Terror In Beverly Hills

1989 "Just when you thought the streets were safe..."
3.3| 1h28m| en| More Info
Released: 26 August 1989 Released
Producted By: Peacock Films
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Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
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Synopsis

When the President's daughter is kidnapped, it's up to an ex-marine to save her. The problem is that the terrorist leader has a lingering hatred for him, as he has been wrongfully blamed for the death of his wife and children. The action heats up, as the two mortal enemies confront each other with extreme violence.

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Alicia I love this movie so much
Lovesusti The Worst Film Ever
Pluskylang Great Film overall
Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.
Comeuppance Reviews When an evil gang of middle-eastern terrorists led by the sinister Abdul (Vossoughi) comes to Beverly Hills, well, terror ensues. Their main target is Margaret (Heslov), daughter of The President (no actual name for The President is ever said) (Smith). They kidnap her while she's shopping and spirit her away to "the old bean factory". While LAPD Captain Stills (Cam) is crankily and dyspeptically working his way through the situation, it becomes evident to all concerned that only one man can rescue Margaret, take down the terrorists, and restore law and order to Beverly Hills: HACK STONE (Stallone). (Hack Stone is not an anagram for Frank Stallone; we checked). Will the fantastically-named Hack Stone, who is a former Special Forces soldier and now Karate instructor, be able to complete his mission? Or will terror reign at the old bean factory...er, I mean, BEVERLY HILLS? Find out today... Here's a movie that delivers what it promises - terrorists come to Beverly Hills. It also gets sillier and sillier as it goes along. It starts out fairly seriously, with comments about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the threat of terrorism in our time, which actually makes 'Terror fairly topical even today. Well, about as much so as Terror Squad (1988), Hostage (1987), or Scorpion (1986). VERY quickly, however, we are launched headlong into a highly-entertaining morass of ridiculousness that we as viewers do not return from. Thanks to its rock-bottom budget, we get some classic nonsensical dubbing/dialogue, wonderfully stupid chase/shooting scenes, and the whole outing has that vibe of absurdity that fans of fun movies will recognize immediately. It's almost like a cousin of Provoked (1989), and there's even a McKeiver Jones III-like character. And that's the key to Terror in Beverly Hills - its characters. Even with all the preposterous goings-on, what stands out are the characters, no matter how small they are in the overall scheme of things. Of course, we have the aforementioned Cam Mitchell, who puts in a performance that enlivens the proceedings. Then we have the great William Smith, perfectly cast as The President. Unfortunately, like most of the other characters, his voice was dubbed, so his trademark gravel is not heard. Naturally, there's Hack Stone, AKA Frank Stallone, who ties it all together. The main difference between Stone and Stills is that Stone drinks regular Pepsi (with a very prominent place on his desk) but Stills prominently drinks Diet Pepsi. Have the Pepsi people ever seen this movie? But the smaller parts, the incidental roles, are what really make 'Terror a gem. There's Crystal, the 911 dispatcher who really cares about her job and has terrific typing skills, there's Brian Leonard as Tony Motta, the enthusiastic and pushy TV news anchor, and there's Captain Leonard (the McKeiver guy), who really shines as an LAPD detective. But the show is well and truly stolen by the charming interplay between Bruce and Gandhi, two locals. All that isn't surprising, as director Myhers was primarily known as an actor himself, but he did direct one movie per decade in the 60's, 70's, and 80's. Obviously this was his 80's entry, released in the golden year of 1989. Myhers passed away shortly thereafter in 1992. Evidently the old bean factory that is so central to the story was a real place, as in the end credits, the California Bean Growers Association are thanked. You don't see that every day. In the end, Terror in Beverly Hills is a ton of silly and absurd fun, and despite its limited resources, it is vastly better than The Taking of Beverly Hills (1991). If you only see one movie where something bad happens to Beverly Hills, see this one.
