Hardcase and Fist

Cop Bud McCall (Ted Prior) is framed for selling drugs and sent to the big house. Once inside he befriends cell mate Eddy Lee (Carter Wong) - another man doing time for being principled - and they watch each others backs. McCall has a price on his head since he is going to testify against a mob boss. But when a hit attempt takes place during a prison transfer, he finds an unlikely ally in Tony Marino (writer-producer-director Tony Zarindast), a hitman who he served with in Vietnam (weird since the age difference between Prior and Zarindast is 148 years).

This is my fourth viewing from the Iranian born auteur Zarindast and might be the most memorable. That is probably due to the fact it has Prior, Wong and explosions. Oh my. This feels like an Action International flick, but that is probably due to the casting of AIP mainstay Prior. It is rare to see Wong in a leading role in an American made action flick and I'll admit I couldn't understand half of what he was saying (you will now understand why he had five words of dialogue in Big Trouble in Little China). Of course, it is his flying fists that got him the gig and he excels there. It is one of those movies where five guys with shotguns will suddenly surround him and then attack one by one. Also featuring the aptly named Beano as a chubby hitman.

My cousin rented this movie when he was staying over one night. This movie is a howler. The acting, budget and fight scenes are bad. My father had a hoot making all of us laugh with his witty observations. Come to think of it, this makes a great party movie. Bad acting, sloppy direction and lame chop socky= Great party movie.

Recommended for party viewing. Those brave enough to view it alone will truly be dissapointed.

C

Another hit or miss, a case of hit or miss... -The Damned

This film is atrocious, even by the abysmal standards of Tony Zarindast. Hardcase and Fist are two crimefighters with very different styles - Hardcase is a gun-toting, maverick-yet-somehow-by-the-book white cop, while Fist is an enigmatic, inscrutable Chinese martial arts expert who eschews the use of firearms in line with the best traditions of movie cliche. They learn to respect each other's strength and virtue after the usual initial mutual suspicion. The two team up to defeat some implausibly incompetent, classically Zarindastesque bad guys who have kidnapped somebody, or something like that.

Watch out for the brilliantly choreographed gunfight towards the end of the movie when our heroes attack the bad guys' "base" (a bunch of rundown shacks in the middle of some waste ground). It runs thus: Hardcase walks along blithely, gun in hand; single bad guy jumps out from behind a building and shoots twice; misses; Hardcase shoots once; kills bad guy; repeat about 15 times as Hardcase draws closer to whatever the hell it is he's looking for. Best moment: the climactic car chase, which begins with Hardcase in a small car pursuing the chief bad guy, who is driving a station wagon. In the middle of the action, with no explanation offered, the bad guy is suddenly in the small car, and Hardcase is in the station wagon. The chase ends with the bad guy crashing his car into a small river. He emerges from the car on fire, wades through the water to the shore, and promptly burns to death (in slow motion). The awfulness of this movie is so complete, so perfect in every respect, that Tony Zarindast may well be the greatest comedic genius of our time.

My review was written in June 1989 after watching the film on Forum video cassette.

Routine action pic has its moments, making for a decent video title pitting mafia against two cons (the title combo).

Ted Prior is an L. A. cop framed by the mob but ordered rubbed out in prison so as not to spill the beans to the FBI about a mafia chieftain. His old Vietnam vet buddy Teddy (played by the filmmaker Tony Zarindast) is ordered to carry out the hit, but decides to help Prior and his martial arts expert cellmate Carter Wong escape instead.

Film loses credibility as Zarindast and his girlfriend Maureen Lavette tag along with the cons as Good Samaritans until gettig conveninetly wiped out in a siege by gangsters.

In addition to good stuntwork, best thing about the film is Zarindast's canny casting of beautiful women, especially Christina Lunde as Prior's girlfriend. Plotting is too loose to be riveting, notably the cavalier treatment of Wong's wife, Debra Lamb, who is talked about a lot, finally shown doing a striptease in a nightclub and cryptically dropped from the story.

Tech credits are up to par except variable sound.

A friend of mine has the movie and so we looked at it. I really liked the movie. I really liked the part were the house Blow up when he picked up that grenade to throw it back out. Also when the guy was shot between his legs while on the roof--Cool. We all enjoyed it and liked it. I am going to get my own copy. Also since that time I have seen other movies that Victor Von Wright, has played in and they also were very good. Some may say other wise about this movie, however I have found that some people try to pick apart anything and everything. Nevertheless, we all enjoyed the movie and there were about 15 of us watching it. Good Movie.