Kino Lorber
Nowadays, athletes across the gambit of sports play to the crowds and the cameras with feuds, attitude and outrageous fashion choices, making it part of the entertainment factor of watching almost any given sport for both the athleticism as well as the personalities.
As such, this showboating showmanship is hardly anything new, but it had to start somewhere, and one of the pioneers of the heavily marketed image was Brian Bosworth AKA the Boz carefully curated persona, building himself up as a villain that seemed more at home in a WrestleMania ring than on the gridiron where the linebacker made a name for himself as both a player and a personality.
After the college football phenomenon’s subsequent NFL career slowly fizzled out over a few seasons with the Seattle Seahawks, Bosworth turned to action films.
Armed with abundant charisma and that haircut were begging to join the leagues of musclebound beefcakes dispatching bad guys while nonchalantly spitting out one-liners.
Bosworth’s film debut sees him play the role of Joe Huff, an Alabama cop suspended for using excessive force on the job, who is approached by the FBI to go undercover and attempt to infiltrate the white supremacist biker gang The Brotherhood and foil their plans from within.
From the onset, Stone Cold is entirely aware of how preposterous it is, and it leans into this with gleeful abandon in an opening scene for the ages, and Bosworth’s commitment to the bit is only matched by Lance Henriksen and William Forsythe doing double duty as the baddies spearheading the ruthless biker gang.
More absurdities ensue, creating an action film that at once fully understands how excessive the action filmmaking style at the time was, but also ventures to competently execute all of its elements in order to entertain with intent.
Unfortunately, the film almost grinds to a halt throughout most of its middle with a series of repetitive back-and-forths between our hero and the suspicious leaders of The Brotherhood, dragging on and losing the momentum established with the Cobra-inspired opener, however, it does pick up speed again with a showdown between Bosworth and Forsythe with an explosive outcome before an unhinged finale.
The action sequences as a whole are carried out with a ferocity and intensity that places Stone Cold at a much higher tier than most would expect from the debut feature of a former football player, just as the biker angle not only lends the film a more novel context in terms of its narrative setting, but it also enables utilizing a different type of stunt work, which is executed without holding back, thus ensuring the film delivers in terms of spectacle as well.
When Stone Cold is at its best, it charges into ridiculousness territory on par with the likes of Cobra and Showdown In Little Tokyo, and it is a delight to witness such unabashed excess from an era where action films went to such absurd extremes that they are fondly remembered and revisited to this day due this approach, and Stone Cold deserves your attention if you want to add another staple to your over-the-top action movie catalogue, flaws and all.
Extras include multiple commentaries, featurettes, interviews, TV spots, trailers, and additional promotional material.
Verdict: 7 out of 10.