udar55 Often the symbol of decadence, Beverly Hills took a cinematic beating in the early 90s through films like THE TAKING OF BEVERLY HILLS (1991) and this cheap Frank Stallone action flick. Actually, calling it "cheap" is an insult to cheap films. This film is on the level of Al Adamson cheap. We're talking one long shot of a white limo driving down the road while characters voice over as much exposition dialogue that the shot will allow cheap. So cheap that a bomb consists of nothing more than a lump of clay with a digital watch face pressed in it. And yes, so cheap that William Smith's trademark gravely voice is dubbed. You get the point. Yet at the same time, they managed to shoot on location in Israel for the opening.Top billed Stallone stars as Hack Stone (yes, Hack Stone), but only appears in roughly 10 minutes of the first hour of the film. A majority of the time spent concentrating on Abdul (Vassoughi) and his Palestinian terrorist group as they hide out in an old bean factory. TERROR tries hard to elicit the thrills of DIE HARD but on a stretched budget of $10. When Stallone finally shows up for work in the last half hour, he enters the abandoned factory with only a rope and an M-16. I guess anything else would be unnecessary. And he manages to take out the entire terrorist unit without even using the rope! The film's sole highlight is the completely foul mouthed, over the top performance by Cameron Mitchell. As Police Capt. Stills, Mitchell seems to be making it up as he goes along, to great effect. While holding a press conference, an airplane flies overhead and Mitchell stops what he is saying to mutter, "Goddamn airplane!" Later he yells at a plain clothes cop, "Who the f#*k told you to wear that outfit?" When the cop replies, "You did," Mitchell barks out, "Well you know I have no f#*king sense of style!" Then again, maybe it was scripted that way. The screenplay by director Myhers (who co-scripted the Don Knotts/Tim Conway vehicles THE PRIZE FIGHTER and THE PRIVATE EYES) is laughable. "Come on man, don't be an a#*hole," utters Stallone when he finally confronts Abdul.
sol1218 **SPOILERS** Angered at the Israeli Government interning 55 suspected terrorists Palestinian terror honchos Abdual & Muhammed, how's that for originality, plan to kidnap the President of the United States' daughter Margaret and threaten to kill her if he doesn't get the Israeli Government to release the 55 "Arab brothers" from jail pronto, which is 12 hours. Staking out this fancy clothing boutique on the swanky Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills the terrorists make their move. Taking out all the secret service men protecting Margaret, who was there shopping, as well as a number of customers in the store. Everything went like clock-work with the only drawback being Muhammed getting shot and wounded by a dying secret service man. With time running out and the L.A police chief stills not being able to do anything to save Margaret one of his men entered the terrorist hide-out posing as a doctor to treat Muhammed only to be exposed and murdered by the terrorists. Abdul now puts plan II into operation by having a number of his gang members grab the wife and son of former Marine commando Hack, the Hacker, Stone to get Hack drawn into the fray. You see Hack and Abdul were good friends a while ago in their role as CIA commandos and assassins and once they captured four terrorists in a fire-fight in the Syrian Desert. Abdul wanting to kill the four but was persuaded by Hack to let them live in order to get, or beat, information out of them. As it turned out two of the terrorists escaped and later murdered Abduls family and he's had it in for Hack, who he held responsible for the killings, ever since. It's not only Abdul who want's Hack to be sent to rescue Margaret, in order to kill him, it's the President himself who realizes that the L.A cops FBI ATF and SWAT teams are helpless to do the job and invokes the "Nuclear Option" by personally getting Hack, brother of Rocky & Rambo, Stone to do the impossible which in Hack's case is just routine. The terrorists who at first held all the cards start to fall apart from a combination of their own arrogance and stupidity. First getting creamed by the L.A police who stormed the beach-house where they were holding Hack's wife and young son. Then back in the hideout they blew their golden opportunity of pulling off this well thought-out scheme. That's when one of the terrorists got so horny that he tried to rape Margaret, by untying her, and thus allowing her to make a run for it. Hack slowly working his way into the terrorists hideout, an abandoned bean factory,takes out all the bad guys leaving only him and Abdul to duke it out at the conclusion of the movie. Frank Stallone who's not as well known and popular as his famous older brother action hero Sylvester is effective in the fight scenes that he's in and his diction and command of the English language is much better then that of Sly's. The movie "Terror in Beverly Hills" is only just average with nothing that you haven't seen before in that type of film. What I found really interesting in the movie was the acting of Careron Mitchell as the L.A police Captain Stills who was on the verge of having a breakdown. Not just from the stress of the terrorists kidnapping and threatening to murder Margaret but how he was consistently harassed by the local TV news anchorman and his film crew all throughout the movie. Those jerks were a bigger danger to the president's daughter as well as the police and government authorities, not to mention Hack, risking their lives to save her then even the terrorists were!
