Hard As Nails

While being a true Corman flick, with his share of breasts, cliche' dialogue, super-hero cops and stereotyped foreign villains, the film still manages very strong moments and scenes of genuine emotional impact. These moments of "true" human drama are intermixed with over-the-top, sword-swinging action and adrenaline-charged martial arts sequences. The odd coexistence of typical elements of Corman's B-movies with straight in-your-face drama and subtle irony is pulled together by a stylish cinematography that, at times, seems to support the full dramatic element of the film while, often, shifts towards a cartoonish and surreal style that seems to actually negate the seriousness of the events. The film's tone, therefore, constantly shifts from truly dramatic to moments where things are purposely exaggerated and off-the wall, seemingly mocking the "noir" genre. One moment you are emotionally involved in the characters' pain, then the next scene mocks the viewer saying "it's all a big joke!". It is this clever, constant stylistic shift, combined with break-neck action, that make this film worth watching.

It is important to note that this is a very unusual film. Usually Corman films have action sequences that are a bit campy. Hard as nails plays the fight scenes serious. Actress/Stunt artist Chona Jason is a wicked bad girl not to be messed with, and excellent with a sword. The movie has some parts which are way too campy and silly not keeping with the fighting. This detracts from the fact that a real martial artist like Chona is playing her part serious, and trying to do her best in the role. What does this all mean? Watch it with a grain of salt, the low budget didn't allow for good death scenes, but they are headed in the right direction in action sequences. Hopefully a trend to have women like Chona more involved in real fight sequences will continue especially in light of Resident Evil. This movie rates a 6 out of 10.

I only bought this because of Corman and I'll admit I got my $1 worth out of this flick. That aside, it's a pretty lame film. The whole crime family drama shtick never works for me overall, so that's a setback right there and I could have cared less about any of the characters, as there is nothing about them that even remotely touches on the realities of organized crime, strip clubs, law enforcement, or prostitution. There's some nice nudity thrown into the mix, some OK fight scenes, and the rest of the time you are watching humorless, lame Hollywood BS that seems to drag out much longer than it should. An adequate time-waster but probably not a film you'll want to see twice. And who gets romantic and decides to have sex after having two of their fingers cut off? That scene was beyond stupid and the rest of the film wasn't much better.

I think the only way to describe this film is 'tits and guns'.

Most of the film revolves around a strip club with the the larger-than-life Russian owner trying to put a deal together with an unstable half-japanese American lad to buy a mass of guns. The young lad gets frisky with a delicious Lorissa McComas pole dancer and all hell breaks loose. Coupled with the fact an undercover cop is lurking about and you have a recipe for one violent action scene after another.

Speaking of the fight scenes, these look lame compared with say a Jet Li/Jackie Chan movie. The long trench coat smacks of trying to be a Matrix copy but falling well, well short.

All in all, pretty average action thriller. 5/10