The South Shore Movie Guild meets typically once a month, usually to watch something in the horror/sci-fi/action genres in quality running from high (usually a horror movie) to abjectly terrible (usually when we watch action). The group's been running for years now, starting as a weekly horror movie night in October between a co-worker and I and then expanding to four members and meeting once a month (except in October, where we keep up the weekly tradition). Last night we had our December meeting, which some how ended up being The Ultimate Weapon. The Ultimate Weapon is a fairly typical late 90s direct to video action film, the kind of fare you might see on basic cable or, say, a Saturday afternoon playing on a local UHF station like Boston's very own TV38. The plot is very typical of the time. Hulk Hogan (Rocky III) is "Hardball" Cutter, a mercenary is tired of his lifestyle and is experiencing nightmares about being killed while trying to protect his estranged daughter Mary Kate (Cynthia Preston, Prom Night III). His ex-wife drank herself to death; his current girlfriend Lorrie (Lynne Adams) wants him to give up his profession before he gets killed like his old partner "Cobra". "Hardball" rejects her demands to quit and takes another job from "Top" Drummond (Vlasta Vrana, Happy Birthday to Me). Paired with "Cobra"'s son Dean (Carl Marotte (i.e. the goofy New Wave guy from My Bloody Valentine), "Top" sends "Hardball" to secure a cache of arms in the hands of Serbian warlords and hand them over to an unarmed UN team lead by McBride (Daniel Pilon, sporting the world's worst braided pony tail). "Hardball" realizes that McBride is actually a member of the IRA, and, at the last-minute, decides to finally do the right thing, blowing up the cache of arms and leaving McBride behind in Serbia. The result of his fit of conscience is a blood feud, with angry IRA terrorists attempting to get to "Hardball" through his daughter and girlfriend.![]()
