Well, that was a bad idea. Never try to organize a prize fight between a kangaroo and gorilla and expect the gorilla to play ball. Morrie, the Gorilla, leaped out the ring and wreaked havoc all over the Museum of Schlock. The exhibition on Menahem’s Golan’s The Apple is in tatters. Catherine Mary Stewart’s silver boots alone set me back 60 grand. Now I have the ASPCA sniffing around. Happy 4^th of July to me.

Tonight’s movie is 1986’s Out of Bounds from director Richard Tuggle. Even though it stars Anthony Michael Hall, fresh off Sixteen Candles and Weird Science, I had never heard of this movie. That might have something to do with the fact that this movie never got a release on DVD or Blu-ray. Fortunately, there’s Tubi and everything is on Tubi including this obscure thriller from the mid 80s. 

Anthony Michael Hall stars as Daryl Cage, an Iowa farm boy with dreams of getting off the family farm because it sucks there. His parents hate each other and are separating. His dad will probably lose the farm too. Daryl will soon be spending the summer with his brother. When Daryl’s dad drops him off at the airport, he says going on a fishing trip, but I’m half expecting him to leave this mortal coil of his own free will. 

Things are looking up for Daryl on his flight to Los Angeles. He meets a young woman named Dizz (Jenny Wright) who’s acted in some obscure slasher movies while working at a local diner. She tells Daryl to stop by some time and I’m rooting for this Iowa farm boy’s success with a punk rocker from Los Angeles. When Daryl meets up with his brother and his girlfriend, they have a special room just for him. It’s a little guest house, completely covered by fake plastic leaves and its door perfectly camouflaged. Talk about privacy. 

Unfortunately for Daryl, things are about to take a turn for the worse. It seems he picked up the wrong red duffle bag at the airport and there are these drug traffickers who will stop at nothing to get it back. When Daryl wakes up in the morning to find a change of underwear, he finds his tote filled to the brim with heroin. When Daryl goes inside his brother’s house to inform him of the mixed bag situation, he finds his brother and girlfriend dead (murdered!). He picks up a revolver off the ground and inspects it, but a nosy neighbor busts on the scene. Figuring Daryl is the murderer; the neighbor tries wrestling the gun away from him but is shot in the process. Daryl takes off into a strange city he’s never been to before with a bag of drugs. He tries turning himself in, but the cops open fire when they see the gun poking up through his jeans. 

Naturally, he goes to Dizzy for help and the two of them race across the city to catch the bad guys and prove Daryl’s innocence. Is Out of Bounds worth watching? Hey, you get to see Siouxsie and the Banshees performing “Cities in Dust” live on stage in one scene. That’s worth your time. 

Jeff Shuster (episode 47, episode 102, episode 124, episode 131, episode 284, episode 441, episode 442, episode 443,episode 444, episode 450,episode 477, episode 491, episode 492,episode 493, episode 495, episode 496, episode 545, episode 546, episode 547, episode 548, episode 549, episode 575, episode 596, episode 597, episode 598, episode 599, episode 642, episode 643,episode 644, episode 645, episode 670, episode 686, episode 687,  688, and 689) is an MFA graduate from the University of Central Florida.