Estrela Negra

The second straight to video sequel to William Lustig's 'Relentless' is a sleepy, straight forward Los Angeles serial killer outing. It can be quite unpleasant and loathsome with its dour approach to the generic material. Too bad it stays on cruise control for most part with a real lack of thrills and investigative intrigue for such a short winded running time. Leo Rossi's role is now more prominent, yet his delivery feels more like someone tiredly going through the emotions. The smart-alec humour which worked in the previous films, just doesn't have the same effect here. In a way there's no bite to it with mainly poe faced Rossi's "I rather be elsewhere" attitude sort of coming out in the dialogues. Robert Costanzo fairs much better as his detective partner. On the other hand William Forsythe's perversely smarmy, and underlit intensity as the killer does all the heavy lifting. There's personal history between the two characters, detective (Rossi) and killer (Forsythe), which the script later reveals. Sadly this drummed up angle, goes nowhere and in the end we are left with a very unmemorable, and underwhelming payoff. Meg Foster is also missed.