Black Snow Reviews

Lots of bullets and even more speeches fly in BLACK SNOW, a convoluted macho actioner by regional filmmakers in Houston. Even with lengthy talk about who's doing what to whom, it's a challenge to untangle events; what's certain is that Vietnam vet/oilman/son-of-a-Texas-Ranger Travis Winslow (Peter Sherayko) is just about the only guy in town not involved in the cocaine business. His brother was, and got killed by his treacherous bisexual mistress, Shelby (Jane Badler), who was seeking her own deal with Colombian traffickers. Meanwhile, two rival local drug lords covet the dead man's hidden stash, and both threaten Travis and his daughter unless he surrenders the powder. It does no good going to the cops, since they're corrupted by coke too, so in a scene sure to touch the hearts of gun-lovers, Travis's dad passes on the family Colt revolver to his besieged boy. But competing baddies generally do the duty of shooting each other down during the pursuit of the plucky hero. Ultimately Travis's own daughter uses grandpa's trusty sidearm to blow away the last holdout, Shelby. During the aforementioned gabfests, the filmmakers have fun putting politically incorrect dialogue into the mouths of the multiple villains, like "The Afrikan" (sic), a pagan Nairobi gangster (Randy Brooks), who criticizes American black and Latino criminals for oafishness, while a redneck thug fondly recalls the good old days when America's great outlaws were all white. The cast of unknowns (except for Badler, previously a femme fatale of network TV) does good ensemble work, with each nasty character given the chance to register as a screen presence before his/her usually violent exit. Some mayhem is impressively staged; with just a bit more big-budget gloss, this negligible product of the Lone Star State would have been indistinguishable from negligible product out of Hollywood. BLACK SNOW bears a 1989 copyright but waited until 1994 to debut on home video. (Violence, profanity, brief nudity, sexual situations, substance abuse.)