Eye of the Tiger

1986 "'Nam was hell... Prison unbearable... But coming home meant murder."
5.6| 1h32m| R| en
Details

Buck is a Vietnam vet, recently released from prison. He returns home to discover the town being terrorized by a vicious motorcycle gang. When the bikers murder his wife and traumatize his daughter, Buck and his friends arm themselves to the teeth and wage war against the gang to destroy them once and for all.

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Reviews

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.
Lollivan It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.
Teddie Blake The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.
Blake Rivera If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.
lost-in-limbo I never really understood the title of the film, but I guess having Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger" and its instrumental riffs finding its way in was good enough. That aside this Gary Busey vehicle was a predictable action programmer, but at the same time rather likable nonsense. I'm so use to seeing Busey playing some type of bad guy in action features, so this was a complete change of pace and quite a courageous, if collected turn. Although it was not hard to cheer on his character, as he takes matters into his own hands by tackling two hissable villains; an excellent Seymour Cassel as the town's corrupt sheriff and the imposing William Smith as an notorious biker who leads a large group of thuggery biker drug-runners. While it was Smith who was the main villain, for me it was actually Cassel who stole the limelight with his detestable turn. The confrontations between Busey and Cassel's character added spice and their shady history engaged. While Smith seems to stay in the background (posing on his bike, standing about looking important and playing stare offs), that's up until to the brutal climatic showdown beat-down with Busey. It's out-and-out bruising.Buck Matthews is a highly decorated Vietnam veteran who has just been released from prison and returns to his home town hoping to settle down with his wife and daughter. But that's not the case for Buck. As the town Sheriff has it in for him and he gets involved with some drug- running bikers, which sees him losing his wife and his child being hospitalised. But his alone in seeking revenge, as on one else wants to get involved. The lead-up is slow and routine in it's well worn plot mechanics and revenge format, where moments of heart-ache and reflection is broken up by explosively violent and over-the-top mayhem. Wait to you see the new pick-up truck. What actually occurs is ridiculous and at times too convenient in the tit for tat game, therefore the harrowing impact it created in the beginning stages doesn't have the same affect by turning into a live-action comic book. Just think of the one man army chaos that erupted at the end of "Death Wish 3". Setting it in a small isolated rural town gave it a western approach and crafted some atmospheric encounters. Also showing up in the cast is solid character actor Yaphet Kotto playing Buck's good friend and Bert Remsen as the town's priest. Standard, but entertainingly trashy b-grade vigilante action fare.
Coventry "Eye of the Tiger", as sung by Survivor, must be one of the most recognizable and overused 80's songs ever released. The song itself is pretty much an 80's phenomenon, as it's still a classic regularly to be played at dance parties and served as theme song for at least two authentically 80's action flicks. Originally the theme song for the third (and coolest) film in Sylvester Stallone's "Rocky" cycle in 1982, but a couple of years later it also became the title and theme song for this obscure but sweet and exhilarating mid-eighties revenge movie starring the underrated Gary Busey in a rare heroic role. "Eye of the Tiger" is clichéd and heavily derivative stuff, but it's just a simply irresistible action flick with stereotypical small townsfolk and over- the-top cheesy bits of violence. Around that particular 80's period, it was extremely popular in movies and TV-shows for the hero characters to move around in hi-tech vehicles chock-full of hidden armory and mechanical gimmicks. So, yes, Gary Busey also has one: a beautiful black bulletproof Dodge pick-up truck with enough artillery to armor a middle-sized ghetto! Buck Matthews is a former Vietnam veteran and ex-convict (why choose just one clichéd background if you can have two!) who returns to his beloved hometown, only to discover that a lot of things have changed. The little town is overrun by a gang of criminal bikers, who are running a drug lab in the nearby desert, and they cause amok and raise fear among the villagers. The local sheriff is as corrupt as the pest and even the rest of the police force is too afraid to make an arrest. When Buck prevents the bikers from gang-raping a nurse one night, he involuntarily declares war. The