A strong sense of tension and perversity loom over this paranoid cop-thriller starring B-movie veteran, Wings Hauser as a compassionate policeman turned maniacal madman, Arliss Ryder. The setting is the grimy streets of Los Angeles, California (in the near future perhaps?), and a violent crime is committed every four seconds. After Ryder is wounded in the line of duty, he is approached with the proposition to join a special division of the precinct called 'Strike Squad'. Little does he know that S.Q.U.A.D. (Scum Quelling Urban Assault Division) is comprised of wounded cops that are part of an experiment headed by a sadomasochistic police chief (G. Gordon Liddy). Members of 'Squad' are implanted with a device at the base of the spine that can release man's primordial animal instincts turning them into unstoppable killing machines. Unfortunately, the botched plan results in madness followed by self-mutilation and eventual suicide. Time is running out for Ryder as he must save his sanity and his relationship, and expose the madmen behind the scheme. This is dominated by terrific performances and an urban nightmare based atmosphere full of psycho-sexual realism. Hauser is at his most intense, and G. Gordon Liddy plays an unusually wacky character. Other memorable performances include; Alex Cord as a piercing-eyed police captain, Sy Richardson as Ryder's laughing-mad partner, Marie Chambers as an evil doctor, Lisa Robins as an aggressive prostitute, and Brion James as a demented reverend who sets fire to a pimp while preaching to his freakish followers. Ultimately, every character in this movie exhibits their own brand of darkness and insanity. This is truly a crazy film with swift direction by Gregory Dark (who's good at this sociopath satirical stuff) that never lets up on the sizzle and sleaze! Its a rare B-movie treat worth watching if you can find it in its unrated director's cut.

"Street Asylum" has G. Gordon Liddy dropping pants for a whipping delivered by a dominatrix, Brion James is a maniacal street preacher, and Wings Hauser is in full intense mode, yet the film fails miserably. The story of a special police "Strike Squad", made up of violent cops, controlled by an electronic implant, could have worked, but there are too many problems with "Street Asylum". Character development is nil, Liddy and James pop up once in awhile in scenes that seem totally improvised, and almost every night scene is so dark, you will wonder what is going on. Instead of watching, you could create a game, counting the number of times the word scum is used. Sure it's bizarre, but unfortunately it's also bad. - MERK

In the bleak near future Los Angeles has become a dangerous war zone with cops pitted against assorted law-breaking lowlifes. Sergeant Arliss Ryder (well played with customary wired intensity by the always great Wings Hauser) has an electronic device put into his back that turns him into an out-of-control psychotic killer and put on the Strike S.Q.U.A.D. (an acronym for Scum Quelling Assault Urban Devision), which is a unit of crazed cops assigned by Captain Bill Quinton (a typically gruff Alex Cord) to rid the City of Angels of criminals by using any means necessary. The only problem is that Arliss discovers what's going down and decides to put a stop to all this madness. Director Gregory Dark's second futuristic sci-fi/action outing is a considerable improvement over the flawed, but still pretty decent "Dead Man Walking": the action is more plentiful and nicely staged, the plot's much tighter and more thrilling, the pace moves at a snappier rate, and the budget appears to be a little bigger. This picture further benefits from amusing supporting performances by notorious Watergate crook G. Gordon Liddy as mayor candidate Jim Miller, an absolute deranged lunatic who gets his sick kicks by having prostitutes whip him while wearing leather dominatrix outfits (!); Sy Richardson as unhinged homosexual policeman Joker, and an especially hilarious Brion James as demented fire'n'brimstone street preacher J. J. Mony, who in the film's definite sidesplitting wacko highlight douses a slimy pimp with gasoline and sets the man ablaze. A cool and unjustly overlooked end-of-the-world science fiction sleeper.

I remember seeing the cover for Street Asylum many years ago and thinking that it looked like another crappy straight to video movie. Then I looked at the cover again and noticed G. Gordan Liddy's face being turned into a robot and thinking that this could be interesting. Well, after sitting down and watching this movie with a few friends, G. Gordan never turns into a robot, but, we did discover how much fun this silly film truly was.Wings Hauser plays a cop who has been shot in the line of duty. When he wakes up he is already been taken care of and discovers he has been transfered to a very tough division called SQUAD (created by G. Gordan Liddy). The first thing he notices with SQUAD is that all of the men are a bunch of crazed animals who just want to destroy street scum. After a few weeks of being on SQUAD, Wings discovers himself acting more and more like the rest of them and his life begins to spiral out of control.First of all, if you are into the 80's you will probably get a kick out of this movie as it looks like it was made in 1985 but was released in 1990. The music is nothing but saxophone and actually gets annoying from time to time. But I can overlook that since the subject matter is hilarious.The acting in the movie is actually quite good and Wings Hauser as the lead man is very convincing. Now, G. Gordan Liddy's role in the movie is one of the most hilarious of all time. Not because of the subject matter, but because this is G. Gordan Liddy. He plays the creator of SQUAD and a sadomasochist which leads to one particularly hilarious scene in which he is being whipped by a dominatrix! Look also for Brion James as a crazed street preacher. It is a small role, but, still great.Overall, I am not quite sure why this movie has such a low rating on IMDb. This was a fun, enjoyable movie in which you don't have to put a lot of thought into. Fans of the 80's should like this one. 7/10