*** Welcome to piglix ***

Death Warrant (film)

Death Warrant
Death warrant poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Deran Sarafian
Produced by Mark DiSalle
Written by David S. Goyer
Starring
Music by Gary Chang
Cinematography Russell Carpenter
Edited by John A. Barton
Cheryl Kroll
G. Gregg McLaughlin
Production
company
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date
  • September 14, 1990 (1990-09-14)
Running time
89 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $6 million
Box office $46.7 million

Death Warrant is a 1990 American action crime mystery-thriller film directed by Deran Sarafian and produced by Mark DiSalle. The film was written by David S. Goyer while a student at USC, and was Goyer's first screenplay to be sold and produced commercially. In the film, the police detective Louis Burke is going into a prison facility at California as an undercover cop in order to find out who stands behind a mysterious series of murders, and finds himself locked up with his arch-nemesis; Christian Naylor, a psychotic serial killer who calls himself "The Sandman" whom sets out to exact revenge upon him after getting into prison.

Death Warrant was released on September 14, 1990. Upon its release, the film grossed $46 million against production budget of only $6 million. The film received general mixed to poor critical reaction from critics who found the direction, its storyline, villain, and the plot poor, but highly praised the acting as well as the action scenes and the thrilling atmosphere.

Detective Louis Burke (Jean-Claude Van Damme) of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police from Quebec, confronts the maniac that killed his partner on the force. Later, Burke confronts his arch-nemesis; Christian Naylor (Patrick Kilpatrick), a psychopathic serial killer who calls himself "The Sandman" whose tracked down to an abandoned house in Los Angeles. Although the Sandman nearly kills him, Burke is able to shoot the Sandman several times, but not killing him.

Sixteen months later, Burke joins a task force put together by the governor to investigate a series of unexplained deaths in the Harrison State Prison in California. While Burke poses as an inmate, attorney Amanda Beckett (Cynthia Gibb) acts the role of his wife. Burke and Beckett don't care for each other much in the beginning.

In the penitentiary, Burke is forced to survive in a dismal and dangerous environment. Even though he is surrounded by hostility and suspicion, Burke succeeds in befriending a few of the inmates, including his cellmate Konefke (Conrad Dunn), Hawkins (Robert Guillaume) and Priest (Abdul Salaam El Razzac), who help him with the investigation. It is later revealed that the prisoners are being murdered for their body organs.


...
Wikipedia

...