bikers respond by destroying his house, killing his wife and traumatizing his 6-year-old daughter. The only thing for Buck left to do is wipe them all out, with the help of his old friend J.B. and some useful four-wheel-driven donations from his rich and influential former prison buddy. Admittedly this is just another action/revenge movie like there are thirteen in a dozen, but it's nevertheless great fun to watch. "Eye of the Tiger" is full of raunchy sequences that you've seen numerous times before, but remain awesome, like biker-decapitation through wires across the road and dynamite sticks up someone's pooper. The film is very mundane, cheap and trashy- looking, but you're still likely to have a great time. Director Richard C. Sarafian also made "Vanishing Point", which is arguably the coolest and most brilliant 70's car chasing movie ever made, and could here rely on a pretty solid cast. There's Busey, obviously, but also stellar performances from Yaphet Kotto ("Alien", "Across 110th Street") and super-creep William Smith ("Nam's Angels", "The Swinging Barmaids"). My favorite role comes from Seymour Cassel as the Sheriff. He's a sleazy, arrogant and utterly corrupt racist bastard and Cassel depicts him wondrously.
RTheManF89 I recently purchased this, well not purchased, but my dear mom was nice enough to buy this DVD at Ross today for the low price of just $4.00. At first, I actually had no freakin' idea that this was on DVD to begin with. I thought the only available copy was the OOP VHS from USA Home Video (Which is now Lions Gate). It had a cooler cover than the DVD, but before I get back to the movie, I would just like to make a little rant about how the big Hollywood studios (And the greedy sharks that own them) keep changing the cover art (Or force the art department to do so) for DVD releases. This one's a good example. The cover art for the original VHS of this movie made it look fun and imo, somehow dramatic, but this cover looks like it's been made over at MGM using Photoshop. It just doesn't make the movie look good to a buyer. It seems like these studios could really care less about nostalgia and just only care about making it appeal to today's youth. I guess you could also say that the cover for this made it look like a Transporter Rip-Off or a John Woo- type movie from 2001. Anyway, back to the movie. It's about a Vietnam Vet/Ex-Con (He had been convicted for a crime he didn't commit) named Buck Matthews (Played by Gary Busey in as I stated, quite possibly his best role.) who had just been granted parole and he goes back to his hometown to move on with his life and his family, his wife Christie (Played by Denise Galik) and Jennifer (Played by Judith Barsi from the awful "Jaws 4: The Revenge", may god rest her poor soul). We then see Buck at the police station, where he meets the corrput sheriff (Played by Seymour Cassel) and meets up with J.B. (Played by Yaphet Kotto) Also, Buck encounters a biker gang (The leader Blade, being played by the always awesome William Smith from "Maniac Cop") attacking a nurse, and saves her life and he becomes a town hero. However, it isn't long before the gang attacks Buck's house and kills Christie. Then, the movie starts to move into Death Wish territory. I do not feel like going further for the moment (I really don't want to spoil anything for anybody), but I will say the rest gets more exciting every minute. That's just my opinion though. As for the DVD itself, there really isn't much, although MGM did do a good job with the very beautiful widescreen quality. There is a trailer, but that's pretty much it for extras. There could have been like a director's commentary or even a commentary by either Busey or Kotto or all 3, but I really don't know.
ManBehindTheMask63 Gary Busey plays an ex-nam vet and recently released convict (he is innocent...he was framed) Buck Matthews. He returns home to his family only to find that the town has become over run by a deadly biker gang that sells drugs all over the world. The sheriff has been paid off, so there is no law and the biker's get away with murder (literally!). So when Buck decides to rescue a woman from getting raped by the bikers...the bikers wage a war against him, killing his wife and destroying his home. So Buck decides to take the law into his own hands and seek revenge for this wife and protect the town. It's a pretty simple plot that's fun to watch. The acting is excellent and it is interesting & cool to see Busey play the lead hero for once. The action is decent, with lots of chases and a hand to hand fight scene against the head baddie at the end. The film has good budget and the movie was put together well. The song "Eye of the tiger" is obviously used during the opening credits and at the end when he goes on his vengeance spree. Overall, it was a cool flick that was made cooler by the fact that Busey was the lead action hero. There's a nice decapitation scene in there too.