VIDEO COWBOYS

Georgia Barnett, TV investigative reporter, plays video Cowboys and Indians, revising the role of Annie Oakley in her own Chicago image.

The Cowboys, a group of freelance video news guys, include Vicente “Choke” Ochoa, the Salsa King; Paulie Vitale, who grew up with Al Capone’s grandsons; Vietnam veteran Wayne “Gunner” Anderson; and Georgia’s cameraman Zeke. The posse, as culturally diverse (not to say stereotypical) as the platoon in a WWII movie, is utterly cool—a good thing, because when Georgia and Zeke stop by the bank to cash a check, they and several others are held hostage by Brett, a mentally unstable but devoted father with a gun and a bomb who wants the cops to find his missing daughter. Georgia gets released on the condition that she act as Brett’s video liaison with the outside world, leaving Zeke behind to video Brett’s ramblings. The control-happy cops, who turn out to be on the side of the Indians, keep trying to shoot poor Brett and refuse to find the woman. So Georgia joins investigative forces with the reckless and street-smart Cowboys to save Zeke. Although Brett’s daughter turns out to be involved with sadistic organized-crime types, they’re no match for the Cowboys.

Georgia presents lots of FROTHY ACTION in a vernacular style heavily dependent on CAPITAL LETTERS readers are likely to find either AMUSING or IRRITATING.