Executioner, Part II, The (1984)

Oh dear...I am a big fan of Chris Mitchum, but this one is really weak entry in his filmography. He's got cool mustache in this one though. What about Executioner Part 1? As fas as i can tell there is no part 1, they went straight to sequel...

Movie starts with a flashback from Vietnam, squad of American soldiers are under attack and suddenly we cut to the present day. Mitchum plays cop who is working on a case to catch a vigilante killer, The Executioner, who is killing the thugs and criminals. Prime suspect is his Vietnam buddy who saved his life. Real dilemma there, should he arrest him or not. His daughter is also hooked on drugs and she gets into a bad crowd to support her habit.

Low budget straight to video stuff. Plot is full of holes, sometimes the movie jumps from one scene to another kind of leaving you hanging just what happened. Action scenes are really weak. Althought Mitchum is the leading man his screentime is somewhat limited. Couple of years after Executioner Part II Mitchum went to Indonesia and filmed some of the best action movies, Final Score and Lethal Hunter, ever made with the mighty Arizal.

Directed by James Bryan, best known for "Don't go in the woods"

New Gladiators (I guerrieri dell'anno 2072 , 1984)

Lucio Fulci's cheaper than cheap post apocalyptic gladiator movie. Plot is pretty simple: Network television wants to give people good old times Roman style gladiator entertainment, "win you live, lose you die" is the motto. They get couple of convicted criminals to be the gladiators and start to train them.

Movie is a strange mixture of PA/Blade Runner/2001: Space Odyssey (computer that turns from good to bad...). Sad to say but one could easily skip the first hour of the movie (basically Gladiators repairing for the event) and go straight into the gladiator tournament part. That is the shit! Gladiators racing in the arena on the motorcycles, wielding their swords and spears like in the ancient times... That sequence is very well executed and basically saves the movie from being a big disappointment. Oh yeah, good ol' Fred Williamson from the Black Cobra series is one of the gladiators. Do i even need to tell you that he is the man. Once again.

Comes recommended although you might wanna use the fast-forward button in some parts of the movie.

Rocktober Blood (1984)

Billy (Tray Loren), singer of hard rock group called Rocktober Blood goes insane and kills punch of people. He is sentenced to death and executed. Two years after that Rocktober Blood is back with a new singer, their former backup singer Lynn Starling (Donna Scoggins). Everything seems to be going great but then suddenly Lynn starts to see Billy everywhere, stalking her. Oh my god, has he risen from his grave!?!? Holy cheese! Rocktober Blood is one of those movie titles that puts a big grin on your face and you know that this movie is going to be so bad that it's going to be great fun. And yeah, that is exactly the case with Rocktober Blood. Acting is just horribly bad and Hard Rock tunes played in the movie are full of clichés. We also get to see lots of '80s glam rock hairdos and that flashy '80s clothing to go with it. But hey, that is what i was expecting and that's what i got. I don't think that Rocktober Blood was even meant to be "really frightening horror movie", just a camp-fest for a good laugh. If you don't like cheese, stay away from this one! Directed by Beverly Sebastian.

Heroes For Hire (1984)

Miami 1980, doctor transplants some sort of metal object into a patient arm. Then tells him to go home and relax but the patient kills the doctor. One year later. Professor Arlington (Mike Monty) is kidnapped by punch of thugs from his pool party and taken into a secret location. Only one of Arlington's bodyguards survives,McPearson (Bruce Baron), and he helps the cops to find the professor and locate the kidnappers with some heroes for hire... Another John Lloyd low budget Filipino actioner. I think Lloyd was given some of lowest budgets among directors who directed these action movies in Philippines and yet he managed to make really entertaining movies like this one. Really bad acting, especially the lesser known supporting actors, no budget explosions, scenes that really doesn't fit into the plot, machine gun mounted to a motorcycle and map tattooed on girl's ass. With ingredients like that you really can't go wrong. So this one was really good movie, best one that i seen from Lloyd. One of the best sequences is when the police captain(?) is going through the CVs of these "Heroes for hire" and we get to see them in action in these flashback scenes. One of them is your regular Rambo, another one is cowboy (who goes into a bank in middle of robbery and executes the thugs with shotgun) and last but not least we get to see the Ninja dude in action. All in all, low budget feel is strong in this one and i like it! Highly recommended.

