LogFAQs > #977584533

B

"What about an action movie?" you suggest.

"Ooh, yeah, there's one I've been meaning to watch," Beast Boy says. "Battle of Blood!"

Robin takes the remote to search that and find it on the On Demand menu, just like Slumber Party Massacre.

"Isn't that one also rated R?" Robin says.

"What're you so worried about?" Cyborg asks. "At least this one is just about violence, not lewd stuff."

"I guess..." Robin says, still a bit nervous.

Beast Boy presses play, and as things begin, it is already apparent this is low level 1980s action movie material. Something about that makes it fun already.

Story wise, this seems like a knockoff of Bloodsport with Jean-Claude Van Damme. The main character, Jesse Vyse (pronounced like "vice"), is a young man trained in martial arts, joins the police and becomes a detective, as opposed to Jean-Claude playing Frank Dux who was in the American military.

But to the point, Detective Vyse works homicide and is on the case of a body drifting in Seafoam City Bay. And though bloated from being in the water, it's clear this man was pummeled and beaten.

"Did someone hate this guy or what?" Detective Grady, Vyse's partner, says.

"But there are also defensive wounds," Medical Examiner Fry says as he shows them the man's hands. "See? This is the kind of bruising from punching and hitting something with fists, and these are bruises from guarding."

"So he fought this someone and lost," Vyse surmises.

"And lost big," Grady says. "We gotta ask around, see who saw this guy before the fight."

Identification is difficult from the battered and bloated face, and there's nothing in the man's pants pockets, but fingerprints help. This is one David Brose, gym teacher for Seafoam High School. Vyse and Grady of course go to the school to ask about Mr. Brose.

"A big strong guy, but not the kind of guy who would get into fist fights," Vyse says after the interviews.

"Wait, isn't that his parking spot?" Grady asks as they pass a line of cars.

They see the sign reading "Mr. Brose," but parked in the spot is a red Ferrari 308 GTS.

"What's a gym teacher doing with a car worth one and a half times his salary?" Grady asks.

"Time to look into his financials," Vyse says.

The detectives return to their Buick Skyhawk Type T, and then things cut to back in the precinct. They get the bank records, and see quite the roller coaster. Mr. Brose was making fairly big withdrawals of a couple thousand dollars, then making incredibly big deposits in the tens of thousands. And credit card records show him having a room at the Rhea River Hotel, known for having a casino.

"Mr. Brose was a gambler," Vyse says.

"And a good one to be multiplying his money like that," Grady says. "Oh, maybe not that good. Looks like the deposits started falling off."

"Maybe he got desperate," Vyse says. "Remember what that one kid said about a guy talking to Brose behind the gym?"

"Loan sharks don't usually kill the people that owe them," Grady says. "But they do hang around casinos. Let's go check it out."

The detectives go to Rhea River Hotel and find the casino. And we get a glimpse of some rather shady characters as they watch the detectives.

The mud cake is done with phase one, so you take it out, loosely cover with foil, and put it back in the oven to cook for another hour.

Back in the movie, the detectives ask employees, from dealers to cigarette girls to the bartender to the manager about Brose. They all deny having seen Brose, but the financial records do get the manager to sweat. They ask to see video of the last few weeks, since they know cameras are in the casino to keep the players honest. The manager concedes and lets them see the footage, and they have proof Brose was here and 90% of the employees were lying just now.

The manager sweats more, knowing he and the employees are in trouble for hindering the investigation, but then the manager's boss walks in. He introduces himself as Ludovico Haviaras, and he smooths things over, saying with all the guests they see, his employees can't be expected to remember everyone that come in. Vyse counters with how video also goes against those claims.

"Brose was a high roller," he says. "He won big, spent big, everyone had a good time when he was around. People tend to remember guys like that."

Haviaras does his best to keep his smile and counters Vyse by asking if there's any evidence as to foul play. There is not, so Haviaras "politely" asks the detectives leave so that the guests can enjoy their stay. Vyse & Grady go but they're both suspicious of Haviaras.

However, looking into Haviaras, he's fairly clean. Some accusations but nothing could ever be proven. But Vyse says nothing could be disproven, either. Vyse suggests they go get Brose's car to see if there are other clues in it.

But as Vyse & Grady return to the school, someone's driving away in it? Grady blocks the Ferrari's path, the driver gets out of the car to complain, but it's one of the shady characters from the casino! And when he realizes it's the detectives, he tries to run for it! Vyse chases the guy down while Grady secures the Ferrari!

The chase in the school leads to a dead end but the shady guy tries to go up the chainlink fence! Vyse catches him and drags him down! The shady guy brings out a knife and gets ready to fight, but Vyse is also ready.

"Finally, some action," Beast Boy says.

Not bad fight choreography for 1980s, but a very dramatic use of slow motion and a lot of spit flying when Vyse lands a back fist on the guy. Vyse tells him to surrender but the guy keeps fighting, so Vyse ends up punching him again, breaking the guy's nose and causing blood to pour out! The shady guy realizes he's caught, so he runs from Vyse to go after Grady. Grady sees the knife, brings out his gun, and though Vyse shouts for him not to, Grady shoots the shady guy to avoid getting stabbed!

Vyse runs up to shady guy and asks how he has the keys to Brose's car. But the shady guy just laughs and lets himself die!

"He wanted you to kill him," Vyse says to Grady. "So that he couldn't tell us the truth."

"Why would he do that?" Grady asks.

ME Fry examines shady guy, Randy Larosa. He wasn't the one who fought Brose, there are no wounds on Larosa that suggest Brose hit him, and none of the bruises on Brose match up to Larosa's hands or feet. Vyse backs that up by thinking on Larosa's fighting style. He went right for a knife, but there are no stab wounds or cuts. The more Vyse thinks about it, Brose looked to have blocked kicks and grapples.

Grady gets frustrated trying to fit the pieces together. Brose is a gambler whose luck was running out. Rhea River Hotel denies seeing him but the cameras say otherwise. Brose's car was being stolen by someone just hours after they visited the hotel (dramatic irony is that only the audience knows Larosa was there). What's connecting all these things?

But then they DO find something that connects Larosa to the hotel, as he has one of their cigarrette packs in his jacket. And Larosa had to have taken notice of Brose to know he had the Ferrari.

"This can't just be a mugging gone wrong," Vyse says. "Why would everyone at Rhea River pretend they didn't know Brose?"

A) Take a guess
B) Keep quiet