Down Twisted (1987)

This is How Movies Should Be Made

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

"The deal is going down…But it is going DOWN TWISTED!" Perhaps this quote from the movie will help to explain the confusing title.From the title onwards, things get more and more muddled. The plot involves Maxine, a waitress with big dreams (Lowell-star of "Dangerously Close") who inadvertently gets mixed up with a gang of smugglers who are trying to get their hands on a stolen artifact called "The Crucible Of San Lucas". They almost get it in the beginning of the movie, but are double-crossed by an associate of Michelle, Maxine's roommate. The baddies believe Maxine has a key to a locker which contains the artifact. She's drugged and kidnapped and placed on a boat to San Lucas with a guy named Reno Mars (Rocket). During a scuffle they fall in the ocean and escape their captors. Now they must dodge the baddies, the military group in red berets that run the island, and other pitfalls. Plus Maxine has a job interview to get to and she has no passport to get home. Who is double-crossing who? The allegiances are constantly changing. "Twisted" tries to be peppy but it is actually sluggish. The banter between Maxine and Reno isn't that funny and the main problem is the over-reliance on cutesy humor. For example, during Carnival, Maxine dresses up as a chicken and Reno dresses up as a woman. The intention here was probably to drum up some "laffs" but sadly none are forthcoming. The main bad guy is named Deltoid…..yes, Deltoid. All characters say the name with a straight face. Unfortunately, the rest of his gang (featuring Thom Matthews of "Dangerously Close" fame-See review) are not named after muscles in the human body. This could've been a pre-"Reservoir Dogs" situation: Instead of Mr. Blonde, Mr. Pink, or Mr. Orange, there could have been Mr. Deltoid, Mr. Hamstring, and Mr. Tricep. Sadly, this was a missed opportunity, one of many, with "Down Twisted". Hawaiian Albert Pyun has a long and varied career which such gems as Cyborg , Dollman, Captain America, The Charles Sheen vehicle Postmortem, Crazy Six with Rob Lowe and Burt Reynolds, The Nemesis series, Urban Menace and The Wrecking Crew with Snoop D-O double G and the punch-fighter Bloodmatch (an upcoming review) and "Ticker" among many, many others.Get "Down" with your bad self and watch this classic tonight!Comeuppance Review by: Ty & BrettFor more insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com

Charles Rocket and Carey Lowell star as a bickering couple who must fight off the usual villains sent by a stonecutters-like underground who want a priceless artifact and are willing to kidnap and kill for. Lowell is the damsel in distress and Rocket is the knight in shining armor and the audience is bored with all of it. Keep in mind I haven't seen all of Pyun's works but I highly doubt any movie is as bad as this, watching infomercials provide more entertainment than this thing. In fact the movie is just tough to sit through, Down Twisted is so padded and uninspired you sense that nobody was interested in the material. In fact it's played so by the numbers and in neutral that one can't believe this is an adventure. Whatever this debacle is supposed to be, it's definitely not interesting and it's a must not-see!1/2* out of 4-(Awful)

One of the best art theft genre movies ever made. Lots of back stabbings with double-crossings, triple-crossings, and quadruple-crossings galore.However, it's a very 1980's movie, and didn't age well, which probably accounts for it's contemporary unpopularity. A remake would be immensely popular.For years, the only way to see Down Twisted was to catch it late at night on Cinemax. The movie was not available on VHS (except for $100 rental store copies), and isn't currently available on DVD, so you'll have to beg AMC to broadcast it.If you can find it, it's well worth the viewing.

Well, you expect it to be bad, and this particular Pyun movie is no exception. About the best that can be said about it is that the photography is somewhat improved, and you can occasionally see signs that SOME money was spent. Though it was clearly still an economic shoot, considering the number of close-ups and scenes that seem to have been very quickly set up.The rest of the movie is a dull slog through the ugliest Mexican locations Pyun could find, and a story that's particularly incoherent. In his defense, there are signs that the movie was cut up from a longer version, since some stuff that occurs in the movie seems to come out of nowhere. "Down Twisted" was apparently geared as a major release, but it seems that Cannon dumped this directly to video (or, at the very most, gave it a release in one or two cities.) For one thing, about THREE YEARS passed between the year it was made and the year it appeared on video.Albert Pyun.... Please, please, PLEASE stop making movies! You can't direct! You're an awful director (and screenwriter)! You're the Ed Wood of the 21st Century. Well, I'll take back that last remark, because as bad as Wood's movies were, he at least made them entertaining and easy to sit through!