Backlash 2000, Rated R Columbia/Tristar Home Video

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Movies that are made specifically for the direct-to-video market face an interesting problem: 99% of direct-to-video releases are abominable. The other 1% of direct-to-video releases are average. Either way, critical expectations for these videos are low--if the movies were any good in the first place, why weren't they released in the theatres where they could make more money? And regardless of intent, the response to direct-to-video releases is always the same. The movies are bad, or, on rare occasions, mediocre. With the limited number of positive responses to direct-to-video movies, motivating yourself to watch them can sometimes be quite taxing. And when the end product turns out to be as poor as Backlash's, you can kick yourself for even being curious about the film's content in the first place.

Tracy Needham stars in Backlash as Gina, a determined and vigilant federal prosecutor who manages to convict a Colombian drug lord, an act that ultimately results in the death of her law partner. Put under federal protection, the Colombians ignore this little matter like the 'do not rip' labels on mattresses and continue after Gina. Despite her law prowess, Gina returns to her apartment is almost killed numerous times before running into an undercover DEA agent named Frank (James Belushi) who begins to help her set things straight.

Initially, the plot material involving the Colombian drug cartel's presence in America was interesting; generally speaking, anything involving drug cartels is. However, my fascination with this drug related plot quickly wore off as Backlash's positively horrid acting, dialogue and script choices came into play.

While watching Backlash, I couldn't help but think of the sports analogy used in critiquing the play in many team sports: good teams that play to the level of the much poorer competition. In Hollywood, this translates to actors acting to the level of their director. If a director has a way with actors and knows how to coax out good performances, good acting results. In the case of Backlash, co-writer/director Jack Ersgrad had no clue how to bring a good performance out of Needham or Belushi (not that either are that bad of actors normally) and consequently, the already poor dialogue seemed stiff and unrealistically delivered. The fact that Needham's Gina insisted on going back to her apartment the night after she managed to get a conviction of one of the principal members of the drug cartel was inexcusable. People were waiting there trying to kill her? Shocking. What writer thought of that?

Even though the grand majority of direct-to-video releases are poor excuses for movies, that didn't prepare me for the utter trash I was forced to watch in Backlash. You want backlash? Just reread this review.