Devil's Express

Some demon travels from China to New York City to get an ancient Chinese amulet from some white guy who thinks he is a black guy and a kung fu soul brutha must stop it. Now I haven't seen too many blaxploitation movies but this has to be the most incompetently made blaxploitation movie ever. The dialogue is just idiotic to a tee. The editing is sloppier than a cesspool particularly the last scene when this guy was making a joke and the credits just suddenly cut him off as if to say "I just don't care anymore". The fight choreography was just the worst as you can clearly see that these guys were not making contact at all and missing each other by two feet. And I don't get why a Chinese guy would fight a soul brutha with a samurai sword bare handed. Ugh! The acting was horrendous..... I can go all day. This is the best ####ing movie ever I don't care what you think. Aargh! Yes, despite the trashy wacky incomprehensible crap and the aforementioned flaws, Devil's Express entertainment value is enormous.

The Devil's Express is part blaxploitation, part horror, and part martial arts flick, but the film fails to do any of those genres justice, with an unlikeable protagonist, tepid frights, and some of the worst punching and kicking imaginable.

The wonderfully named Warhawk Tanzania plays Luke, a black New York martial arts master who, accompanied by his drug-dealing student Rodan (Wilfredo Roldan), travels to China to complete his training. When Rodan finds an ancient amulet in a cave, he takes the trinket, and, in doing so, unleashes a bloodthirsty demon that follows him back to the Big Apple.

When mutilated bodies begin to show up in the city's subway, the police believe it to be the result of a gang war between the blacks and the Chinese, but when Rodan joins the list of victims, Luke investigates and learns of the supernatural creature lurking in the dark and heads underground to settle the score.

Technically inept (several scenes feature characters talking but we can hear no dialogue), poorly written (horrible jive street-talk is taken to the max) and dreadfully directed (the fight scenes are laughable), The Devil's Express is, without a doubt, a terrible film, but is still just about worth a watch to witness a possessed man with eyes like Kermit the frog, a Chinese man with an afro (a chifro?), and Luke's show-stopping gold velvet onepiece playsuit, complete with flares and button down shoulder straps.

An afrocentric martial arts master attends a Karate tournament in China, accompanied by a young student who steals an ancient amulet from a cave, unwittingly freeing a long captive demon. He brings the cursed artifact back to New York City, unaware that the demon has followed him in order to reclaim it. The evil entity possesses and kills people as it hides in the underground subway system, leaving homicide investigators baffled with each brutal murder. Only the aforementioned Karate master has the testicular fortitude needed for a hand-to-hand combat with the ancient evil.

DEVIL'S EXPRESS is emblematic of movies typically screened in "The Deuce" of NYC during the 70s...those little theaters so unendurably squalid that you'd need to bring a plastic garbage bag to cover your seat with. Cast of nobodies is headed by the inimitable WARHAWK TANZANIA, a karate-chopping soul brother forever iconified by this, and just one other Z-grade blaxploitation feature(FORCE FOUR, 1975).

7/10...Eighty-three minutes of sleazy, kickass action. You never had it so good.

DEVIL'S EXPRESS starts off in China (200 BC), where a coffin and a mysterious jewel are lowered into the ground, resulting in death and doom.

Fast-forward to modern day NYC, and we're introduced to Luke (Warhawk Tanzania), karate master and all-around bada$$. Accompanied by his friend, Rodan (Wilfredo Roldan), Luke hops on a jet to Hong Kong in hopes of becoming an ultra-bada$$.

Mission accomplished.

Unfortunately, Rodan's toying with eeevil forces winds up creating a zombie situation back in the NYC subway system. Police are baffled as several mutilation deaths occur. Can Luke and Rodan help "the man" sort things out? Let the astounding, downtown, underground showdown begin!

This movie is what 1970's entertainment is all about! Mr. Tanzania is exquisite in his incredible, two-tone, blue denim, bellbottom outfit! If that's not enough, just wait until you see him encased in his gold velour jumpsuit!

EXTRA POINTS FOR: The karate gang fight sequence, complete with screams, wails, and punches and kicks that sound like liver-filled mattresses being swung into brick walls!...

One reviewer described this as like "Black Belt Jones vs. The Galaxy Invader," but that only scratches the surface. Exhumed Films calls it "a Blaxploitation/Horror/Kung-Fu absurdist masterpiece," which they very correctly note "could only exist in the exploitation heyday of the 1970s." This gets a bit closer. You're really getting 3 or 4 different movies in one here. Possibly my favorite plot of all-time: a soul-brother karate instructor travels to Hong Kong to learn and master his art, where his buddy and protégé steals an ancient amulet which (unbeknownst to him) has the power to control a demon. The demon follows them home to NYC where it hides in the subway and begins killing innocent (and not-so-innocent) bystanders. Oh, and by the way? The amulet-stealing buddy is also a drug dealer with an ongoing vendetta against the local Chinese crime gang. That's at least 2 movies right there. The film now shifts gears to another buddy of the karate instructor, who is a cop investigating the subway killings. This portion of the film now plays like a supernatural/creature hunter/police procedural/X-Files kinda thing. Again, this could be a movie in its own right. Everything comes to a head when the black kung-fu-ers and the Chinese gang realize it might not just be their street fights that's killing off their members, and that maybe the cops are on to something when they say something is lurking in the subway, waiting to mutilate its next victim. This all ends with what is the trippiest final fight sequence since Zardoz. I would not have believed such a movie could exist had I not seen it. I *have* seen it. You should too.