There was a time when exploitation cinema was genuinely entertaining. Small, long-gone studios like Cannon, New World and Empire hopped on whatever mainstream bandwagon had been picking up steam, and we were rewarded with imaginative, if not original, cinematic efforts. MASK OF DEATH is the kinda flick that would've been right at home on a multiplex screen in the mid-to-late 1980s. On home video in my living room it seems more than a little out of place.

The straight-to-video actioner stars cable heartthrob Lorenzo Lamas in two challenging roles. At first he's Lyle Mason, a greasy, ponytailed hit-man who provides muscle for the Russian mafia. Decked out in a horrible wig (and worse mustache) he's Dan McKenna, a police officer who must've been undercover as a member of the Village People.

Mason dies and McKenna is convinced by an FBI agent (Billy Dee Williams) to impersonate Mason in order to catch the main players in the operation. Sound a little like FACE/OFF, 1997's overrated John Woo flick?

Once McKenna "becomes" Mason, it's your typical "who am I?," "what am I becoming?" shtick as Lamas runs around playing tough guy, popping a couple people to prove he's for real. (Let me remind you this is the guy who made his name on the syndicated 'Renegade,' one of Steven Cannell's most ludicrous tv show ideas.) Then again, if the real thugs trailed him for more than two minutes they'd catch him hob-nobbing with the FBI or confessing his true identity to ex-partner Rae Dawn Chong, who appears to be the only other cop in the city.

Someone once joked that FACE/OFF was such a loony idea that they'd go see it even if it starred Lorenzo Lamas and Kevin Sorbo. Well, this might be as close as you're gonna get!