Undercurrent Reviews

Having sneered his way through countless mediocre action vehicles, Lorenzo Lamas toned down his superciliousness and upped affability ante for this preposterous bit of exotica. Disgraced American cop Mike Aguayo (Lamas) helps run the bar his former partner, Eddie Torelli (Frank Vincent), owns in Puerto Rico. Torelli introduces Mike to crime kingpin Carlos Rivera, Jr. (Philip Anthony), who's embroiled in a bid to take over his father's illicit empire. Rivera Jr. offers Mike steady employment, including an assignment no heterosexual male could refuse: $100,000 to sleep with Rivera's luscious wife, Renee (Brenda Strong, who made a much-remembered appearance on TV's Seinfeld as the bra-less Sue Ellen Mishker), thereby providing him with legal grounds for divorce. But by the time Mike has smooth-talked Renee into a compromising position, he's seen the scars she attributes to her sadistic husband. After the shutterbug paid to snap candid photos of the adulterous couple is murdered, Mike starts to wonder whether he's being played for a patsy. Does the smoldering Renee have a hidden agenda, and whose side is "old pal" Torelli on, anyway? The doublecrosses are neatly woven into the fabric of this derivative crime picture, but neither screenwriter Wayne Behar nor director Frank Kerr can stay ahead of the jaded audience. The film rehashes all the old film noir cliches, dressing them up with a brazen dollop of INDECENT PROPOSAL (1993), and its excessive reliance on travelogue scenery doesn't help build suspense. But the chemistry between Lamas and Strong is striking and her dramatic range is a revelation; her steamy sex appeal isn't, but that doesn't make it any the less enjoyable. The cast can't be held responsible for the B-movie steals and deserve to be commended for distracting viewers from the recycled cliches.