ALLEY CAT is a low budget American thriller clearly devised as a gender reversal twist on the DEATH WISH franchise. The heroine is a young woman blessed with martial arts skills who finds herself tangling with a gang of rapists and murderers when her grandparents are accidentally bumped off by the villains. She then cuts a swathe through the lower elements of the local nightlife.
It's simplistic stuff indeed but not without a simple verve to see it through. Various sub-plots have been added in in order to increase the running time, including a dull romance between the heroine and some Jewish guy and a brief sojourn in prison which manages to include the usual prison clichés despite not occupying much screen time.
It's quite artificial stuff but not without merit. Sadly the action sequences are poorly shot and conceived; if they'd been decent then this might have been an acceptable little thriller, but as it stands they're quite boring. The cast is full of those types of actor that you've never heard of before or after and most of the film takes place at night which means a lot of night scenes where you can't really make out what's going on.
It's simplistic stuff indeed but not without a simple verve to see it through. Various sub-plots have been added in in order to increase the running time, including a dull romance between the heroine and some Jewish guy and a brief sojourn in prison which manages to include the usual prison clichés despite not occupying much screen time.
It's quite artificial stuff but not without merit. Sadly the action sequences are poorly shot and conceived; if they'd been decent then this might have been an acceptable little thriller, but as it stands they're quite boring. The cast is full of those types of actor that you've never heard of before or after and most of the film takes place at night which means a lot of night scenes where you can't really make out what's going on.