An action comedy in the late 80s or early 90s. It was about an ex cop who gets hired by the female mayor to clean up her town. The title of the movie was the main characters last name. I can only remember two parts of the movie unfortunately. The main star was riding around in a limousine with some Cuban gangsters and they were drunkenly singing the song “Guantanamera” and either throwing grenades or sticks of dynamite out the sunroof blowing things up. Later in the film the main star is accosted in the street by a gang member sent to kill him. The punk has a chrome automatic and needs to reload. He is visible nervous and keeps fumbling the job. The star I believe takes the weapon from him and lectures him on why if he is the nervous he should switch to a revolver. If anyone can help with this I would greatly appreciate it. I was looked high and low and have had no luck. Thank you for your time.
That would be Traxx from 1988. I picked up copy on VHS recently because the synopsis on the box sounded promising. I’d never heard of the movie before, probably because it went straight to video. The movie plays the comedy very broadly with a lot of over-the-top action scenes. The movie opens with Traxx (actor Shadoe Stevens, who bears a strong resemblance to Wings Hauser) wrapping up his latest job in El Salvador. He decides to return to Texas to pursue his dream of owning his own cookie business. Only Traxx can’t cook and quickly runs through his savings before he can develop a recipe that is edible. He lives in a city that is teaming with crime, so he approaches the police chief and lady mayor with an offer to clean up the city single-handedly (on the down low) in exchange for funds for his cookie business.
I gave up on the movie about half way through, but I distinctly remember one of the scenes you described. Traxx is casually driving down a street that is in utter mayhem, with about a hundred people running back and forth while thugs shoot at them. Traxx is having a conversation with a passenger and seems oblivious to any threat. A nervous thug fires several rounds directly at Traxx as he slowly drives past him, but his hands are shaking so bad that the bullets all end up ricocheting off the truck. The thug’s gun jams and he nervously fumbles with it but can’t get it to fire. Traxx stops his truck, slowly backs up, casually takes the gun from the thug’s hands, and disgustedly says something like, “You’re making me crazy.” He pops the clip out, puts it back in, turns to his left to blow away a second thug who is about to blast him with a shot gun through the passenger window. He then turns back to the first thug and tells him this is why nervous types like him should use a revolver. He then pops out the clip, tosses the gun at the thug’s feet, and tells him to be out of town by morning.
Somebody has a nice rip from the tape on youtube if you would like to watch it again. You were so damned lucky, your folks owning a video store. I bought my first VHS recorder in 1984 with my first paycheck – $600 for a 2-head mono recorder with a wired remote and I was in seventh heaven. Bought it from the lady across the street. She owned three video stores in town. In a few years, Specs and Blockbusters came to town and drove her and all the other mom and pop video stores out of business. Her stores were small, but she used to get a lot of really cool, weird titles in — cult horror, foreign classics, sleazy low budget drive-in stuff. Way cooler movies than Blockbusters ever had on the shelves. I think I spent more time wandering around her stores looking for the perfect movie than I actually spent watching them. They weren’t cheap – $3.00 for a 1-day rental. I really do miss the old video stores. I’d have been thrilled if my folks had owned a video store. That would have been a blast. You were so damned lucky.
THANK YOU!!! It has been driving me insane and I couldn’t remember Shadow’s name to save my life. My parents owned a video store when I was young so we got a lot of those obscure direct to video releases. I remember watching it a few times as a child and wanted to watch it again. It has been a nightmare only remembering those two brief scenes and then not remembering them fully! Thank you my friend I really appreciate your time and prompt response!