Neonkiller

There are movies of which you already know from the very first second that they will provide you with tremendous entertainment and a blast (pun intended) of a good time! The vast majority of these movies are Italian exploitation flicks from the early '80s and yet another large number of them are films directed by Enzo G. Castellari. In the 1970s Castellari made several qualitative cop thrillers ("The Big Racket") and stylish westerns ("Keoma"), but in the eighties he resolutely went for awesome popcorn-flicks like "The Last Jaws", "The Bronx Warriors" and this sadly too obscure "Light Blast". This movie feels like a mixture between a "Dirty Harry" sequel and a car chase thriller, though also spiced with many delightful horror and science-fiction elements. No one other than Erik "Ponch" Estrada (from the success series "CHiPs") stars as a rough 'n tough San Francisco copper on the tail of a mad scientist who threatens to destroy the entire city with his newly invented mega-powerful laser gun. Dr. Yuri Soboda's laser gun definitely works, that's for sure, since we witness how "Light Blast" begins with a lovely demonstration! I'll spare you the technical details, but the impact of the laser beam causes such tremendous heat and radiation that human flesh spontaneously melts away! An innocent young couple painfully experiences this when they're making love in the abandoned factory that Dr. Soboda uses to test his deadly device. He then gives another demonstration at a stock-car race and demands the sum of $10 million or else we'll strike again. "Light Blast" is literally chock-full of zero cool car chases in the bumpy streets of San Francisco, with lots of ravaged vehicles and unfortunate random victims, and during the climax Estrada even drives around in a desert buggy. The film also features many extremely violent shootouts (the bullet holes are huge) and nasty fights. The absolute highlight of the film – next to the face melting effects of course - is perhaps Estrada's encounter with a deranged female undertaker, as she nearly beats him to pulp her mortuary. "Light Blast" stars several memorable villainous characters, in fact. Ennio Girolami is terrific as the psychopathic Dr. Soboda. I bet that Enzo Castellari really wanted to cast Lee Van Cleef for this role, because Girolama looks a lot like him and even imitates his typical evil grimaces. Seriously, if you don't enjoy "Light Blast" you're a true sourpuss and you need to go see a doctor! This movie is just too much fun.

Ah! I've been after this one for years. Nobody's going to accuse Enzo Castellari of being high brow or filling his films with attacks on Roman Catholic dogma or thinly veiled metaphors about the futility of human endeavour, but action wise, this guy's untouchable. Light Blast is no exception. Car chases, gun fights, gore, car chases, explosions, car chases, this film has the lot. Especially car chases.

Thomas Moore (aka Ennio Girolami, the now sadly departed brother of Enzo) is a crazy scientist with an even crazier light weapon that he uses a couple of times (causing folk to melt ala the ending of Raiders of the Lost Ark), and is now blackmailing the city of San Francisco. Cop Erik Estrada (King Worm from Adventure Time) is on the case, which mainly involves chasing after Moore's hired goons and graphically killing them, or tailing them using various vehicles to buildings and killing them there, or chasing hoaxers in cars causing death and destruction.

We first see Estrada during a hostage crisis where he turns up in the buff carrying a turkey with a gun inside it. This was the first indication to me that Enzo wasn't taking this one too seriously. That, and when Estrada jumps on the back of a pick up truck, thrusts his badge into the driver's face and says "Follow that car" and does this several times until we see a motorcyclist dropping him off outside of a henchman's place, which leads to the awesome 'fight in a mortuary scene'.

Basically Erik gets into a three way fight with one of Moore's hired goons (hired goons?) and a crazy nurse who kicks him in the knackers about 100 times. Fantastic.

Although there's…kind of not much plot to speak of, Light Blast is jam packed full of the stuff brain dead Italian action fans want to see, so you're not going to hear any complaints from me, because I'm a brain dead Italian action fan. As long as people are shooting at each other or things are blowing up, I won't get confused. This is another winner from Enzo – I've still not seen a bad film by him. Good music too, from the De Angelis brothers.

Massimo Vanni fans take note: Massimo's cameo lasts long as these words, uttered by me during the film: "Ah, there's Massimo. I wonder how long it will take him to get killed? Well, there he goes."

Erik Estrada who is fresh off from "CHiPs", stars in this cheese of a movie called "Light Blast". Like "CHiPs", he's a cop, but in a different city of California. But unlike Poncherello, Warren is more hardcore. Ponch never got to use his gun, Warren always pack heat! He and his police department goes after a madman who uses a death ray on the city of San Francisco. His then wife Peggy Rowe was astounding. All the explosions in film were common. It could pass off as a 2 part episode of "CHiPs". But this is San Francisco, not Los Angeles. It's a enjoyable film to watch. Who doesn't love Erik Estrada? 4 out of 5 stars.

Lightblast is quite entertaining movie, in the trashy way. It doesn't promise more than it can offer - it has pretty childish plot, just average actors, characters aren't introduced and there's too much car chasing scenes. Still, I love the way Lightblast delivers the action: it's quite gory and entertaining, like in many other Castellari's movies too. Action and human melting scenes (that are ripped off from the ending of the Raiders of the lost ark) are definitely best that movie offers. Otherwise it's just an another nameless B-actionpack. So, if there's any way you can get hold on this movie (yes, I know it can be difficult) and you like good B-action from early 80's, this is the movie for you. Lucky for me, movie has been released in Finland at the early 80's on VHS, otherwise it would be mission impossible to find. Recommended for all trash-movie fans.

Things were never quite like this in CHIPS for Erik Estrada who appears in this highly enjoyable action yarn from the ever dependable Enzo G. Castellari.

A mad scientist is threatening to blow up the city with his devastating laser cannon unless his ransom demands are met and it's up to our man Ponch- erm, I mean Inspector Ronn to stop him.

Some great body melt fx, a number of exciting high speed car chases (with an especially cool one at the climax), plenty of shoot outs and in one scene, a fight in an undertakers with a mad female mortician(!) all combine to make this a fun ride from start to finish. Add to this a cool musical score that backs up all the said action and what more could you ask for in a film?

Highly recommended!