Cathardincu Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Fluentiama Perfect cast and a good story

ChampDavSlim The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

rodrig58 A movie that must necessarily to be seen by Donald Trump, as long as he's still in office! The film is not great, but the message is simple: the cause of Mexican poverty and the vital need to cross the border to the North. Telly Savalas, as usual, is very good in the role. Unfortunately, the script is not very consistent. The other actors, Danny De La Paz, Eddie Albert, Michael V. Gazzo, Cecilia Camacho, also give their strength as much as they can.

classicsoncall Telly Savalas kept the patented bald look in place a couple years after his acclaimed Kojak TV series came to an end. Here he plays the title character in a British production filmed in the UK and Mexico. I'd like to know how production companies make their filming decisions when I run across something like this. You would think there were enough British and European topics to tackle, but someone must have thought it was a good idea.The story isn't altogether too bad, as it takes a sympathetic look at the plight of impoverished Mexicans who would do anything to cross over into the U.S. for a better life. The only trouble is, as we find here, there are any number of corrupt coyotes and border agents ready to take advantage of their situation in order to profit off of their sweat and labor. The slaughterhouse scene presented here is not for the faint of heart. I worked in a meat packing plant once, but that was a relatively sanitized affair compared to this. Every scene was like a gut punch, the one that got me was the guy sledging the dead bull's horns off off. I guess if you can disembowel cattle you can just about do anything. The film stretches credibility with the actions of the film's young hero, Benny Romero (Danny De La Paz). The kid marches in challenging every symbol of authority at the sweatshop and puts himself in harm's way countless times to save his young friend Paco and wife Leina (Cecilia Camacho). He had miraculous recuperative powers as well, as evidenced by the amazing comeback against the Suarez henchman who knifed him in the back and razored his face in the saloon brawl. When Romero came off the truck at Suarez' place, he looked none the worse for wear and his face was perfectly clean. But except for the kid being noble, this was pretty much Telly's flick. I don't know if I've seen Michael Gazzo as any character other than Frankie Five Angels in "Godfather II", but he was pretty effective here as the smuggling kingpin Suarez. Too bad the picture fell apart right at the very end when Cooper (Savalas) turned the bus around and rammed the border station for no apparent reason other than to end things in a slam-bang way, but what was the point? There was no follow up, and to my mind, Cooper and the Mexican couple could have wound up goners. Oh well.One final note, and this is a real puzzler. Remember the Mexican café where the female hitchhiker tried to get Cooper to give her a ride across the border? The name of the café was 'El Beisbolista Fenomeno'. Translated, it means 'The Baseball Phenomenon'. Anyone know what that was all about?

Comeuppance Reviews Frank Cooper (Savalas) is a tough guy working border enforcement on the Mexico border. He seems to have an ambivalent attitude about letting illegals cross over, preferring to take naps and let them cross. He is very close to his 20-and-out retirement. When his partner is injured and he gets a new one, Hale (Robin Clarke) he doesn't understand his ways. Cooper has plenty of clashes with Commander Moffat (Albert) - mainly because Moffat is corrupt and in bed with Chico Suarez (Gazzo). Suarez is an unpleasant and merciless Coyote, spiriting illegals into the USA to work at very unpleasant jobs where they are abused by the management.One of Cooper's best friends is a young man named Benito Romero (De La Paz). He's a scrappy kid who just wants to have a good life with his new wife Leina (Camacho), so he ends up working for Suarez. Unfortunately, he gets trapped and can't come home. He and his compatriots are abused by their gringo bosses and Romero is seen as a troublemaker. Once Cooper gets wind of what's going on, he tries to sort out the situation in his own way...meanwhile Romero wants to get revenge on his captors. Is that possible in this dangerous world? Without Telly, there would be no movie. That's really the bottom line. While this is a dark, somewhat violent drama perfect for the drive-in era, only Telly's charisma saves the movie from utter mediocrity. In one of the more interesting turns in the film, Romero and his friends are forced to work in an abattoir - and there are graphic, extended, documentary scenes of cows being slaughtered, skinned and gutted. Why we need to see this, I don't quite know.Illegal Mexicans come in strapped under a car Sideshow Bob-style at the beginning of the film, and that's when all hell breaks loose. Eddie Albert is a classic actor (not to be confused with Punchy himself, Edward Albert), whose career goes at least back to the 1930's. His role is fairly small, but important and he fills it well. His partner in crime Suarez is played by another classic actor, Michael Gazzo. Despite having a long and fruitful career, his name should be more well known. If you haven't seen it yet, please check out the movie Fingers (1978). He's in it and it's a great film.Despite its flaws, mainly that the plot isn't as cohesive as it could have been, and could have used some more action, Border Cop is a relevant, serious movie that Telly fans should check out.For more insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com

vandino1 This little mediocrity is an attempt to show the misery of illegal immigration between the U.S. and Mexico (well, where else?: is there any misery between the U.S. and Canadian border?) But this attempt is a sad misfire. I have a feeling Charles Bronson was offered the part and turned it down since Savalas is all wrong as a tired, miserable, mostly friendless, near-retirement, border enforcement cop. Bronson or Rod Steiger, maybe, but Savalas is far too cool and commanding a presence to play such a loser role. Then again, the filmmakers can't seem to figure out if he's just another cop or some powerful hombre who is not to be messed with (Eddie Albert, as his superior, alternatively barks at him and cowers, looking for help from villain Michael Gazzo to stop Savalas since Albert is seemingly helpless). As it is, Savalas saunters through the film growling at everyone and making sure to keep his shirt split open to offer his lady fans plenty of Telly cleavage (probably a requirement he forced on the producers --written into his contract as the 'Open Shirt Clause.') Otherwise, you get a solid performance from Michael Gazzo as the smuggler king, and the sight of a little cutie named Cecelia Camacho. The film's "claim to fame" such as it is will be found in the rather gruesome slaughterhouse scene where no CGI, puppets, stand-ins or make-up effects were used: just good ol' fashioned cow slaughter. Never a pleasant sight to see where our meat meets its maker (although on a personal level I find Telly's cleavage slightly more gruesome). Lastly, there is the ridiculous finale where Savalas has the option to avoid a confrontation with his superior Albert and smuggler Gazzo, taking his pals De La Paz and Camacho to safety... but instead decides it would be more productive to seemingly kill himself and the two people he just saved in order to ram his beloved camper through the border gate and run over Gazzo inside the security office. And to top it off we don't find out exactly what happened afterward. Sheesh!