Review of Murphy`s Law

Introduction

Charlie’s in a vendetta kind of mood… again. Stalking the urban jungle for low-lives after a loved-one is slaughtered under an improbably paranoid pretext… again. As per video-box-blurb demands he’s a rogue cop who plays by his own rules, garnering only reluctant respect from his colleagues because he gets results damnit! The twist here is that Bronson is framed for the murder of his ex-wife (who’s succumbed to the strip-club underworld, thus assuring that we don’t miss her that much) by a demented, vengeful murderess (Carrie Snodgress). Thus Bronson goes on the run with a fellow prisoner (Kathleen Wilhoite) and after his best friend is scuttled by the hatchet-faced femme, things get personal… again. Cue more vicarious violence as Bronson deals out “justice” to assorted “scum bags” with gradually deteriorating levels of wit and cathartic resolution.

Video

Anamorphic, an unexpected lack of major print damage, apart from that it’s a fairly average MGM back catalogue transfer.

Audio

Functional, no frills stereo in multiple languages, presumably to cater for Bronson`s militant Italian fan-base?

Features

El zilcho. Even scene selections seem to have been fallen by the wayside in MGM`s relentless charge to demean the value of the medium.

Conclusion

A pacey, violent genre picture, its ham-fisted assembling of the obligatory elements leavened with a brazen feminine touch (courtesy of writer Gail Morgan Hickman and two memorable female characters) which tempers the standard nonchalant brutality by re-directing the focus, somewhat, onto areas of vulnerability and emotional sincerity, aided by a weathered performance from Bronson.

‘Murphy’s Law’ isn’t quite as grimly fatalistic as many of Bronson’s earlier pictures, thanks largely to the rich vein of crude humor courtesy of grubby foul-mouthed sidekick Arabella McGee (Wilhoite), wisely partnered alongside Bronson’s uptight square. The results are as if Arnie developed rheumatoid arthritis and Linda Hamilton decided to punctuate every sentence with a pungent obscenity. Among Arabella’s colourful adolescent portfolio: “snot-rag”, “camel-crotch”, “snot-licking donkey fart”, “jissom-breath scrotum-cheeks”, “f***brains”, “dildo-nose”, “butt-crust” etc.

On the down-side is a convoluted plot which overloads the narrative with gratuitous baddies for Bronson to waste with his usual sledgehammer subtlety (a mob of sadistic hoodlums who attempt to rape Arabella are a particularly crass lapse into needless target-practice.) At the top of the list is the eye-poppingly deranged Snodgress, who whacks people under the barest of pre-requisites by absurdly contrived means. Given Bronson’s stereotype-ingrained police mentality however, Snodgress is mistaken for Vincenzo (Richard Romanus), a smooth Mafiosi whose only distinguishing characteristics seem to be his penchant for wearing women’s underwear whilst watching hard-core pornography and being sucked off by an undiscerning whore.

The results are coolly misanthropic and director J. Lee Thompson’s direction is mostly steely resolve. However ‘Murphy’s Law’ never comes close to removing the tacky gloss of the exploitative low-budget right-wing libertarian action picture, where an absurdly polarised social world is subjectively re-aligned through the force of a morally righteous individual. And nothing, not even lines of brash tastelessness like “Look Helen Keller, read my lips” are able to disguise the fact.