Stephen J Pershing puts Egg Harbor Township, NJ on the map in the enjoyable, ultra-low budget action-comedy, "Steel Spirit." Pershing plays the main character, Dallas McQuaid, a retired bounty hunter who witnessed the death of his parents at a young age. Pershing not only stars in the film, he also wrote and directed it. It's your basic 80's action film, but done with an almost tongue-in-cheek approach. Pershing shows alot of charisma as an actor and really shines when he is paired up with co-star, Stephen Pagano. Pagano plays one of McQuaid's buddies, Det. John Coleman. He's hilarious as McQuaid's sidekick. If Pagano had said, "I think I'm getting to old for this #$%!," I would have swore I was watching the latest installment of Lethal Weapon. They have the Mel Gibson/Danny Glover chemistry.
My only beef with the movie is the script. Pershing introduces and dismisses characters at a rapid pace. The bad guys appear and disappear like they were in a video game, the tougher ones to defeat waiting for McQuaid on the harder levels of the game. If Pershing had gotten rid of some of the faceless bad guys and concentrated on a core group of villains, their demise would have had more meaning in my opinion. My favorite villains were: the scene stealing, Anthony Gaud as Mang; Matt Lonzi as the martial arts expert, Jacob (Pershing and Lonzi have an excellent fight-scene towards the end of the film that pays homage to every fan-boy's favorite movie Star Wars); Dexter Weeks as the Neo look-a-like Pax; and a seriously miscast Mark Poulton as Lance. He's playing a hired killer, but looks like he'd be more at home singing lead vocals for O-Town. However, I enjoyed how head baddie, Paul Burnley (playing Bruce Costas) throws him around and totally abuses him throughout the end of the film.
The DVD contains all sorts of special features including commentary and bloopers. If you're a fan of independent movies or looking for inspiration to make your own film, then it's definitely worth checking out. I remember when Robert Rodriguez's "El Mariachi" came out and people were making such a big deal about how great it was for such a low budget. In my opinion, this movie is better!