It is so daring, it is so ambitious, it is so thrilling and weird and pointed and powerful. I never knew where it was going.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Returning home from prison, a Vietnam War veteran called Buck (Gary Busey) goes back his little town . As he arrives at home with his wife and daughter, but a violent event takes place and Buck become into vigilante . As Buck sets out to clean up his hometown which has come under the control of a violent motorcycle gang run by Blade (William Smith) . Then he turns into an avenger and taking the law into his own hands as judge , jury and executioner .With the help from a fellow Vietnam vet, Deputy Deveraux (Yaphet Kotto), Buck exacts revenge against the corrupt town sheriff (Seymour Cassel) and the violent riders . Passable crime thriller in ¨Death Wish¨ style , this one created the Vigilante genre with Bronson as the main star , here Gary Busey imitates him pretty well . It contains suspense, noisy action-packed, intrigue, thrills and lots of violence . Busey with his usual stoic acting displays efficiently his weapons and an armoured pick-up and killing mercilessly nasties . As Busey turns the one-man vigilante when his family is attacked by furious band formed by some ominous dressed-in-black punks , as his wife is murdered and daughter really upsetting ; then , he stalks the enemies and takes the law into his own hands, searching vengeance on crooks, hoodlums, muggers, making the neighborhood safer and bumping off delinquents . It's certainly thrilling , though the morality may be questionable , even in this time, as the spectators were clearly on the Gary Busey's side . Here Gary Busey is accompanied by a good support cast, such as : Yaphet Kotto , Seymour Cassel , Bert Remsen as priest and William Smith as an extremely baddie . The motion picture was professionally directed by Richard C Sarafian , though it has some flaws and gaps . Sarafian was a good craftsman and Father of actors as Richard Sarafian Jr., Tedi Sarafian, Damon B. Sarafian, and Deran Sarafian and daughter Katherine Sarafian, being Brother-in-law of Robert Altman . While employed as a reporter in Kansas City , he met the director, Robert Altman, who hired Sarafian as his assistant. Sarafian has a fruitful career making TV episodes and films and directing a classic iconic movie : Vanishing Point¨ (1971) , as his car chase sequence served as inspiration for Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof (2007) . Richard portrayed two real-life Mafia figures: Jack Dragna in ¨Bugsy¨ (1991) and Paul Castellano in ¨Gotti¨ (1996). And directed a lot of dramas and thrillers as ¨Gangster Wars¨ , ¨The next man¨, ¨Solar Crisis¨, ¨Run Wild , Run Free¨, ¨Terror at Black falls¨, ¨Fragment of Fear¨ , ¨Street Justice¨ and ¨Eye of the tiger¨

Titled after a 'Rocky' theme song but owing more to the 'First Blood' and 'Death Wish' franchises, the plot here has a Vietnam War veteran returning to his small country town after a stint in prison, only to be tormented by both the local sheriff and a drug peddling motorcycle gang. 'Eye of the Tiger' lacks the charismatic antagonists of the 'Death Wish' films and the Vietnam War commentary of 'First Blood', but Gary Busey is great in the lead role and it is a surprisingly well filmed affair. The way the camera simply lingers on Busey's traumatised daughter after a home invasion is an excellent touch and over-the-top as some of the stunts are, they are rivetingly edited. As a message movie, 'Eye of the Tiger' is hit-and-miss. There is an uneasy scene in which Busey pontificates to the uncaring locals as they play bingo and turn a blind eye to the gang's reign of terror. Busey's dialogue in general clicks though; "I grew up here" and "it's not much, but it's home" is enough to justify why he stays and does not simply leave in the first place. Moralists should be cautioned that (unlike the 'Death Wish' films), 'Eye of the Tiger' is extremely pro-vigilante without much thought dedicated to the detriments of taking the law into one's own hands. The film works surprisingly well even with a such a stance though as Busey is always first and foremost motivated out of a desire to protect his daughter rather than get revenge per se. Elements of post-Vietnam War disenchantment do not hurt either, though 'First Blood' still remains the go-to film for such an angle.

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.

"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.