Pierce Brosnan is Mark Taffin, a no nonsense, hard-ass who apparently uses his "lightning fast martial arts moves" to subdue his enemies (or so it says so on the box.) Taffin's job is somewhat of a debt collector, typically his daily routine revolves around him placing himself between small business owners trying to earn an honest living and those who are more fortunate and are looking to take advantage and capitalize on their helplessness. The plot of the film doesn't get going until a third of the way through as the first half hour or so is spent on the viewer getting acclimated to the character of Mark Taffin as we watch him go place to place kicking ass an collecting debts. When he arrives to one locale for an impromptu collection, fists fly and he puts a boot to the guys throat. Then to add insult to injury, he gives one of the women, Charlotte (Alison Doody), a seductive/steely stare that only Bond Taffin could give and all of a sudden she demands to go with him! If only it could always be that easy, eh!?

Anyways, the plot revolves around Taffin (and now Charlotte, because she's just there) being recruited for a new job. When a large chemical company, one with mob ties and friends high in local political power, begins construction of a plant which will pollute the environment and ruin the village, the townspeople, instead of growing a backbone and taking care of it themselves, hire Taffin to fix their problem. Initially he turns down the desperate town's request, but quickly changes his mind once he finds out his former mentor, O'Rourke (Ray McAnally), to whom he looks to as a father figure, is involved with its schemes! Taffin must figure out a way to stop the plant from opening before it can destroy the towns way of life.

I'd assume the majority of the films budget was sunk straight into Brosnan's pockets, but it actually looks pretty good for what it is, a low budget action film. The sets used in the film look realistic and well designed, the script is ok but it lacks any real depth, the films colors are flat for the most part, despite being billed as a big action film (including the front cover that depicts an explosion), it's far from it. The scarce action sequences can be good, but there are some that pull you right out of the film due to the cheese factor, one sequence off the top of my head features Taffin in the middle of the room against 3 guys, Brosnan gives a guy the lightest shove and he flies into the wall, knocking him unconscious. Low budgets!

As for performances, there's only one really worth noting here. Coming right off of Remington Steele and missing out on Bond in 1987, Brosnan was looking to establish himself in the acting world as someone who could be taken seriously and wasn't just skating by on his looks, Taffin tries to display this since the quality of the script is so one note, lacking any depth hinging on Brosnan's performance to boost up the quality. Despite the aforementioned meme, he's actually quite solid in the role. He's suave as hell, which shouldn't come as much of a surprise if you've seen literally any Pierce Brosnan film, his charisma has carried his career for 3 decades now! He does decent enough with the romantic scenes, and he shows off strong in the action scenes as well. Everyone else ranges from bad to mediocre.

Positives:

+ Pierce Brosnan is solid. Better than his work in Mamma Mia! anyways...

+ Taffin is actually a pretty cool character, not great or compelling, but fun.

Negatives:

- Stoic performances from the majority of the cast.

- Alison Doody is nothing but eye candy for this film. She's gorgeous, yes, but adds absolutely nothing to the overall plot.

- Looks much older than a late 80's film.

Video and Audio: Taffin is presented in it's original widescreen 16:9 format. The video transfer is solid throughout, though not perfect in the slightest, the film utilizes its original masters. The release has clearly not been cleaned up in any way as it retains the grain. The colors. The audio is similar to previous MGM Limited Edition labeled titles with a Dolby Digital 2.0 track, I didn't experience any sort of distortions or drop outs. There are no optional subtitles.

Extras: No extras on the DVD. I'm sure Brosnan was jonesing for a commentary on this classic.

Overall: Taffin is ok, noting more, nothing less. Brosnan did a decent enough job as the character, but again, it wasn't anything to write home about. The secondary characters all lacked depth and were for the most part, boring. Review aside, Honestly, what a great name for a movie title, I'm sure the writers were high fiving over that one. Taffin gets a Rent it recommendation.