Video Reviews : ****Excellent***Good**Fair*Poor : <i> Recent videocassette releases, reviewed by Times critics.</i> : Movies
<i> Compiled by Terry Atkinson </i>
* 1/2 “Deadly Illusion.”
RCA/Columbia. $79.95. 1987. R.
This quirky Larry Cohen script--a comic turn on the hard-boiled shamus genre, with a wise-cracking detective named Hamberger involved in a double-identity, murder, drugs and high-fashion tangle--has been almost completely diffused by low-pressure, dilutive direction. Tension is so absent that the plot twists begin to seem demented--but Billy Dee Williams radiates some mischievous tough-guy charm as Hamberger.
Only good movies
Get the Indie Focus newsletter, Mark Olsen's weekly guide to the world of cinema.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