Savage Streets (1984)

Thugs rape Brenda's (Linda Blair) deaf sister and kill her good friend. Cops are doing nothing so she decides to take matters into her own hands and make those bastards pay for what they have done. '80s hairdos and pumping AOR music, naked girls running around in shower, half arsed dialog and bad acting. How much more '80s can you get than this film? I think none. These '80s movies are always fun to watch. They have that certain campy feel that just can't be found from the current cinema. Yes, i know. Linda Blair will always be remembered for her role in The Exorcist as the head spinning, cursing and vomiting possessed little girl. She does ok job as a leading lady in Savage Streets, but she lacks the charisma that would really make her stand out. All in all, fine example of '80s revenge flick.

Blastfighter (1984)

Story about ex-cop Jake 'Tiger' Sharp (Michael Sopkiw) who is released from jail after serving 8 years for murdering a thug who killed his wife. Tiger's friend gives him a special modified rifle to kill the man who was the master mind behind the wife's murder. Jake can't pull the trigger. He's a changed man now.

He just wants peace and quiet and goes into country side where he was raised up. Local rednecks give him hard time and eventually things escalate to a point where these rednecks try to kill him. They don't succeed.

Tiger's daughter, local park ranger and friend comes to visit him. Rednecks end up killing all of them except Tiger's daughter. Tiger and daughter escape into woods. Eventually thugs manage to kill the daughter and that is the final straw for Tiger. He gets his special rifle and start blasting off some rednecks.

Directed by Lamberto Bava, man who is going to be known always as the son of the late great Mario Bava. I just can imagine the pressure he must have felt when he started his directing career. L. Bava has also made couple of decent giallos, A Blade in the Dark and Midnight Killer. Not the best ones in the giallo genre but not the worst ones either. There is a small giallo moment in Blastfighter when they show the wife's murder. Murderer got black gloves and switchblade. Typical giallo murder kit.

Blastfighter is a good movie. Better than your average revenge flicks. Of course it has some of that Ramboish flavour in it when our hero Tiger goes hiding in the woods and takes out bad guys one by one. Soundtrack was somewhat bizarre combination of electronic western doodles, which were pretty okay  and really cheesy melodramatic Casio scores. They sucked. But what the hell, check it out. It's definitely worth it.

Final Mission (1984)

Film starts at Laos '72 where sergeant Vincent Deacon (Richard Young) is after a traitor Will Slater (John Dresden). Deacon's men manages to surround traitor and his men in a village. They blow the shit out of the village and capture Slater. He swears vengeance on Deacon.

Fast forward little over ten years. Deacon is the leader of SWAT team in LA. Local thugs break into his house but he manages to take out most of them. Deacon's captain is not happy about this and suspends him. Deacon goes on a camping trip with his wife and son. Everything seem to be happy and cozy. That is until his wife and son is killed by a bomb in their boat. Deacon finds out that bomb is planted by his arch-enemy Slater. He goes into a small town, where Slater's brother is the sheriff, to find Slater and all the hell breaks loose.

Cirio H. Santiago directed this Rambo rip-off. Don't get me wrong, this is a great movie. One of the best Rambo knock offs i have seen. Grim vengeance story with lots of action. Soundtrack is little different from the other Santiago movies i have been watching lately. Of course we get '80 hard rock (okay only one song, Steve Butler's "Always On My Mind") but also a melodramatic orchestrated score ( think of Ennio Morricone on a lazy day and you get the picture) and not the usual cheap electronic strumming.


Hats off to Santiago once again.