"Dangerously Close" is one of those silly flicks that are almost enjoyable as it knows how to give us some tension while treating issues revolving safety during high school years. It talks about a troubled prep school that uses of its own student body to enforce laws on reckless students who destroy school property, vandalism and robbery among classmates. But it's a very obvious film where you know exactly where the threat comes from, therefore all the tension required disappears in thin air and you keep on waiting for its end just to confirm your predictions and ease the pain after the painful misery of everything.

One-dimensional characters from the start, which is acceptable to audiences who like those kind of devices. J. Eddie Peck plays the nerd-looking and responsible good guy who is torn apart from his punk rebel friends as he's invited to join the security group formed by John Stockwell character, one of those rich kids who likes to cause controlled mayhem in order to enforce law and order. Truth is that group runs secret attacks on the "undesireable" students after school hours, late at night, where they make a trial mockery, convicting those rebels and teaching them some hard frightening lessons.

It's not like all students like a fascist kind of security enforcement, there's opposition even from a teacher, and Peck's character (editor of the school paper as well) is used by the others to present a less negative view of the infamous group. Doesn't help much, as their obscure attacks becomes more and more dangerous, and when students start disappearing from view, our hero becomes intrigued.

Everything is so obvious with "Dangerously Close" that it's annoying. While you I liked the limited acting of everyone involved, but they're all playing a formula (the good guy is good and without flaws; the bad group is bad but it comes with a redemption; the punk friend is only there to cause riot and bring a humorless humor; and the pretty girl is there to cause a rift between the new buddies). Kudos to Stockwell for picking the most "challenging" of the roles, but he's also one of the screenwriters so he knew what he was doing and it's a nice way to see him outside of "Christine" (1983) or "Top Gun".

But I couldn't stand each and every action and fighting sequence. Abrupt and ugly editing cuts where it's hard to tell why a beaten character is up and without injuries when there's change in the shot, or why they move to a different direction; the head of security (or school director, the movie wasn't clear about his function) can physically assault a student without consequences; the local police was a joke; the series of bizarre things makes it all look weird and slightly funny to follow.

Besides the "entertainment" parts, was there an actual good discourse while dealing with how students can secure their own environment and help themselves and the community? Not really. The adults in the room were so absent in this utopic dream that I guess it only proved that teens shouldn't be allowed to enforce anything but their proms. It was basic a clear case of right versus left, and it's easy to tell apart who's right and who's wrong, and the only thing missing were the uniforms. 4/10.

The movie starts out with a scene ripped right off 'The Lost Boys' as Gorgon is being chased by vampires and tracked in the fashion of Van Damme's 'Hard Target.' It's part of a "Magnet Project" where worthy victims are selected from a yearbook and hunted.

None other than the Night Slasher from 'Cobra' shows up and kills the Gorgon demon.

A scene is then dedicated to Doc E. Brown's clocks, introducing a David Dahmer lookalike who hooks up with that horrible actor Whitey from '3:15,' but plays Krooger in this. He's an extremely annoying character who's deprived of attention and sadly makes it all the way through the movie. You could call him the Dewey of 'Scream' you wished would be killed in the first movie but keeps turning up defying logic.

Is that Tommy Jarvis from 'Jason Lives?' He looks a bit like Michael Dudikoff.

The same Alpha Elite thugs from 'The Next Karate Kid' patrol the hallways and grounds of Vista Verde High School and are led by Randy. Wasn't he Cougar from 'Top Gun?'

Once again, we got 25-year-old adults playing the roles of high school students, which isn't believable.

20 minutes in, and I'm still dangling my bait for a bite as no hooks have snagged any stability yet.

If it's trying to be 'Less Than Zero' it's way off the mark. And here I was under the impression that this would be similar to 'Red Dawn.'

Someone just mentioned the tiny town of Loleta, which is situated up in Humboldt County near the Silver Shamrock factory, but this is strange as later on in the movie a dude tells the David Dahmer lookalike that Krooger headed up to Napa Valley for a wine sipping festival, so I don't know what part of Northern California we're really in. Let's take this moment to speak out in dedication to the crumbling and condemned Silver Shamrock factory as of typing.

