Night Game [1989] [VHS]

Former minor league baseball player turned detective Mike Seaver (Roy Scheider) is having a helluva time juggling his private life alongside the trials and tribulations of the day job; what with his much younger fiancé Roxy (Karen Young) fixated on their wedding and a hooked maniac cutting up other younger women - 'ol Seaver truly has his plate full. However, when he discovers a new murder victim washed up on his local beach (its okay, a shark didn't do it) - he connects the dots leading to a terrifying conclusion that they may have a honest to goodness serial killer on their hands. In fear of bumbling the case, the local police call in outside help (in the form of 'Die Hard's' Paul Gleason and 'Prison's' Lane Smith) much to Seaver's chagrin, causing even further fireworks in the department... However, these '80s alpha males have to step up to the plate and put their personal issues aside as Mike's obsession with baseball proves a deciding factor in how to catch this particular killer...Director Peter Masterson's off the cuff crime/horror hybrid is a bizarre watch for sure. From the bonkers screenplay (by Anthony Palmer) which veers uncomfortably from police procedural to odd relationship drama to full-on '80s slasher flick, its hard to get a grasp on the movie. Lead Scheider is great as always putting in a bright n' breezy performance (we also get to see him disco dance which is... y'know... nice) but sadly the filmmakers conspire against him: Its neither here or there in the story department and the tonal shifts from light comedy to heightened drama to dark horror movie with lashing of the red stuff fail to connect to his performance or indeed, its intended audience. Nothing really lands and just as you get comfortable with one style of the movie, it flips back into another one and then, strangely another... I have no issue with a movie playing with genres but this one reeks of post production tinkering (i'm not sure if it did, but it sure feels like it) and a lack of vision as to what the final product was supposed to be. Its a shame as Scheider deserved more, as did the sizeable name of recognisable co-stars in support (the aforementioned Gleason, Lane, 'Jaws The Revenge's' Karen Young and Richard Bradford to name a few) who are never fully given the chance to shine...Olive Film's US Region 1 DVD release features a strong transfer with vibrant audio, but sadly no extra features. The case design features a hook embedded menacingly into a base ball leading you to believe this is a long lost slasher in the vein of 'Friday the 13th' or something, but as I mentioned above - hardcore horror fans will be disappointed by the meandering screenplay and lack of definition into what genre this actually belongs to (READ: None I'm aware of). However, intrepid fans of the bizarre and Roy Scheider completists (which I may be... erm...) may get something out of this odd little flick. Recommended on that basis, but approach with expectations firmly in place.

Good performance from Roy schneider in a good thriller

There is no real plot to this slice of Eighties cheese.Man with a hook, goes around after a baseball game and points at girls really hard, forcing their necks to open up and for them to fall over.Roy plays a rugged cop, who shouts at people and wears cool shades. You know he is trouble because of the way he has a swagger at dead people photographs, and argues with Dwayne from Die Hard.There are random sub-plots involving Schieders fiancée and her mother (whom he both dated) and something to do with the bloke from the new adventures of superman.It should be awful, it really should, but thanks to the unnecessary sexy soundtrack, and the fact that Schieder busts a move, it's watchable only for the fact that it's so funny and predictable.In some ways it reminded me of The Hero And The Terror, and the fact that the killers victims decide to stand there and scream, rather than run, or in the funniest scene, leave a nightclub full of people where it is safe, when you are being followed by a man with a hook hand, who looks really unstable.Schider is watchable as ever, and saves the film from its averageness.It's not for everyones taste, and i'm sure i'll never watch it again, but it was okay for a late eighties thriller.