Deadly Bet Reviews

There's a lot of ROCKY and a bit of HONEYMOON IN VEGAS in DEADLY BET, a cut-above-average kickboxing opus starring Jeff Wincott (best known for TV's "Night Heat" series) as Las Vegas gambler Angelo Scala, who's just run out of luck. Idyllic plans to move to Colorado with his fiancee Isabella (Charlene Tilton, the petite star of TV's "Dallas") are dashed as Angelo, in hopes of financial security for their fresh start, has stupidly put Isabella up as collateral on a bet, and then loses a kickboxing bout to Rico Daraby (Steven Vincent Leigh), who controls the Vegas underground fighting business. Fed up with Angelo's behavior, Isabella shacks up with the rich suave Rico, while Angelo, losing a basketball game bet to a loan shark called the Greek (Michael Delano), is forced to work for the Greek collecting bad debts, along with thug Johnny (Mike Toney). With Isabella out of his life, Angelo boozily hits the skids but soon recovers, gives up alcohol and gambling, and trains for a half-million-dollar-stakes, winner-take-all, fifty-man kickboxing tournament. After besting Rico in the grueling penultimate bout, Angelo is reunited with Isabella and they head out to Colorado. The most interesting aspect of Joseph Merhi and Robert Tiffe's screenplay is not Angelo's fairly cliched plight but the love-hate relationship between Isabella (who doesn't know Angelo has bet and lost her to Rico) and the slimy but charming Rico, who is excellently played by Leigh, a veteran of similar action fare (CHINA WHITE, RING OF FIRE). Richard W. Munchkin's direction is undistinguished but fully adequate, with the kickboxing sequences expertly choreographed (by Eric Lee) and performed by Leigh and Wincott, whose acting skills are more incisive as a fighter than as a lover. DEADLY BET is a well mounted production for the prolific LA team of Joseph Merhi and Richard Pepin, the latter also responsible for the sharp-looking cinematography. Boxing fans will note former lightweight boxing champ Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini in a small role as the minor hoodlum Charlie. Released direct-to-video. (Violence, sexual situations, profanity.)