Death Warrant

[1990, Movie]

Death Warrant: Review

In many respects, DEATH WARRANT, starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, resembles any number of "I've just fought 100 guys single-handedly and I'm still standing" action movies. Nevertheless, screenwriter David S. Goyer and director Deran Sarafian have produced an often suspenseful film. It opens with Detective Louis Burke (Van Damme) confronting a maniac called "the Sandman" (Patrick Kilpatrick) in an abandoned house. Although the Sandman nearly kills Burke, the detective manages to stop him with a bullet. Sixteen months later, Burke joins a task force put together by the governor to investigate a number of murders that have occurred at the Harrison Penitentiary. While Burke poses as an inmate, attorney Amanda Beckett (Cynthia Gibb) acts the role of his wife. Like many screen couples, Burke and Beckett don't care for each other much in the beginning. In the penitentiary, Burke is forced to survive in an environment so dismal and filthy that it makes a public restroom in a New York City subway look like the Hilton. But though he is surrounded by hostility and suspicion, the undercover cop succeeds in befriending a few of the inmates, including Hawkins (Robert Guillaume) and Priest (Abdul Salaam El Razzac), who help him with the investigation. Meanwhile, more inmates are mysteriously murdered. Before you can say kick-boxing, Burke's cellmate is killed, and stone-faced prison guard DeGraff (Art LeFleur) puts Burke in solitary confinement, where he's interrogated and beaten. As if the insult and injury Burke endures were not enough, the Sandman ends up at Harrison. Several fight scenes later, it's revealed that prisoners are being murdered for their body organs. Back on the outside, Beckett attends a party given by Vogler (George Dickerson), the state's attorney general. Just as she's preparing to tell him about the slayings at the prison, Beckett receives a call from her computer whiz kid assistant, who identifies Vogler's henchman Keane (Jack Bannon) as the man behind the murders. The assistant's suspicions are confirmed when Vogler tries to kill Beckett. Meanwhile, Burke begins his great escape from the penitentiary, pursued by the Sandman and hundreds of angry inmates who have been set free and armed with the knowledge that Burke is a cop. As expected, Burke and the Sandman have a final, brutal showdown. Guess who wins and guess who ends up with Beckett in his arms.

Although DEATH WARRANT resorts to several familiar plot devices, its storyline is a little more complex than those of most films of this genre. Moreover, secondary characters like Hawkins and Priest are believable and likable enough that we care what happens to them. The film also offers some interesting visual effects. In particular, some skillful photography serves to emphasize the contrast between Beckett's life on the outside and Burke's dismal existence in prison. (Excessive violence, profanity, adult situations.)