Nick Randall is a Los Angeles-based bounty hunter and an ex-CIA operative, who is asked by a former co-worker to help track down terrorist Malak Al Rahim. However, Malak Al Rahim is also looking for Randall, and Randall's employers tell him where to find him. This results in the death of his best friend, Sgt. Danny Quintz, and his girlfriend Terry, eventually forcing a showdown on the waterfront.
In the end Randall brings out Rahim handcuffed with a grenade jammed in his mouth. Randall explains to his bosses that they should send his payment to the family of Danny Quintz and he will just keep the extra bonus for bringing him in alive. As he starts to leave, he says, "Fuck the bonus" and pulls the grenade pin out. Rahim's head is blown off and his decapitated body falls to the ground.
Wanted Dead or Alive received generally negative reviews from critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a rating of 25% based on 8 reviews, with an average rating of 2.5/10. The site does not give a consensus for the film.[7]
Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote in her review: "WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE was a 1958 television series starring Steve McQueen. It has now, in the process of becoming a feature film, lost its colon, and that's not the half of it. Even to those of us who have become more or less used to the cultural cannibalism that passes for inventiveness these days, the film Wanted Dead or Alive, which opens today at the National and other theaters, will seem outstandingly unnecessary. It's not that the television show was sacrosanct; all it really had to recommend it was Mr. McQueen. It's just that producers wanting to make another latter-day urban Rambo should at least be expected to come up with something of their own."[5]
Dave Kehr of the Chicago Tribune wrote in his review: "There are a fair number of people in this world--probably the majority
--who wouldn`t want to admit that anything as broad as a low-budget action movie could possibly fall under the category of good. But for those who can, Gary Sherman`s Wanted Dead or Alive is worth checking out. It`s a superior product in a genre that has seen some mighty hard times of late. Not that Sherman brings so many personal shadings to his direction that he tips the film over into the realm of art--as a director like Don Siegel could do with such movies as The Killers and Madigan. Sherman stays fairly close to the surface of his material, but in his hands, it`s a brightly polished surface. His work is smooth, efficient and handsome."[8]
References
Citations
^ abHarmetz, Aljean (February 21, 1987). "Will Colorizing Revitalize Old TV Series". The New York Times. New York City: The New York Times Company. Retrieved August 4, 2019. In Wanted: Dead or Alive, New World turned the character played by Steve McQueen, a bounty hunter roaming the western United States 100 years ago, into a bounty hunter as special agent for hire in 1987. Terrorists were the bounty Rutger Hauer hunted in the $4.5 million film.
