Blood Debts

another silver star production from the Philippines, with Richard Harrison who have no time to act(admitting he can) in this short (less than 80 min)and pitifully "Death Wish" Rip-off,where He must avenge a rape/murder attack on his son and his girlfriend by a bunch of armed thugs.So he put his best red jogging suit(from Lee major bionic time)and kill a lot of people.Simple story with really nothing new in sight.Made by Terry Page and starring also the usual Mike Monty, James Gaines and Ann Milhench. Only Doris Wishman fans could appreciate this one, I'm one of them but it's not funny enough to have great redeeming value.Not worth seeking, but watchable in the good state of mind with few friends if you find it cheap.

A slice of b-movie heaven with ridiculous cheese, 'Blood Debts' is a gem of Philippine cinema. Funny bits come quick & often in an 80's number that looks, feels dated because of it's origins. Wacky sound effects, real ridiculous dialog fueled by crazy dubbing done after the fact. Plus a bare bones story that is equal parts 'Death Wish' & 'The Punisher' on the low end. This is not a good movie, but heck if I didn't have a killer time.

"He's a natural killing machine, Bill!"

A young couple in the park are preyed upon by a gang of "hunters" and shot dead. The father of the girl Mark (Richard Harrison) arrives too late and is shot too, but survives. He tracks down each man relatively easily and takes them out, but doesn't stop there. Kills more random criminals which draws the eye of Bill (Mike Monty) and his right hand man Peter (Jame Gaines) who try to control him. They get Mark to take out their criminal competition and he soon figures it out. Meaning there'll be one last ... Blood Debt ... to settle.

"We've taken over the territory. Recruit more pimps. More pushers."

Mark's skill makes for talk about a "killers instinct" while the actual moments he takes out trash - muggers, rapists, drug dealers - are fun. If you aren't smiling, laughing or grinning due to the action, you will be once the bizarre dubbing, hokey dialog kicks back in. A few scenes highlight the worthless police and more than a few for the Bill & Peter show as things deteriorate in hilarious fashion. Every role here is one note summed up by Mark's wife who's credited as ... "Mark's wife". Plus another lady who's sole reason for existing is too good to give away.

"Well how come he knew that we ... we were after ... his ass!?"

B-movie man "Dick" Harrison gets to be a one man wrecking crew in the Philippines. Short on story, intelligence, high on cheese, I had a great time with 'Blood Debts'. You get a few splashes of blood and one bit of gratuitous female nudity leading up to an ending and title card that has to be seen to be believed. It's somehow the best & worst thing I've ever had the pleasure to lock my eyes on (no joke).

This is one of Silver Star film productions - a Filipino film company that also released a number of other awful films played by their regular stars (Richard Harrison, Bruce Baron, Romano Kristoff) and their list of regular supporting casts (some familiar faces keep on showing up - Mike Monty, Jim Gaines, Don Gordon Bell). During the mid-eighties, Silver Star churned out quite a lot of low-budget low quality trashy action and war films: Fireback, Hunter's Crossing, Rescue Team, Mad Dog, Ninja's Force and Slash (a Rambo rip- off), to name a few. Watching these films, you may be entertained - for the wrong reasons!

Mark Collins (Richard Harrison), an ex-Vietnam veteran turns into a vigilante after witnessing some low-lives killed his daughter in cold blood. However, unknown to him, a ruthless businessman named Bill (Mike Monty) - who is planning to recruit him to do his dirty work - is having him under surveillance while he is going on his vengeance spree. Unable to force him to comply, Bill dispatches his goons to kidnap his beautiful wife. Realizing that his wife is under the mercy of a ruthless businessman, Collins has no other option but to carry out Bill's orders.

Working under cover with a hit woman, who is under the same predicament as he is, Collins begins wiping out everyone on Bill's hit list only to discover eventually that Bill has something up his sleeve for his hired killers.

There are lots of bad things to see: bad acting, bad script, bad directing, everything is just bad. It's plain to see that the writer or producer was inspired by Death Wish II. The first 30 minutes of the plot resembles that movie while the other half extends the plot about the vigilante being under the gun. This film, like all other Silver Star productions, tries very hard to westernize its production design despite the fact that it was made in the Philippines. Unfortunately, however hard they tried, this is still a clunker.

I was a teen when I saw this at the cinema and could even feel how bad it was. However that didn't stop me from watching more films of Silver Star productions because I was expecting to get a good laugh from seeing something so-bad-it's-good.

If this should make its way to DVD, only lovers of 'so-bad-it's- good' movies need watch it. Others stay away!

While a little unevenly paced, Blood Debts delivers as a trashy, Filipino action flick. It offers many of the hallmarks of such a film: poorly acted death scenes, takes that started before the actor realized he should be speaking, camera work that looks like it was done by adolescents, and dialog that is not only delivered poorly but sounds like it hastily written on napkins minutes before the camera rolled.

The plot is ludicrous and offers up plenty of hilarious moments as seemingly every criminal in the Philippines gets a bullet from Harrison. The music sounds like it belongs to a family friendly, Chuck Norris flick even while Harrison is plugging rapists. Most of the characters move with all the grace and fluidity of a bad video game.

It does lag a bit in the middle but the rest of it more then successful enough to consider this a very solid, trashy, actioner.

Even looking not so hot with an ill advised mustache and showing his 50 years Richard Harrison (Mark Collins) brings this one over the top with an able assist from Jim Gains (Peter). After seeing his daughter gunned down Mark sets out for vengeance which involves vengeance killing followed by a massive amount of additional killing after his lovely wife Yvette (Ann Jackson) is kidnapped. Along the way he is joined by a hit woman partner Liza (Ann Milhench) who does a nice job in the action scenes. The days of having a Pat Woodall, Angelique Pettyjohn, or Pam Grier in a Filipino "B" movie were by 1985 over. Director Teddy Page was a little sadistic and rough edge in this one with some quite graphic scenes, but with the head of the local syndicate Bill (Mike Monty) aided by, in one of his finest roles, Jim Gains as Peter, the real brains of the operation, the story comes together enough to recommend Blood Debt. Richard Harrison isn't quite at his best in this one as his action leading man days were on their last legs. It's a pity that Richard did not have as good of a second career as a character actor as he did in his youth with some great performances including Bob Fleming Secret Agent Fireball.