Verdict
Summary
From exploitation filmmaker Jess Franco who conceived the story and script, Downtown Heat is surprisingly very straightforward, if plot heavy, and doesn’t get as exploitive as it could’ve easily gone under his direction.
Plot:
A young woman is found dead and her husband, his wife’s lover, and a cop all team up to find out who did it.
Review:
In the Caribbean, the mafia has its claws in the underworld, and drugs are rampant. They’ve even got some cops on their payroll, and so when a young woman is found dead of either murder or a drug overdose, an intrepid detective named Alberto (Oscar Ladoire) finds himself on the razor’s edge of rage and being uncontrollable when he has a chance to catch some bad guys with some ease, but his superiors tell him to back off or face consequences. This guy is a lit fuse, and he’s tired of the corruption and the senselessness of it all in his district with bodies piling up and crime going unpunished. Meanwhile, the woman’s husband Tony (Steve Parkman), a sensitive jazz musician, wants answers, and as he does his own investigating, he realizes that his wife has a female lover, a punk chick in a local gang, and instead of griping about the fact that his wife was cheating on him, he teams up with the punk chick and together they run directly into Alberto’s own investigations, which lead them to another cop, a retired rogue named Steve (Mike Connors) who has his own reasons for going after the mafia. The crime lord is a guy named Don Miguel (Craig Hill) who has an attractive teenaged daughter, and the good guys do a brave but irresponsible thing: They kidnap the girl to force Don Miguel to admit his sins. This does not end well for anyone, as there is a bloodbath finale that ensures tears will fall.
From exploitation filmmaker Jess Franco who conceived the story and script, Downtown Heat is surprisingly very straightforward, if plot heavy, and doesn’t get as exploitive as it could’ve easily gone under his direction. The movie is very light on action (and has no sex at all, shockingly, but there’s some nudity), and so fans of these types of men’s adventure revenge movies from Europe might be a little disappointed by it. It’s okay, but it’s very nondescript and kinda boring, but there is some distinct local flavor, as it was shot on location, but it won’t resonate much for anyone.
Full Moon presents Downtown Heat in a very nice high definition transfer in widescreen. The film has likely never looked or sounded this good. There are some bonus trailers on the disc. It’s region free.
