Con la justicia en sus manos

I saw this one for the first time back in 1989 at the age of twelve. What a rush it was and love at first sight so to say. Blastfighter manage to serve us really good actionscenes for its time and keeps the excitement all the way to end credits. Michael Sopkiw got potential to be something more than he became, but as we all know, the moviebusiness can be very tough. Blastfighter remain a good b-action flick for many viewers, but for me a little more than that. This movie will be linked to nice childhood memories and for me it is a true action classic.

Adequate cheese ball entertainment should prove to be somewhat interesting for any fan of Lamberto Bava, son of Italian filmmaking maestro Mario Bava. Lamberto filmed all exteriors Stateside, in this tale of ex-cop "Tiger" Sharp (Michael Sopkiw, "Massacre in Dinosaur Valley"). Tiger has just gotten out of prison for his revenge-killing of the man who murdered his wife. Now he's trying to live a normal life, but he will soon be approached by Connie (Valentina Forte, "Cut and Run"), the daughter that he hasn't seen in ages. He makes enemies out of a bunch of mentally challenged redneck hunters, especially Wally (Stefano Mingardo), brother of Tigers' friend Tom (Italian genre & exploitation icon George Eastman).

The title seems to suggest something at least slightly futuristic, but that is not the case. This is more a tale of a private war in a woodsy setting; ultimately, the finale strongly echoes "First Blood". The only thing remotely futuristic is the title weapon, something that definitely earns the adjective "badass". It can fire just about anything, it seems. But it doesn't come into play until the final 10 minutes of the movie.

"Blastfighter" is rough going for a while - it's a loud, sometimes chaotic, sometimes incoherent mess of a movie. It sort of improves as it goes along, and the characters become more engaging. The actors on screen are fine; also among them are future director Michele Soavi ("Stagefright", "Cemetery Man") and stuntman / actor Ottaviano Dell'Acqua ("Rats: Night of Terror"). Sopkiw is a decent B movie hero, handsome and rugged, and Eastman is always good value. But the people doing the dubbed-in American voices tend to be over the top, especially the gal doing Fortes' voice. It renders her character rather annoying.

Overall, it shows you an amusing enough time, with a fun electronic score by Fabio Frizzi ("Zombi 2"), and a particularly lively finish that features explosions aplenty.

Five out of 10.

How many movies were inspired by the horror classic "the most dangerous game" ?Even such recent works as Gibson's "Apocalypto" were . This one is not worse than the others ,and if the two leads had shown more emotion ,had they "played" ,it could have been even endearing.As an action movie ,it's moderately entertaining ,with a hackneyed screenplay -just one thing "happens" which would not generally happen in this kind of superman flick-And it's after "it " happens that the movie has nothing more in store for the viewer.Well filmed in nice landscapes which recall " Deliverance" another movie "blastfighter" borrows from.And the same horrible cliché that claims that country people are savage uneducated brutes.

Having watched "Blastfighter", I can now proudly say for myself that I've seen the entire repertoire of lead actor Michael Sopkiw. Not that this is such an exhausting or praiseworthy accomplishment, as this peculiar macho star only ever appeared in four movies, but they are nevertheless rare and offbeat highlights in the category of shameless early 80's Italian exploitation cinema. Sopkiw's career was quite bizarre, because he only played four leading roles and then completely disappeared from the film industry, but the movies he did are forever printed in my head and all still rank high in my list of personal guilty pleasures. "After the Fall of New York" and "Massacre in Dinosaur Valley" are his two most superior achievements, whereas the double feature he shot with director Lamberto Bava is putrid but tremendously amusing cheese-material! "Monster Shark" is a daft and utterly retarded "Jaws" rip-off and this "Blastfighter" is an outrageously inane travesty of the Sylvester Stallone vehicle "Rambo". This is an incredibly askew and misfire of an action flick; hilariously entertaining for all the wrong reasons. The screenplay is incoherent and full of holes big enough to rush a reasonably large bobsled through, the inept dialogs make you go "WTF?" every couple of minutes and the overuse of typically 80's syrupy chansons is mildly infuriating. We open with Sopkiw's character – awesomely named Tiger Sharp, ha – walking out of prison after doing his eight years of time for murdering his wife's murderer. Why his wife died or in what sort of scandal Tiger got involved eight years ago we never find out. We just knew he was a cop in the Bronx and now he returns to his hillbilly-infested hometown somewhere in Arizona. At least I think it's in Arizona, because that annoying theme song repeatedly sings something about "Sunset across the Arizonian border". Anyway, Tiger promptly gets into conflict with a bunch of redneck lumberjacks led by the crazed brother of Tiger's former best friend Tom. George "Anthropophagous" Eastman depicts Tom and I truly, madly, deeply adore this guy! Tiger then receives a visit from his teenage daughter Connie (although it takes an awful long time before he realizes she's his offspring) and it looks as if he finally found some peace and quiet in his chaotic existence. But the vendetta with the rednecks escalates, and Tiger is unwillingly forced again to dust off his multifunctional machine gun. Watching "Blastfighter" is an indescribable experience and I only address myself towards fans of Italian exploitation cinema, because all the other 'normal' movie lovers are likely to label this as the worst movie ever made. Don't get me wrong, it IS one of the worst movies ever made but also amateurishly charming, irresistibly cheesy and the ideal piece of junk to watch together with friends. Every slightest aspect about this movie is unintentionally zany, like the wannabe sentimental moments with the Bambi deer, the "Deliverance" homage near the beginning, the continuously straight-faced acting performances, the exaggerated showcasing of hillbilly clichés, the copious amount of action sequences that look identical to "Rambo", the seemingly unceasing number of hostile lumberjacks that our hero is up against, the demented father/daughter interactions and the totally bonkers final confrontation with Tom. Michael Sopkiw is a handsome (kind of resembling Franco Nero) and reasonably talented actor and he probably deserved better than to star in trash like this. I can't possibly afford to grant a positive rating to "Blastfighter", but rest assured it's an entertaining and highly recommended film!

They obviously ain't seen BLASTFIGHTER then cuz this is one kick ass flick we got here! Made the same year as his equally lightning-paced film DEMONS, and featuring the exact same Claudio Simonetti score used in MASSACRE IN DINOSAUR VALLEY (a film I highly recommend BTW), Blastfighter is a hot little piece of celluloid. Genre favorite Michael Sopkiw (AFTER THE FALL OF NEW YORK) is here as the hero who seeks revenge on the redneck bullies who killed his daughter and ruined his life. Also, Joe D'Amato reg George Eastman co-stars doin' what he does best: playing a bad guy. Here, he actually has speaking lines! There's lots of action, a good storyline with a fair amount of suspense and drama, and of course loads of gory violence toward the end. Now, after seeing this, is L. Bava really as bad as most say? I think not. You might be very well surprised.