Mean Streak (1999) from Johnny Web (Uncle Scoopy; Greg Wroblewski)
An attempt at social significance disguised as a cop thriller. An Italian-American NYPD cop and a black FBI agent must stop the racist who intends to prevent a black baseball player from breaking the sacred 56 game hit streak held by baseball's most famous Italian player.
Turns out the would-be killer is also a serial murderer who kills one additional black person for every game added to the streak. And to make things even more complicated, he is also copying a series of murders from 15 years earlier, which nobody remembers except the NYPD cop, because he made the arrest!

What is the significance of a copycat duplicating details of murders that only one guy could possibly know? That's the mystery which the detectives are quite slow to solve.

NUDITY REPORT
Bridgid Coulter is modestly exposed in a sex scene with Scott Bakula.

Two other scenes involved incidental nudity: a stripper in a club, and a hooker with her client in a hotel room.
In the course of the investigation, the Italian cop has to come to grips with his own racism, of which is is either unaware or in denial.

VHS info from Amazon.

  • no DVD available
If the road to hell is paved with good intentions, then surely this video tape is part of the blacktop.

High aspirations, and a fairly large budget (final scene in a packed Yankee Stadium), but typical straight-to-vid quality.

The Critics Vote

  • Apollo 48/100.

The People Vote ...

  • With their votes ... IMDB summary: IMDb voters score it 5.6, Apollo users 30/100.
IMDb guideline: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence, about like three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, about like two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, about like two stars from the critics. Films under five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film, equivalent to about one and a half stars from the critics or less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

My own guideline: A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre. B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. C means it will only appeal to genre addicts, and has no crossover appeal. D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre. F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well.

Based on this description, this film is a C-.

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