- Directed by George Erschbamer
- August 21, 1992 (Canada) / October 7, 1992 (US)
A cop on suspension attempts to save a kidnapped student from sex trafficking biker gangs.
Snake Eater III: His Law is the third and final film in the Snake Eater trilogy. Much like Snake Eater II: The Drug Buster, His Law began as something unrelated. In this case it was initially an adaptation of the book Rafferty’s Rules by Australian-based American author W. Glenn Duncan. Also like the last one, Officer Jack ‘Soldier’ Kelly (Lorenzo Lamas) is the only one that carries over from the predecessor.
Soldier is not as much of a jerk or a general creep as he was in the first two films. His one-liners have gotten a little funnier and his character is a little more defined. This time he’s taking on a biker gang that kidnapped a young girl named Vivian (Tracey Hway) and raped and abused her to the point that she’s psychologically broken. Possible weighty stuff that intrigues a viewer.
Soldier is paired with another mononymous character referred to as ‘Cowboy’ (Minor Mustain) who is, well, a cowboy. You can tell by the hat. That’s the whole character. When he works, he really works and be way more interesting and funny than Soldier. He and soldier are working together because Soldier needs a detective’s license to stay relatively within the law during this latest caper.
Lorenzo Lamas turns in a better performance in comparison to the other films. There is an effort to create a character rather than a caricature. He handles the humor of the script quite well. Despite some really serious aspects, this is much more of an action comedy with Lamas getting in/being a part of some great jokes.
The idea (at least that involving the girl) is good and when you think about it upsetting but how it is shown on screen is lazy and/or muted. Some of that rests at the feet of the cast. Some of the rest goes to director George Erschbamer who is not exactly skilled and uses gratuitous nudity in the movie when often something more skilled is needed.
Remember the wrestler Bam Bam Bigelow? If you don’t know, he was a heavily tattooed man who did cartwheels during his days in the then-WWF. He plays a low ranking and overall unimportant to the hierarchy biker gang member that plays a big part in this movie. He’s in here so much that you would think he’s the main threat but he’s not.
Not every wrestler can spend a great deal of time on the screen. Some can be entertaining supporting characters and that’s where I feel Bam Bam Bigelow rested. He brings much of his wrestling schtick to his part as a biker and the longer it goes on the less effective it becomes. They should’ve limited his time.
In one of this movie’s many wild swings, ‘Goose’ (Scott ‘Bam Bam’ Bigelow) goes from comedic biker to dangerous psychopath. Soldier’s toughness and machismo tactics lead him to the guy’s stripper girlfriend (Holly Chester) who’s looking to get out of the relationship. She doesn’t really provide too much that Soldier doesn’t already know but Soldier takes her out of the strip club because simply interacting with him has put her life in danger.
When Goose kills her, the death is not impactful at all to Soldier. At least not enough to make him angry. I don’t think he even bats an eyelash. Her death is not motivation to keep him working even harder to get revenge for the abused girl. Her death is an excuse for an interesting kill that they try to frame as a way of working up the ladder, but they already know where the people live pretty much by then.
The action we get is good for a TV show or TV movie but for a feature film, even one that’s direct-to-video, it’s kind of weak and poorly staged. Some of it doesn’t even make sense in the most highly choreographed fight. It’s like they’re trying to add a little razzle-dazzle while working on the fly.
For me the best part of His Law hands down is how the girl gets her life back. I did not see it coming given the general shallow nature of this movie and the others in the series. It was shocking and made sense when executed. I think they needed to give some kind of timeframe for the wrap-up scene because Vivian was quite healthy afterwards. The closing scene could have happened the next day or the next year since we get no context.
In that moment, Lamas demonstrated some real action hero charm. He wasn’t the creepy or mildly sexist machismo parody. He was much more of an old-fashioned hero. He was a manly man with a strong code of ethics and did the right thing and when doing the right thing was unstoppable. I just think the means of payment needed a bit more of a connection to the beginning to add a wraparound to the whole story.
Yet the movie is clunky and the dialogue rough. Acting, such as it is here, does the film no favors. This could have been a meatier than most action movies. It fails because the films is unfocused spending too much time on stuff that does not matter or finding an excuse to show boobs.
Snake Eater III: His Law is no cinematic achievement nor is it a great film. It’s just better than the other two and because of that a little more satisfying. I wasn’t bored but it just needed better effort.
