Leofwine_draca Lamberto Bava does it again with this Italian action movie that manages to be almost as entertaining as his cult classic, DEMONS! In many ways the film follows the same action-orientated template with hostile rednecks replacing supernatural monsters and the heroes gradually picked off one by one by the bad guys. However, the realism of the film adds to the suspenseful aspect. Beginning fairly low key, we watch as events gradually build out of hand (Bava takes time to develop the situation instead of rushing it and making it unbelievable) until the rip-roaring climax that will please action fans everywhere. Before then, the film is packed with incident and genuinely manages to stay exciting all the while. The plot is not very complex and takes influence from a number of other films. FIRST BLOOD is the obvious choice, but there are also some surprising references to THE EVIL DEAD and even a western homage! This is a film packed with burning vehicles, gunfire and lots of heroic staples. Michael Sopkiw (MASSACRE IN DINOSAUR VALLEY) is great as the lead and gets to cross waterfalls, abseil down sheer cliffs and take part in some great stunt action. Stuntman Massimo Vanni even shows his face in a cameo as a dying cop and supplies some great death scenes. Sopkiw, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Bruce Campbell, breathes life into the character of Jake Sharp, who could easily have been unlikable and stiff. The character is solemn, introspective and rather rude to those around him, but nonetheless you find yourself rooting for Sopkiw as the film progresses.Bava fills a few roles with familiar faces to the exploitation fan. Playing Sopkiw's main adversary is the always imposing George Eastman (ANTHROPOPHAGUS THE BEAST) as hulking, crippled redneck, Tom. Eastman actually has a developed character (the only villain that has) and does well with his performance. The action sequences are well staged and make good use of the wooded locations for the chases. They're also bolstered by a stirring synthesiser score. The movie is pretty grim and kills off loads of "good" characters, plus a lot of animals get shot etc. Yet Bava still manages to retain the entertainment despite this overwhelming nihilism and rewards the viewer with the climatic destruction of about three dozen bad guys, all gun-toting rednecks without an ounce of wit or intelligence about them. When Sopkiw's amusingly kick-ass gun comes into play, the film explodes with gruesome gore effects (sadly excised, as usual, in the UK cut) and more explosions that you can believe possible. My only complaint is with the very end of the film which makes absolutely no thematic sense to this viewer. Otherwise BLASTFIGHTER is a must for fans of cheesy Italian action.

HaemovoreRex The always fun to watch Michael Sopkiw stars in this highly enjoyable action yarn. In it he plays an ex police officer who having just been released from an eight year prison sentence, now seeks the solitude of the great outdoors. However, with a film title such as Blastfighter, you can bet your bum that solitude is a luxury that our hero won't be attaining.Sure enough he finds himself in a heated dispute with some local rednecks who repeatedly antagonise him after he attempts to interfere with their cruel deer poaching activities. This initial antagonising eventually escalates to attempted murder and later on, the actual murder of one of our hero's friends plus our hero's estranged daughter's boyfriend (whoa, that was quite a mouthful!)Matters reach a dramatic peek when the daughter herself is also killed thus finally sending our hero over the edge..... It is at this point that in true Rambo style he takes drastic action and basically kills every one of the scumbags! To aid him with this joyous task our man utilises a rather nifty shotgun that fires multiple projectiles such as explosives, smoke grenades, darts etc. (COOL!!!)The climax of the picture has our hero up against the legendary George Eastman who plays the BIG brother of the head redneck.What can I say, this is a really satisfying movie with some stunning location shooting and in addition, plenty of shooting of the ammunition kind! Sopkiw gives probably his best performance and makes for a very sympathetic hero. It's such a shame that he retired as an actor after only four films. If there is one criticism I would level at the film however, then it is that although the special weapon our hero carries is supposedly the main draw of this film (as regards the advertising at least) it is only actually used proper in the final 15 or so minutes of the running time. In addition, despite a fair number of cool explosions, these final scenes are not handled as spectacularly as perhaps one might have hoped for (although the scene where our hero blows off a mans arm at point blank range is pretty awesome!)Still, as a whole, as I previously said, this is solidly entertaining stuff and I wholeheartedly recommend it to all serious action fans.....Now where can I get one of those guns from?

justin Next to DEMONS this is probably director Lamberto Bava's best film. Having just been released from prison for a crime he didn't commit, leading man Michael Sopkiw just wants peace and quiet in the wilderness. But wouldn't you know it, as soon as he pulls into the town trouble arises in the forms of lowlifes with manners and tact all but absent. They give Michael static and while he tries not to fight back you just know that something is going to make him snap and get even with these small town hooligans and their sadistic ways.(Check out Michael's super tricked out futuristic(?) rifle. This is just a very entertaining film to watch, especially with friends. The soundtrack is amazing as well containing a driving instrumental and a warbles country & western tune.

Michael A. Martinez Lamberto Bava's best film so far plays like a variation of Deliverance and First Blood. For the first half of the movie, it remains in doubt rather Sopkiw is going to strike back at a huge passel of harassing rednecks. The scriptwriters here seemed to know what we wanted and made the movie flow accordingly. You can watch the film, hate a character, say whether he lives or dies, and you'll be pretty much correct. All in all this film packs a whallop, with a good Claudio Simonetti score (same as the score in MASSACRE IN DINOSAR VALLEY). The characters likable enough (except Sopkiw's LOAD daughter) and the climax was suitably exciting and violent. Basically the two hicks in DELIVERANCE here are replaced with 500 hicks, 90% of whom die in violent explosive ways. A good movie, lots of goods, not much to complain about. There were a lot of references to EVIL DEAD, such as the fact that Sopkiw drove the same model car, lived in a similar wooden shack in the woods, and even was made up to look like Bruce Campbell! Find this movie if you can.