Director: Joseph Merhi
Screenplay: William Applegate Jr., Joseph John Barmettler
Starring: Gary Daniels, Sugar Ray Leonard, Paige Rowland, Charles Napier, Patrick Kilpatrick, Kenneth Tigar, Dex Elliott Sanders
Country: USA
Running Time: 97 min
Year: 1996
The PM Entertainment classics keep on coming from Fokus Media. Next up is Riot (or Nacht des Terrors on the Blu-ray packaging), starring Gary Daniels.
Supposedly, Daniels was keen to make a Christmas-set action film, like Die Hard, and also wanted to play a Brit for a change (he’s English but was usually cast as an American). Producer and director Joseph Merhi granted his wish, following the fruitful relationship they’d had up to this point. The result was Riot.
The film begins with Los Angeles descending into violent civil unrest on Christmas Eve, becoming a war zone. In the midst of the chaos, a British ambassador’s daughter (Paige Rowland) is kidnapped by a brutal street gang exploiting the breakdown of law and order. With the LAPD unable to penetrate the riot zone, the U.S. military assigns the mission to Major Shane Alcott (Daniels), an elite SAS operative currently training American soldiers.
Alcott is ordered to go in alone to locate and extract the hostage from the heart of the burning city. His mission becomes personal when it’s revealed that he once had a romantic relationship with the ambassador’s daughter, a connection that still lingers beneath the surface and is rekindled once he reaches her.
Along the way, Alcott receives backup from his trusted friend and fellow soldier Major Williams (Sugar Ray Leonard), who joins the fight to help guide him through the anarchic streets.
I can’t get enough of these PM movies at the moment. Granted, their low budgets and churned-out nature mean they occasionally have flaws, but producers Richard Pepin and Joseph Merhi knew how to make films that are a heap of fun to watch.
Riot is no exception. It grabs you by the balls from the first frame, when a smashed windscreen throws us into the carnage of the riot. Cars and buildings are trashed, and second unit material is mixed with what appears to be stock news footage of actual L.A. riots.
The film rarely lets up from here, though it knows when to take a brief breather to develop the story or characters and keep the pace from becoming relentless.
As always, the set pieces are spectacular, with high falls, explosions and fistfights a-plenty, all coordinated by the legendary Spiro Razatos, who would later go on to work on higher profile films, such as Captain America: Winter Soldier and several entries in the Fast and the Furious franchise.
Daniels is an accomplished martial artist and gets plenty of chances to flex his skills. Leonard doesn’t have as many chances to show why he was one of the greatest boxers of all time, but he does get to take part in a fun bar brawl alongside Daniels early on in the film.
The film is handsomely shot, as usual for PM. Light, shadow and movement are put to great use. Fire always looks good on film too, and there’s plenty of that here. The only visual that doesn’t work is the one time that compositing effects are used instead of practical ones. It’s where a helicopter is shot with a rocket launcher (yep, a rocket launcher – this film kicks arse!) and flames unconvincingly lap around it as it falls.
Some other elements of the film don’t quite work too. I thought the switch of bad guys partway through was clunky and led to a second half that wasn’t quite as strong as the first. Whilst I appreciate making the villains black gang members, as it initially appears, might have been a poor decision, I thought Dex Elliot Sanders and his street gang were more effective antagonists than Patrick Kilpatrick and his IRA squad. No offence to Kilpatrick, who can deliver a decent performance when required, but his Irish accent here dampens his gravitas.
Paige Rowland isn’t the best of actresses either. Again, this is likely largely down to her accent. She’s not a native Brit, and she struggles to convince us that she is on screen.
These are relatively minor niggles though. Overall, Riot is a solid, action-packed romp with the usual PM Entertainment seal of quality.
Film: 
Riot is out now in a 2-Disc Blu-Ray/DVD Collector’s Mediabook Edition or a standard Blu-ray edition, released by Fokus Media (you can order it on the Fokus Media website or you might be able to find it on various import sites). The transfer, playing in the 1.78:1 ratio, is fantastic. It’s a crisp image with lovely colours and rich details. I’ve used screengrabs throughout this review to give you an idea of how it looks, though these have been compressed.
You get a choice of German or English language audio options (both 2.0 stereo). I opted for English and it sounded good. German or English subtitles are also available on the disc.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
– Gary Daniels About Riot
– Spiros Razatos About Riot,
– Spiro Razatos – My Life From PM to Fast & Furious
– Spiro Razatos – High Falls and Car Crash
– Image Gallery
– Original trailer
There are quite a few pieces on stunt coordinator Spiro Razatos. Most notably, there’s a 28-minute interview included that spans his career from his initial inspiration up to getting high-profile work on films such as the Fast and the Furious franchise. This is wonderful. It was working with PM that helped Razatos truly hone his skills and gave him his first big break. As such, he has fond memories of his time with the studio.
There’s also a cool archival featurette about Razatos and his stunt coordination work. On top of including wonderful behind-the-scenes footage, it features soundbites from some big names, like Mel Gibson and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Razatos also speaks about Riot specifically in another shorter interview.
On top of this, there’s a super-short (37 sec) sample from a newer archival piece on Razatos.
There’s also an interview with Daniels. He’s a pleasure to listen to, as he shares anecdotes with great humour and honesty.
Overall then, this is a great package from Fokus Media. PM fans shouldn’t hesitate to pick it up.
Disc/package:
