No Man's Land

With its synth-pop soundtrack and Eurotrash attitude, No Man's Land is the slick 1987 equivalent of 2002's The Fast and the Furious. Instead of Asian-import "rice rockets" and hip-hop street gear, it's got Armani suits and Porsches--the latter being the specialty of ace car thief Ted Varrick, played by Charlie Sheen in a trashy break between the successes of Platoon and Wall Street. Fresh-faced D.B. Sweeney plays the undercover cop assigned to infiltrate Varrick's chop shop, and the predictable screenplay (by Dick Wolf of Law & Order fame) asks all the expected questions: Will Sweeney's loyalties turn? Will Varrick's sister (vacuous newcomer Lara Harris) learn his true identity? Will Charlie's hair remain perfectly groomed? The Faustian formula provides a few moments of standard suspense, and Sheen's bemused remark about "lifestyles of the rich and aimless" carries a sharp note of retrospective irony. Otherwise, you're better off with an episode of Miami Vice. --Jeff Shannon