guy, Ed Lauter was in it. He was great in this too, but I was sort of disappointed that he didn’t say “dude” in it. I would have liked to see the two catchphrases together. Arnie: I’ll be back. Lauter: You got it dude. That would have gotten this movie a 10/10 rating. In the end, it’s still well worth a watch.
Rating: 6.5/10
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