"Determined to avenge his brother's death, Johnny (Robert DeNiro) goes head to head with the mob, vowing to even the score. Realizing how rough the mob can be, DeNiro enlists his closest, and meanest, friends for the savage war he knows will follow. In plots, traps, and blackmail, members of both 'families' set out on a destructive killing spree. Non-stop action from start to amazing finish!" ----- Those Line of Fire liner notes are FULL of outright lies. DeNiro isn't the avenger, he's the dead brother. The mob isn't involved at all. The avenger isn't up against ruffians, nor was DeNiro. They're wussy dilettantes. Neither DeNiro (who is dead) nor his brother enlist any close or mean friends. Nor is there any "war", savage or otherwise. What both families? After all those lies, needless to say, the claim of "non-stop action" is certainly bogus, too. ----- The original film appears to me to have been a skin flick. Perhaps you kids will find this amazing but the puny R-rated scenes of this pap were the scandalous X-rated scenes of decades ago. My guess would be that an old skin-flick was cut down to concentrate more on DeNiro's tiny part but this really LOOKS like excerpts from an old tv show added to an only slightly newer tv show level of flick with some generic porno material edited in. DeNiro's acting doesn't seem to match up with his character's nature but perhaps that's more due to the re-editing than the original acting. I could tell more from a repeat viewing of this tape but I can't bring myself to suffer through it again. ----- The star of the re-shaped film is not "unknown," by the way. He was on lots of tv crime dramas back then. If the repackager had any sense, they would have promoted this as the amusing oddity that it is, adding explanations and analysis along the lines of what you others have written here. But then repackagers DON'T have any sense. Haven't any of you real hardcore DeNiro buffs turned up the true story of this flick yet? Believe it or not, I found this v-t at my public library.
Review of Sam's Song
