It's easy to feel sorry for the cast of this poorly made teen action film about five delinquents who are taken out to the Everglades by Vietnam War veteran Stephen Lang in an effort to teach them some discipline and camaraderie and teamwork and get away from their gangster lead and violent lifestyles. All it takes is a snakebite and one of the young men to nearly die for them to show any caring towards each other, with Michael Carmine's Ruben standing up and showing that he's got some heart underneath his gang leader toughness by cheering him on. John Cameron Mitchell (later of "Hedwig and the Angry Inch"), Danny Quinn, Leon Robinson and Al Shannon are the other four, and they do continue to fight even after Lang abandons them, with racial slurs and tough talk abound even though, Divine would sing her camp hit "You think you're a man, but you're only a boy" to describe each of them.
Following their return to civilization, they now decide to take on all of the illegal associations in Miami that they were utilizing before, including their own gangs, drug dealers and prostitution rings, having successfully handled rattlesnakes, bears and wart hogs. Not only is the premise of the Everglades subplot ridiculous, but it's probably also illegal. The fact that they hear rock music in the background as they try to get out of the Everglades is also a silly twist, especially when it takes them to a camp that could inevitably have been a Jim Jones type cult, with Lang as the big kahuna. It's hysterical to watch the opening scene where the five guys are tossed into a jail cell, obviously having just come from a nightclub, and go into the Everglades dress the very same way, literally tossed into the swamp.
This was an early role for Lauren Holly as Quinn's troubled girlfriend and Laurence Fishburne as the head of a drug ring, whom the five go up against Wen Liang takes them back Miami to be their den father in a halfway house in the neighborhood where all this crime is going down. Of course first they have to get rid of the squatters, and then it's the drug dealers and the hookers and the other elements of "bad society". I'm pretty sure that they break some laws along the way. There are so many ridiculous elements in the script that you don't know where to point the blame whether it be the screenwriter or the direction or the person who green-lighted this ill-fated film. If there were good intentions there to show early 20-somethings that they didn't have to turn to a life of crime to make it, this film didn't really show a good way to do it. Outside of the performances, this is good for a laugh or two, but it's really all forgettable.
Following their return to civilization, they now decide to take on all of the illegal associations in Miami that they were utilizing before, including their own gangs, drug dealers and prostitution rings, having successfully handled rattlesnakes, bears and wart hogs. Not only is the premise of the Everglades subplot ridiculous, but it's probably also illegal. The fact that they hear rock music in the background as they try to get out of the Everglades is also a silly twist, especially when it takes them to a camp that could inevitably have been a Jim Jones type cult, with Lang as the big kahuna. It's hysterical to watch the opening scene where the five guys are tossed into a jail cell, obviously having just come from a nightclub, and go into the Everglades dress the very same way, literally tossed into the swamp.
This was an early role for Lauren Holly as Quinn's troubled girlfriend and Laurence Fishburne as the head of a drug ring, whom the five go up against Wen Liang takes them back Miami to be their den father in a halfway house in the neighborhood where all this crime is going down. Of course first they have to get rid of the squatters, and then it's the drug dealers and the hookers and the other elements of "bad society". I'm pretty sure that they break some laws along the way. There are so many ridiculous elements in the script that you don't know where to point the blame whether it be the screenwriter or the direction or the person who green-lighted this ill-fated film. If there were good intentions there to show early 20-somethings that they didn't have to turn to a life of crime to make it, this film didn't really show a good way to do it. Outside of the performances, this is good for a laugh or two, but it's really all forgettable.