The Final Alliance - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

The Final Alliance



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:

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Movie
Oh man, this is a real treat. So far with Arrow’s latest Enter the Video Store collection, we’ve had a moderately good Dolph Lundgren flick, an evil Robocop flick, and now one of the best worst movies to ever grace the DTV market. Following in the line of direct-to-video releases (though Joshua Tree actually got an international theatrical release, it just wasn’t released theatrically state side), we get 1990’s The Final Alliance. A direct-to-video monstrosity starring David Hasselhoff and John Saxon that is sooooooooooooo terrible that you honestly would believe this was a Cannon Films production. A bit of cheese so gloriously bad that it works as an unintentional comedy, as well as an MST3K film all at the same time.

Our film starts with beleaguered war veteran Will Colton (David Hasselhoff) returning home to his Texas family farm out in the sticks. Though nobody recognizes him because he supposedly died as a child at the hands of the notorious Vipers biker gang that still terrorizes the town. Headed up by “Ghost” (John Saxon, all covered in white face paint, bleached hair, and white contacts as an albino) and the town Sheriff (Bo Hopkins), the Vipers still run drugs and destroy the town’s sanity to make a few bucks. But Will is back in town, and he’s not taking prisoners. This time the ex-Marine is going to use his skills to avenge his family’s death, and of course get some nookie from the hot local store owner, Carrie (Jeanie Moore).

The Final Alliance is one of the most amazing bits of bad cinema ever created. Everything that could go wrong with a film does go wrong. David Hasselhoff hamming it up like only he can do, acting that would make a high school production embarrassed, and set problems that no one even TRIED to hide. Heck, some of them were so hilarious that I actually had to pause the film, rewind, and play them again just to see it all over. There’s one scene where Will asks for a drink at the bar, and you see a FULLY poured beer sitting underneath the tap. The bartender goes over, pulls a lever that isn’t even connected to the tap spout; there’s absolutely NOTHING pouring out; then he hands Will the already poured glass that you could see was fully poured before he went over. Then there’s John Saxon running around with Nosferatu face paint, bleached hair, and white contacts, trying to play the over-the-top psycho villain Ghost. And don’t forget the obligatory sex scene two-thirds of the way through the film where Jeanie admits that she loves him after only being around him for 2-3 days. The list goes on and on.

Nobody in their right mind would consider The Final Alliance to be an acceptable film, let alone a good one. But for some reason this is one of those so good that it’s bad type of films, à la the old 80s and 90s Cannon Films movies starring Bo Derek. It’s just THAT bad. The basic plot is your average cookie-cutter vengeance plan, but everyone just chews the scenery to the point of unintentional hilarity, and after about 30 minutes you start getting in the groove of things and just having fun with the lunacy.

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Rating: R by the MPAA




Video:
According to the press release,e The Final Alliance was scanned at 2K resolution at Fotokem, then graded and restored in 2K at R3Store Studios. The results? Well, it’s a decent-looking image all things considered, but this was a throwaway DTV movie from 1990 that was probably shot for less than a million bucks, so it’s NOT going to look shiny and new. Instead, it looks a little rough, with gauzy soft shots at times, and a lack of budget for effects, so you can see ALL the seams and creases under the lens. That being said, clarity is solid and fine details are more than enough to get by. Grain can sometimes spike and swarm, while other shots are razor sharp, but overall this is a decent presentation.


Audio:
The audio, on the other hand, is actually pretty good. Don’t get me wrong, this is still a basic DTV 2.0 Stereo track with obvious overdub and ADR, but clarity-wise things are actually pretty good. Vocals are clean and clear, the score comes through nicely, and some of the explosions and gunshots sound pretty good. Again, this is a 2.0 LPCM track with obviously studio-recorded audio that’s been pasted in at a later time (there are a few scenes where you can see nobody is talking, but the person’s voice is talking as if they were), but it’s a solid mix.


Extras:
• Commentary by Mike Hewitt, Russell Lee & Jim Smith
• Hasseling the Hoff
• The Rise of DTV
• Interzone
• Original Trailer

Final Score: ​

The Final Alliance is pure camp, with bad acting, over-the-top acting by John Saxon (who is the best part of this whole film), and David Hasselhoff running around with a pet cougar by his side,e terrorizing a biker gang in the middle of nowhere. It’s basically Road House without the star power, the budget, OR the script (as terrible as that sounds), and it's HILARIOUS! The Blu-ray looks and sounds OK, which is not surprising considering the movie probably cost $20 and a pack of smokes for everyone involved. I won’t in good conscience recommend this one, but if you’re buying the set, this is one of those movies that you get a bunch of guy friends over for, and drink yourself silly laughing at the screen.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: David Hasselhoff, Bo Hopkins, John Saxon, Jeanie Moore
Directed by: Mario DiLeo
Written by: John Eubank, Harel Goldstein
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 AVC
Audio: English: LPCM 2.0
Subtitles: English SDH
Studio: Arrow
Rated: R
Runtime: 94 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: October 27th, 2026

Recommendation: So bad you wanna watch it.