cult film freak: CHARLES BRONSON INVESTIGATES 'MESSENGER OF DEATH'

Blu Ray artwork cover for Cannon Films/Charles Bronson MESSENGER OF DEATH Year: 1988 Rates: ***1/2

The only time famous bullet-blaster Charles Bronson uses a shotgun in MESSENGER OF DEATH is to blow a hole in a casket: The usual killer of bad guys is now killing the corpse... of a preacher... yet there's a twist. And for the most part, like CHINATOWN, the plot involves water in what's more Neo Noir/Thriller than Action...

Although there are a few big road-hogging trucks and one big gunfight (that Bronson actually verbally thwarts) pitting three Mormon clans against each other. Which resulted from the ultra-violent prologue where professional assassins slaughter an entire Utah family. So Bronson, playing a famous and intrepid reporter, is on the case.

Charles Bronson and Trish Van Devere in MESSENGER OF DEATH

Instead of an ingenue there's Trish Van Devere as a Colorado reporter providing clues. But a group of intellectuals in Bronson's territory seem more logical culprits (including Van Devere's COLUMBO victim Laurence Luckinbill)...

Meanwhile, Gene Davis, the sole killer from 10 TO MIDNIGHT, is the driver of this film's killer, and, overall, MESSENGER is the kind of slowburn vehicle that might disappoint hardcore Bronson addicts, but it gets better after several viewings. Once you know where things are going, the pulpy cornball dialogue and melodrama is an easier pill to swallow.