Frank St. Allone Every year, the Academy Awards manage to overlook a deserving thespian or too. The hardest working man in show business has never received the accolades he deserves. Of course, I am speaking of Frank Stallone. And not only is this movie his greatest achievement, it is the without a doubt the greatest film of all time. Frank Stallone takes the role of Hack Stone to new heights, displaying a range of emotions not seen until The Rock broke through the cinema wall.Mr Stallone plays a former Special Forces soldier trying to cope in a complex world not of his choosing. Through a series of catastrophes of world importance, he is thrust in the middle of a battle between good and evil. In order to leverage the release of Middle Eastern terrorists, a band of insurgents capture the President's daughter while shopping in Beverly Hills. Well, terror indeed raises it's ugly head, not only in Beverly Hills, but in a particular industrial park somewhere in the outskirts of LA.The President faces the largest crisis of his administration. Does he submit to the terrorists demands to release their comrades (being held by Isreal, not the US, but that isn't important right now)? Or does he stare down the terrorists by refusing to negotiate, thereby sacrificing his daughter? He goes with plan C, neither of the above. Plan C? Deploy Hack Stone to infiltrate the terrorists lair and rescue the Presidents daughter.Frank Stallone does not play the part, he is the part! I was totally convinced that he has had special forces training. You can tell by the fact that he only takes one magazine of ammunition with him, carries no protective armor, no communications gear, and has no coordination whatsoever with the law enforcement people outside, that this man has studied hostage situations. By landing his helicopter directly in front of the building of the terrorists, and not taking any cover or concealment, he manages to throw them off balance. Not only that, but by carrying length of blue rope for no particular reason, Hack manages to play head games with the bad guys. When they see that spool of blue rope, they are so intrigued, that can not logically process what to do. Will he tie us up with the rope? Will he swing down from the ceiling on the rope? Maybe he will lasso some stray cattle. By doing absolutely nothing with the rope, those rascally terrorists are terrified, waiting for the moment when the other shoe drops, and he unravels that rope. The anticipation of the rope is enough to keep anyone on pins and needles.The supporting cast also deserves some recognition, from police official (Capt. Stills) just days away from retiring, to news reporter with the nasal voice (Tony Motta). I only wish that Capt Stills would have taken the last few days off, because I believe that it is not fair for a man who has faithfully served the citizens of Beverly Hills to lose his pension because of what some terrorists have done. Maybe the Police Union could help him. I digress.And lets not forget those special effects. I was really convinced that they blew up that car as a diversion. And when those Secret Service agents were killed, let me tell you, I had nightmares for days because it was so realistic. George Lucas can learn a few things from these special effects guys. The chase scene rivaled anything from Bullit or French Connection. They way they kept driving around the same building, no wonder they were able to escape. Perhaps if the Beverly Hills Police Department was able to afford a car a little more reliable than an early 1970's Dodge, then they could have rescued the President's daughter. But then, we wouldn't have a movie then, would we? Overall, a great movie. A realistic plot, slam bang effects, and the greatest and most handsome man ever to grace the screen.

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