"Magnificent Mimi"'s acting is not so bad for a former pro-wrestler, but I still think it would've been a better idea for her to try more escapist fare if she wanted to break into the movie industry. The domestic abuse angle is distasteful when it is used not by a serious dramatic picture but by a cheap B-movie programmer such as this. And since Mimi made her living as a wrestler and not as a martial artist, it's not surprising that the fight scenes (which are few and far between anyway) that work best are those that are wrestling-orientated. Overall, "Personal Vendetta" is a rather dreary and predictable movie, but it does have its high spots, the highest of which is probably Mimi fighting in her lingerie. (*1/2)
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gridoon19 July 2006
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Zantara Xenophobe19 January 2011I can't believe it has been ten years since I watched and reviewed "Beyond Fear," my first viewing of a film starring professional wrestler-turned actress Mimi Lesseos. Lesseos was a wrestler for the great, now defunct LPWA. Obviously always yearning to be a leading lady, she started her own production companies and starred in a string of action-oriented movies. A few months ago, I finally got to see the rest of her starring vehicles (I had already seen the disappointing "American Angels") after a decade of waiting. The wait was not worth it, sadly. "Pushed to the Limit" was incredibly standard and poorly written, while "Streets of Rage" was entertaining but poorly directed. Now I have sat through "Personal Vendetta", and this was nothing like I was expecting.
I thought this was going to be another attempt at an action thriller, but it was really a dramatic piece. That would be just fine, but it suffers from the same things Lesseos's other films are plagued by: low production quality, poor direction and writing, and much boredom. This saddens me, since I went into every single one of these films with an open mind. Anyhow, the plot has Lesseos playing wife to shady businessman Timothy Bottoms(!) who gets mad at her following a dinner party and gives her a severe beating. The police show up, something they say they are used to doing at this address, and Lesseos finally agrees to press charges. Lesseos winds up in the hospital and Bottoms winds up in jail. While recovering, one of the cops, Bill (Bill Douglas) befriends her because he feels sorry for her and Lesseos is encouraged to beat her fears and become a cop herself. While training at the academy, she moves in with Jackie (Lisa Marie Hayes), and old friend who is a bit plump, which the film likes to constantly remind us of by having Jackie complain about it and always be on screen eating. Slowly, Lesseos goes from timid cadet to the top of her class, and she is assigned experienced officer John (Mark Wilson) to be her hot partner. As Lesseos gets into her new trade and starts feeling attracted to her new partner, she still can't get the thought of Bottoms out of her head. She's consoled by Bill, Jackie, and John, and any smart viewer knows that Bottoms will eventually get released and remove one of these pals from the picture. What's stunning is that this important plot point doesn't actually happen until the movie has about twenty minutes left to go, which is far too late for it to arrive and relieve our boredom. And when it does happen, it's a rushed and silly mess.
That said, the performances are all okay. Bottoms is the standout, as he portrays the crazy husband completely over-the-top. The best scene in the movie is when Lesseos goes to pay Bottoms a visit in prison to announce she is divorcing him, leading to a stunning rant by Bottoms with plenty of spitting. More scenes like this would have helped, but would not have guaranteed success with the paper-thin plot. Zantara's score: 4 out of 10.
Thus so ends the acting days, other than stunt work, of Mimi Lesseos . . . or at least it did until 2009, when she must have saved up enough money to return in a movie I have not found called "Double Duty". Will it be good? Well, her co-star is none other than Tom Sizemore! I will not be holding my breath. -
BandSAboutMovies22 June 2022I've become kind of fascinated by the movies that Mimi Lesseos made, as she didn't just act in them, she wrote and produced them, so they have the air of a vanity project but I can't fault that because they're all entertaining and wonderfully strange. Start with Pushed to the Limit and then come here.
Bonnie Blackwell (Lesseos) has been abused for years by her husband Zach (a scenery chewing and frothing at the mouth Timothy Bottoms) when she's saved by the police and decides to train to be a cop instead of remaining a victim.
Sgt. Bill Starr, one of the cops that saved her - a harrowing scene where her husband repeatedly slams her face into a steering wheel until her forehead splits open and sprays blood - gets her into the police academy, a moment that has a jaunty song on the soundtrack that's nearly a full spinning turn away from the dark tone that's been the majority of this movie. It's in no way an easy experience, as she's put through a whole new level of hell as no one takes it easy on her, including hand to hand instructor Geno LeBell (Frank "The Tank" Trejo, a first generation student of American kenpo karate founder Ed Parker) whose name betrays Lesseos' pro wrestling origins, as he's named after "Judo" Gene LeBelle, a man who shows up in nearly every pro wrestling scene in every pre-WWE era movie.
Things move fast - Bonnie gets paired with a veteran cop named John Beaudet, they fall in love, she visits prison to tell her husband he's going to be her ex-husband, he breaks out, her mentor is killed - and our heroine faces off with her husband, who we suddenly learn is involved in human trafficking, selling off Vietnamese/American teens as mail order brides.
Director Stephen Lieb also made L. A. Task Force (L. A's most beautiful women are being killed by a maniac), Deadly Eyes (phone sex workers are being killed by a Jack the Ripper copycat) and Blind Vengeance (martial arts teacher falls for a student who is the ex-girlfriend of another fight master). You may read that list of movies and say, "What junk!" and you can't find me to answer, as I'm hunting them down to watch them in my magical movie basement. -
mynagirl18 May 2006My husband and I just caught this on CineMax in Mexico. It's actually the worst movie we've ever seen. Horrible acting, terrible writing, terrible lighting, horrifically cheap sets, awful sound editing and terrible, terrible costuming. You hear the vinyl squeaking in the chair as she gets chewed out by her tough-but-lovable police captain. She wears a horrific TJ Maxx peach satin blouse to visit a gravesite. The shaky railing on her stairway wobbles in the shot as she goes upstairs. She leaves her belt and gun downstairs where there's an open window then she goes upstairs and ... undresses. There are lines like "I'm just going to have to learn to trust again". And my favorite... she inexplicably wears a push up bra and GARTERS under her police uniform! ROFLMAO!!
For some reason it's actually hypnotic in its awful horribleness and we could not look away. Please watch if you want to see an example of everything cheesy and terrible in Hollywood.