cult film freak: JUDD NELSON IS 'RELENTLESS' WITH LEO ROSSI & ROBERT LOGGIA

Year: 1989 Rating: ***1/2

In the mid-1980's, starting out with famously low-budget Cannon Films in MAKING THE GRADE before breaking into Universal stardom for THE BREAKFAST CLUB, by 1989, Judd Nelson was back in the little leagues...

Getting first-billed in exploitation drive-in maestro William Lustig's RELENTLESS, a kind of revamp of WHILE THE CITY SLEEPS involving Nelson as a man-child serial killer, motivated by the media's goading perception of his ultra-violent actions based on lonely loser motivations...

Judd Nelson in RELENTLESS

That's until later... as most of the story's an equal trading-off of two genres and characters: a horror/thriller where Nelson's offbeat weirdo stalks and kills various victims (like he's a resilient Michael Myers), and a police-procedural involving third-billed but actual central star Leo Rossi, a New York cop turned LA detective, partnered with experienced, world-weary Robert Loggia...

Their scenes feel like something from an hour-long episodic TV-series, including Rossi's home-life with Meg Foster, sharing about the constant bickering against his veteran partner: not wanting to work very hard to stop a killer who can't be stopped...

Robert Loggia and Leo Rossi in RELENTLESS

Yet director Lustig's more at home with Nelson's side, ultimately targeting three victims and, a combination of his MANIAC and MANIAC COP body-count vehicles, these are the most suspenseful scenes... each murder with its own beginning, middle and end...

As Rossi, who would headline two straight-to-video sequels... making RELENTLESS one of those franchises no one asked for... is always a surprisingly effective in-your-face actor despite his usual c-movie billings, while Judd Nelson... who's more than effectively pulled-off hyperactive scoundrels with THE BREAKFAST CLUB or slowburn ant-heroes like in BLUE CITY... could have been played by anyone.