DEAD TROUBLE

US, 1989, 90 minutes, Colour.
John Schneider, Paul Rodriguez.
Directed by Bill W. Norton.

Dead Trouble is a routine but glossy action thriller, a star vehicle for John Schneider (Dukes of Hazzard) and comedian Paul Rodriguez. It is about two bail bond bounty hunters, their trying to track down a Mexican gangster, the difficulties, action in San Diego and Mexico. The material is familiar, the action highlighting macho styles - but with tongue in cheek. The film was directed by Bill W. Norton, director of many telemovies from Gargoyles to feature films like More American Graffiti.

1. Entertaining action comedy thriller? Bail bondsmen and bounty hunters? The world of drug dealing, police?

2. The Californian Mexican locations, San Diego, Tijuana? The Mexican border? The action sequences? Stunts and special effects? Fights, shoot-outs? Car chases? The musical score?

3. The title - conventional title for this kind of material?

4. John Schneider as Hardball, his baseball career, police, bounty hunter? The initial skill in using the baseballs to down his victims? The dangers, his success? Serious and taciturn? The big job, meeting Gomez, their rivalry? Fights, outwitting each other? The decision to work together? Tracking down Miguel, meeting Anne - and the baby? The dangers, the fights? Protecting Anne from Aguillar? The taking of the baby? The pursuit into Mexico, the drug dealer? The confrontation, the shoot-out? The death of the boss? The pursuit of Aguillar? The baseball and the rescue? The attraction towards Anne? Gomez, his background, his tracking down people, the comic touches? His character, clashes with Hardball? Combining with him? Their trying to outwit each other?

5. Anne, the baby? Her husband, death? The money and the artwork? The taking of the baby? Taking the law into her own hands? The police? The dangers, the confrontation?

6. Aguillar and the drug dealers, brutal murders? The taking of the baby? Across the border? The shoot-outs, the confrontation, the shooting of the boss?

7. The world of drug dealing on the Mexican border? Dirty money? Criminals, the police? The bail bondsman? The bounty hunters - and the tradition of the American frontier, law and order?