MURDOCK FOR HIRE

Southern California's macho, middle-aging shamus Matt Murdock (Bloody Murdock, 1986) returns to narrate another busy, violent case involving--Ray's pet subject, apparently--home-porno and blackmail. The turmoil begins when Murdock is hired to find a missing coin collection (worth $500,000) that belonged to computer-exec Eddie Hennessy, recently deceased under suspicious circumstances: Eddie, it seems, died at a high-priced brothel, on cocaine, after which his body was dumped elsewhere. Then Eddie's widow gets a blackmail threat: pay up or see wide distribution of videos featuring Eddie in kinky S-M action with the masked hookers of""Club Lido."" So it's not long before Murdock is posing as a ""John"" to get the goods on the brothel/blackmail scam. And his involvement escalates when his new love, interior-decorator Kathy, turns out to be one of the Lido hookers, cheated by the slimy brothel masterminds of $200,000. Shoot-outs, chases, break-ins, Ninja assassins, and posh Newport Beach trappings: passable action-sleuthing, even if lacking in real charm or mystery.