The movie's about a bunch of exclusive students, all brimming with scholarship vibrancy and beyond entitled and privileged, but having a gig on the side where they secretly hunt humans for fun.

I'm not so sure about using Fine Young Cannibals in your movie if you want to be taken seriously. 'The Wraith' already used Robert Palmer's song at the roadside diner, so there's another negative.

The Alpha Elite exclusive thugs try to induct the David Dahmer lookalike into their clique for some reason, even though he doesn't belong.

Who's buying for one second that this Cougar thug is #1 with a gun on the streets? He was a scout master by the time he was 5. And excelled in band camp by 8.

This is like watching up-and-coming bank CEOs act like they're hood thugs protecting their set.

Imagine being beat and terrorized by the likes of Mark-Paul Gosselaar if he were to become a gangster among freshmen.

The Alpha Elite thug squad do a number on '3:15's' Krooger, and you only wished they had erased him with this hanging scene. I'm sad to say that's not the case.

How convenient for the movie that Cougar's girlfriend develops feelings for the David Dahmer lookalike. I love how he ditches his glasses whenever a scene of bravado is called upon. I love the wavey fades in his hair, too, looking every bit like the NSYNC boy band member.

What makes these baddies not believable is that they're country thugs but acting like big city wigs controlling country people from the Eel River districts of Loleta.

Why are all these people from 'The Twilight Zone?' They're eerie weirdos, like robots being controlled by a religious cult or Scientology. Are they the offspring of that Stepford mob?

Not once were they actually in class.

I know what doesn't make sense in this movie! It's supposed to be high school, but the Alpha Elite thug squad is acting like they're in college. Bingo! They were in a bar earlier, getting wasted on booze, so how can high school students enter an over-21 premises? The movie needed to eliminate the high school part and go for college dorms instead.

Can you imagine being beat up by Ned Bigby in high school? Just try and picture for one moment Ned Bigby controlling operations in an East Los Angeles high school. That's how absurd these villains are.

Is that Ron Grady from 'Freddy 2?'

With the Tommy Jarvis character being in the movie, he obviously had a sway to allow his buddy, Cort, from 'Jason Lives' to land a role, but I never picked up on his character once.

So, the David Dahmer lookalike and Cougar's girlfriend hook-up, and it becomes about an investigation to find evidence linking the preppy thug squad to all the murders.

A VHS is the undoing of all parties.

Allegiances are tested at the end, and double-crossers turn coats, and the big movie reveal is that a trusted faculty member was murdering twits to fuel his passion for old battlefield memories. Is that Pieter Vorstedt again? He always plays a baddie.

The ending seemed ultra-rushed, like a half-baked conclusion, as Cougar probably had to make a deadline for his cameo appearance in 'Top Gun.'

The Sentinels is a group of self appointed high school monitors at Vista Verde High. Leader Randy McDevitt (John Stockwell) befriends magnet student Danny Lennox (J. Eddie Peck), but may have ulterior motives as the group likes to torment those they feel don't belong in their social circle. This was Albert Pyun's third film and his first of several for Cannon. Probably inspired by The Wave (1981), this shows how fascism and intolerance can quickly grow out of control. The problem here is while you are supposed to hate the jocks, the guy playing Lennox's punk buddy is so annoying that you want to see him killed. One of the more interesting things is Stockwell co-wrote the script and opted to play the bad guy. Perhaps rebelling from his hero status in John Carpenter's Christine (1983)? Also impressive is the soundtrack (featuring the likes of The Smithereens and Depeche Mode) which shows you could get a song cheap back in the day as we all know Golan and Globus wouldn't put out big bucks for those artists (interesting note: this hit theaters the same week Robert Palmer's "Addicted to Love" featured in the film hit no. 1 on the Billboard charts). Cool cast of co-stars include Miguel Nunez, Don Michael Paul, Bradford Bancroft, Carey Lowell, and Thom Mathews (the last two later appearing in Pyun's better Down Twisted).