Watch Mean Johnny Barrows For Free

That was an excellent one.

Just perfect...

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Fred Williamson directs himself for the first time in Mean Johnny Barrows, a mercifully brief actioner which has a far better cast than it deserves. The plus points include the terrific soul-funk soundtrack (even if it is poured a little too thoughtlessly over the on-screen events), a memorable cameo appearance from Elliot Gould, and a handful of decently handled action sequences. The negatives would probably take too long to list in full, but chief amongst them are the general air of dispiritedness that hangs over the film, the hopelessly weak script and the largely listless acting. Folks like Roddy McDowall, Stuart Whitman and Luther Adler are capable of much more than is required of them here – their performances are lazy and unconvincing.Vietnam vet Johnny Barrows (Fred Williamson) returns from 'Nam with a dishonourable discharge after striking his commanding officer (the C.O. did deserve it though, having let Johnny step on a live land-mine as a prank). Johnny returns to his home town but finds it tough getting by. Jobs are few; crime and mugging is aplenty; and the cops seem more part of the problem than the solution. Johnny is approached by gangster Mario Racconi (Stuart Whitman), who offers him a job as a well-paid hired heavy, carrying out beatings and killings for the powerful Racconi family. Johnny refuses point blank, taking up an honest job at a petrol station instead. Meanwhile, gang warfare erupts between the Racconis and a new Mob family-in-town, the Da Vinces. Johnny tries to remain impartial to the violence, but when Mario's girlfriend Nancy (Jenny Sherman) is taken prisoner by the da Vinces he finally snaps. Seems Johnny has developed a soft spot for Nancy and won't stand for her coming to any harm. He finally relents and agrees to go after the da Vinces, working through the entire family, including the youngest son, Tony (Roddy McDowall).There's a plot twist towards the end which doesn't make much sense, including a particularly bizarre final scene involving a land-mine (presumably intended to link things back to the opening scene?) The relationship between Nancy and Johnny – so important to the plot, since it governs his ultimate decision to start killing people after spending most of the film trying to go straight – is hopelessly under-developed. Sherman is too bland as Nancy anyway, making it hard to understand exactly what draws Johnny to her in the first place. There are a few flashes of neatly choreographed, violent action, but all in all Mean Johnny Barrows is a pretty lacklustre offering which isn't worth making any effort to see.

I wanted to see this movie, Williamson's debut as a director, because I have long suspected that Williamson once knew how to make an action movie (at least Blaxploitation style) and later got bored and started directing filler.Well, I was wrong - Williamson was a bad director from the get go.The problem with most of his films - including this one - is that one has a right to expect action from an action film, even if it has some other comment to make. Williamson's action scenes are invariably dull, routine, cliché, and not very frequent.When I see a character in an action film pull out a gun, I expect him to shoot something or somebody - not just stand around posing as if just holding a gun was in itself exciting - one might as well hold a broom.But as in most Williamson-directs-Williamson films, when the gun comes out... he stands and, well... just stands there.An off-beat Elliot Gould performance slips through - otherwise, noting much here. And Landau is at his worst, which is just what Mr. Williamson wanted from him - what a waste of time! Don't let it waste yours.

I wish someone would put Fred's directorial debut out in a decent widescreen DVD. The pan and scan versions out there now are so tightly cropped that they add a quality of hilarity even when the film is actually hitting some pretty serious notes (the pan and scan job is so bad it is almost like some kind of Austin Powers gag). But that said, I'm sure that much of the film would still be hilariously inept in any aspect ratio. In fact, the climax features THE most unintentionally comical Kung Fu fight ever put to film. I mean how often have you seen an actor start a butt-kicking by suddenly making snake moves with his hands and going "ASsssssssssshhhhhhhhsh sh sh sh"?But there are some very effective moments as well, especially a brief cameo from Elliot Gould, who must have hit upon VERY hard times in the five years between MASH and this. And the sequence in which Johhny lets loose his anger by blasting and summarily cremating a mob boss almost seems like it's from another, much better, movie.Anyway, it's a crazy hodgepodge, but I'd still like to see it in the original widescreen. Fred rules!

Mean Johnny Barrows is one mean a dull of a film.Basically it tells the story of Johnny Barrows, a former soldier who gets booted out of the army for striking an officer.As he returns to his hometown, he gets mugged and robbed and therefore, he is left penniless.Determined to start his life up again, he goes around looking for a job. There, he works at a garage and meets up with this chick called Nancy.However, prior to his job, he gets recruited by Mario Racconi when he gets gunned down by the Da Vinci family following a truce that went wrong.Determined to take on the job, Johnny goes round bumping off each member of the Da Vinci family until he reaches a climatic end putting a full scale on them with a double-barrelled shot gun.Well afterwards, what happens..? Someone puts a contract out on him. But who..?Well, it comes to show with a classic film like this, there are some good moments as well as bad. A good cast though, even Fred Williamson directed this flick.Not bad, but after all it is one mean of a dull film!