very_metal

After spending many years watching HK action movies one can find a numbing form of familiarity to them, that said this wasn't the case with, Peoples Hero. A very involving, sublimely tense heist-gone-wrong thriller (admittedly that description no longer holds that much currency with the endless recycling of said formula) but this one's a Lulu. One thing I personally enjoyed was the inclusion of a tremulously inept teenage epileptic bank robber, a very effective device, as it provides for much bleak humour and and some rousing tension as he freezes up unable to defend himself against the genuinely sinister hood played by Ti Lung. A character who initially appears as if he is yet another generic kill 'em all gangster but is given a lot more depth by the above average script and a brilliant performance by the always watchable Ti Lung. If you are looking for gory heroic bloodshed this isn't the fella for you but if you fancy some stylish claustrophobic cops & robbers entertainment, this tightly directed piece will not disappoint. It is however a shameless retread of Dog Day Afternoon...but done with aplomb. 7/10. Check it out.

A masterpiece of early 70's Euro rip-off madness. It's got Sue Lyon wearing too much greasy make-up and the always underwhelming Chris Mitchum...excited, I am. This is great nonsense of the highest order, if your taste in movies stretches to the more mondo end of the bracket, Jess Franco, bad Italian biker movies, Umberto Lenzi etc you're gonna dig this. Sleeper style futuristic art direction, gay looking hoodlums in shiny red helmets, and Sue Lyons killing hardbodied young men for no explicable reason, aside from the director wanting her to...Genius. This film also contains two superb faux adverts which are hysterical, one for an msg free blue drink, called Blue Drink the other extolling the virtues of masculine leopard spot sex pants. Two heavy handed references to Sue Lyon's previous role as Lolita, why????? because the director wanted to, good enough for me. Plot - some Italian producers saw Clockwork Orange and thought they could do the same, they couldn't...but it's bonza all the same. I picked it up at a market for a £1 and aside from 'Tuxedo Warrior' it is thus far my greatest find. The cover itself is as camp as fairy dust...if you ever are lucky enough to come in contact with this slice of mondo-trasho check it out.