Stellead Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

Motompa Go in cold, and you're likely to emerge with your blood boiling. This has to be seen to be believed.

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

kclipper A strong sense of tension and perversity loom over this paranoid cop-thriller starring B-movie veteran, Wings Hauser as a compassionate policeman turned maniacal madman, Arliss Ryder. The setting is the grimy streets of Los Angeles, California (in the near future perhaps?), and a violent crime is committed every four seconds. After Ryder is wounded in the line of duty, he is approached with the proposition to join a special division of the precinct called 'Strike Squad'. Little does he know that S.Q.U.A.D. (Scum Quelling Urban Assault Division) is comprised of wounded cops that are part of an experiment headed by a sadomasochistic police chief (G. Gordon Liddy). Members of 'Squad' are implanted with a device at the base of the spine that can release man's primordial animal instincts turning them into unstoppable killing machines. Unfortunately, the botched plan results in madness followed by self-mutilation and eventual suicide. Time is running out for Ryder as he must save his sanity and his relationship, and expose the madmen behind the scheme. This is dominated by terrific performances and an urban nightmare based atmosphere full of psycho-sexual realism. Hauser is at his most intense, and G. Gordon Liddy plays an unusually wacky character. Other memorable performances include; Alex Cord as a piercing-eyed police captain, Sy Richardson as Ryder's laughing-mad partner, Marie Chambers as an evil doctor, Lisa Robins as an aggressive prostitute, and Brion James as a demented reverend who sets fire to a pimp while preaching to his freakish followers. Ultimately, every character in this movie exhibits their own brand of darkness and insanity. This is truly a crazy film with swift direction by Gregory Dark (who's good at this sociopath satirical stuff) that never lets up on the sizzle and sleaze! Its a rare B-movie treat worth watching if you can find it in its unrated director's cut.

merklekranz "Street Asylum" has G. Gordon Liddy dropping pants for a whipping delivered by a dominatrix, Brion James is a maniacal street preacher, and Wings Hauser is in full intense mode, yet the film fails miserably. The story of a special police "Strike Squad", made up of violent cops, controlled by an electronic implant, could have worked, but there are too many problems with "Street Asylum". Character development is nil, Liddy and James pop up once in awhile in scenes that seem totally improvised, and almost every night scene is so dark, you will wonder what is going on. Instead of watching, you could create a game, counting the number of times the word scum is used. Sure it's bizarre, but unfortunately it's also bad. - MERK

Woodyanders In the bleak near future Los Angeles has become a dangerous war zone with cops pitted against assorted law-breaking lowlifes. Sergeant Arliss Ryder (well played with customary wired intensity by the always great Wings Hauser) has an electronic device put into his back that turns him into an out-of-control psychotic killer and put on the Strike S.Q.U.A.D. (an acronym for Scum Quelling Assault Urban Devision), which is a unit of crazed cops assigned by Captain Bill Quinton (a typically gruff Alex Cord) to rid the City of Angels of criminals by using any means necessary. The only problem is that Arliss discovers what's going down and decides to put a stop to all this madness. Director Gregory Dark's second futuristic sci-fi/action outing is a considerable improvement over the flawed, but still pretty decent "Dead Man Walking": the action is more plentiful and nicely staged, the plot's much tighter and more thrilling, the pace moves at a snappier rate, and the budget appears to be a little bigger. This picture further benefits from amusing supporting performances by notorious Watergate crook G. Gordon Liddy as mayor candidate Jim Miller, an absolute deranged lunatic who gets his sick kicks by having prostitutes whip him while wearing leather dominatrix outfits (!); Sy Richardson as unhinged homosexual policeman Joker, and an especially hilarious Brion James as demented fire'n'brimstone street preacher J. J. Mony, who in the film's definite sidesplitting wacko highlight douses a slimy pimp with gasoline and sets the man ablaze. A cool and unjustly overlooked end-of-the-world science fiction sleeper.

patouno She is long in the tooth these days, but in Street Asylum, she is dressed like a hot dominatrix under a trench coat when she visits E. Gordon Liddy's office and proceeds to punish this bad boy of Watergate breakin fame. I am at odds why Liddy even accepted this role to be dominated by a mere woman when his life is punctuated with prison daliances and scary stuff that would make any normal man cring with fear. But there he is, ordered to drop trou, by the very beautiful, Hispanic Vasquez of Playboy and Victoria's Secret fame and gets a bona fide ass whipping which sends him into convulsions of ecstacy and sensual pleasure. I guess because it IS G. Gordon Liddy this all makes sense. Sort of. s/a