Black Neon

1991, vhs quality

Johnny's comments:

Black Neon is a 1990 Perth-based action drama (that's a generous reading) where Tom (Edward John Stazak) is a struggling nightclub bouncer who has recurring dreams about the time he was stabbed in the chest by low rung criminal Pharaoh (Kristof Kaczmarek) three years earlier. Tom has had enough of being bouncer and decides to quit, a decision supported by his partner Celeste (Karen Richards) who has worried about him since he was stabbed. Tom's old friend Jack (James Richards) has come back to town after drifting around the north of the country and Tom is rapt to have his old buddy back but Jack has his own issues. Jack joins Tom at the nightclub and he catches up with his old workmates including the boss Joe (James Hagan) and during the night, he helps Tom break up a fight just like old times although Tom hurts his hand. Celeste tries to talk to Tom about what happened but he can't open up, instead he sees a psychiatrist, lifts some weights, plays the piano and/or goes for a long ride on his motorbike. Then Pharaoh is released from prison, newly invigorated and now with standing and he wants it all. After breaking up a drug deal in the car park outside the nightclub(!), Tom is immediately approached by Pharaoh and he wants Tom big time, showing him a bullet with 'his name on it'. While Jack laments a lost love, Tom's dreams of Pharaoh become more vivid. On his last night on the job, Pharaoh decides to make it one Tom's going to remember and Jack will be standing side-by-side as they fight Pharaoh and his goons. But there will be collateral damage from the fight that Tom can't avoid.

Basically a lost movie until some very nice person uploaded a copy of it taped off a 90s late night airing recently, Black Neon is an odd movie to get a handle on. While it's made by the people behind Strike Of The Panther and Day Of The Panther and it's playing in similar areas, Black Neon is a darker, more introspective movie that barely has any action in it at all. And thanks to some absolutely baffling editing, the final fight scene is an absolute bust, abandoned just as it gets started and we only know the result thanks to a bizarre set of memories we see as Tom plays some relaxing piano. While the two Panther movies had the guiding hand of old pro Brian Trenchard-Smith to at least make it somewhat watchable (although that's debatable, particularly Day Of The Panther), Stazak and Richards decided to make it themselves and amateurish nature of it shows up regularly. The fight scenes are the one good thing of the Panther series but the lack of them here is baffling. Stazak again seems to be dubbed, apparently he has a high, whiny voice and here it's obvious it's not his voice. Richards (James, I wonder if he and Karen are related) is an awful actor and one scene where he breaks down crying is embarrassing to watch. Kaczmarek, who would later become a solid character actor, shows a bit of menace but isn't allowed a decent comeuppance. And Karen Richards is basically the only actress of any note in the movie except for a bit of eye candy, one Jack openly calls a 'slut' despite him very much doing the same as her. The one thing that sort of works in the movie is Tom handling his PTSD, an interesting thing to add to essentially a martial arts movie and in better hands it might've worked better within the movie. Inevitably, Black Neon can't decide whether it wants to be martial arts action movie or an introspective look at someone handling PTSD and doesn't succeed at either.

As I said above, Black Neon was basically a lost movie, although there is evidence that it may have been released locally as it has two different classifications, usually a sign that the movie was released locally. One is for the highest rating R and another, later classification is for the lower MA rating and both were made in 1994, four years after the year given at the end of the movie. And it was rated for a Medium Level Sex Scene which the Michelle Holmes scene would be a reasonable example of. The rating of the TV version is MA so who knows if the sex scene is uncut. Notably for a martial arts action movie, no mention of violence in the classification which would usually happen but as I said, there's not really much violence in the movie at all and the stabbing scene doesn't show the insertion of the knife. I can't find evidence it had a proper release and the applicant is just the producer, an indicator that it wasn't a major release but a classification suggests it may have been released. The quality of the below videos are pretty ordinary, I 'fixed' the audio and the picture isn't great but this is all there is unless a super version of the Panther series is made available and there's already a local Bluray from Umbrella that doesn't have it.

The only actress of any note in the movie is Karen Richards, who plays Tom's doting partner/wife and even she's mostly in the background. As far as I can tell, Karen Richards only other role was in Chances in the later part of the show when it went crazy. I've only seen the later episodes that appeared on the mid-2000s DVDs and Karen had quite a few nude scenes during that period. No other credits apparently and the Black Neon credit section of IMDB doesn't even list her. Sadly, it was not unusual for later series Chances actors to be never seen again. I only worked out it was Sharon Harbroe below as her character name is mentioned as a lost love of Jack's and she only appears in two, dialogueless scenes. I have no idea if Michelle Holmes is actually the name of the actress in the below scene but a reasonable deduction of the credits would suggest it's her as she's the only other female role of any note except for a prostitute character she wasn't deemed as (she was called a slut though).

Michelle Holmes film clip (sample below)