Not even bad in a good way

Just perfect...

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

The movie is based on Donald Westlake's (Writing under the Pseudonym Richard Stark) classic crime suspense novel SLAYGROUND, featuring the sociopath profession criminal, Parker, from a series of books with that same character. The director of the movie apparently decided he didn't like the books or their main character. In this stupid and clichéd thriller, he uses neither. More or less, the director or producer, whoever made this inept decision, simply took the title of the novel and cooked up a script bearing no relation to the book or any in the series, in order to suite what they believed would be something better. If you're looking for the Parker from the Richard Stark PARKER novels, forget about it. He's been replaced by a small time hood who spews out lines like, "I'm a thief, not a killer." "I'm afraid." "I've never killed anybody." I'm sure if you're a fan of those novels you don't need to hear anymore. I've saved you from wasting your money on this abysmal take on SLAYGROUND. It's a shame, too, because the book would have made a classic movie, but they chose to film something else.

This is one of those movies where a robbery leads to an accidental murder(the driver's reckless speeding causes a car crash resulting in the death of a little girl; the dead girl's father sending out the hit on those responsible)with those involved paying a steep price for the hit and run. Peter Coyote is Stone, your garden variety criminal who is on the lam after a hired assassin kills his partners. Stone is shot in the back, when the assassin almost guns him down in a seemingly abandoned service station, which leaves metal in his spine that needs surgical repair or else he'll be confined to a wheel chair. He heads for London after sending his wife to Mexico for her own safety. In London is an old pal of his Terry Abbatt(Mel Smith), once an "associate"(in other words, the two worked on certain robberies together), who owes Stone for saving his life. But, the hit-man will follow suit which concludes in Terry's amusement park late at night.Cold, uninvolving thriller with even Peter Coyote, oftentimes quite reliable, failing to register. Lone asset, in my opinion, is the moody photography by Stephen Smith and Herb Wagreich, particularly the night sequences featuring the enigmatic killer in his hat, where the director keeps, for the most part, his face concealed. The violence is left off-screen and all we get are murky "after the act" shots of the victims.

With respect to the movie "Slayground" which starred Peter Coyote (1983): I was present at the filming of several scenes in Slayground. As past 1st lieutenant and Emergency Medical Technician (for many years) with Nyack Community Ambulance Corps, I had occasion to be on stand-by service, on scene, for the filming crew's safety. The opening scene which is scored with George Thorogood's "Bad to the Bone" was shot on route 9W in Haverstraw, New York,USA. One of the murder scenes (with the fish tank) was shot at a restaurant (no longer in existence) at the foot of Main Street (along the Hudson River) in Nyack, New York,USA. Another murder scene was shot in an Auto Body Repair Shop on ROUTE 9W (if I remember correctly it involved chickens) in Congers, New York,USA. The scene that shows a phone call from a Public Booth and shows, in the background, the L.H. Martin store at Samsondale Plaza shopping center was shot along Route 9W in West Haverstraw, New York,USA. The scene that involved the attempted escape and crash of the stolen armored truck was shot in the Tilcon Industries stone quarry in West Nyack, New York,USA. The film crew had their meals catered at our Corps building meeting room. Hence my review may be a little slanted toward the positive, but it was a film that was anything but boring!

Starting in New York and ending in Blackpool, SLAYGROUND is an unusual crime thriller which was quite a flop when first released (it was one of the few films Thorn EMI not only distributed but produced also) and was never seen by that many people. Based on one of the "Parker" novels written by Richard Stark (POINT BLANK and PAYBACK were also based on this series), SLAYGROUND stars Peter Coyote, British comedian Mel Smith (from Smith and Jones), in a rare dramatic role, and Billie Whitelaw. If you like tough crime thrillers, track it down.