Blood Debts

For those who don't get it, it's a 3. But for those who love the so bad it's good genre, you'll be thoroughly entertained by this steaming loaf of a movie. If you like Samurai Cop, Miami Connection and the like, you'll love blood debts. Especially the ending ;)

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!

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.

Back in the magical 1980s the Filipino Silver Star Company had one big dream: making authentic American action flicks in their own neighbourhood. I mean, who's going to know? Just fly in some token American actors who peaked at least two decades ago, have them say any old action cliché that you can come up with in an afternoon and give it a violent title, it'll work. Unfortunately, the dirt cheap production values and clearly Asian surroundings can occasionally hurt the illusion. Silver Star's favorite token American was without a doubt Richard Harrison, this was the fifth movie he did for the company. By now unfortunately he has tremendous trouble hiding the boredom and disgust he feels for projects like these, which is sad because "Blood Debts" is by far the best Filipino movie he did (whatever that means).

What I love most about "Blood Debts" is that it doesn't take time explaining anything, because there's nothing to explain. You know from the first minute on that it's going to be a "Death Wish" rip-off, you know it will just be Harrison randomly blowing away scum for ninety minutes. Who cares where he went to high school or whether he likes long walks on the beach, it would just eat up murder time. His wife doesn't even have a name and she's in like six scenes. That's basically the main (only?) value these movies have. The makers know they don't have much skill in writing, directing or virtually any aspect of filmmaking, so they go for broke and give the audience exactly what it wants. I can respect that kind of attitude, it makes "Blood Debts" highly enjoyable. Bonus points for the "huh?" of an ending, it's less dumb than the ending to "Fireback" (another Silver Star production with Harrison in the lead) but definitely not by much.

Ladies and gentlemen, may we present to you... Mr. Teddy Page! The name doesn't exactly sound like he's a cinematic genius, and you probably won't ever find the films he made on any best-of lists. Still, Teddy Page hasn't disappointed me yet, and the same cannot be said about his more famous compatriots from the Philippines, like Cirio H. Santiago and Eddie Romero.

Teddy non-stop made and released cheap and straightforward action/exploitation flicks during the 80s and early 90s. Obviously none of them reach a half-decent quality level in terms of plotting or continuity, and the acting performances and stunt work are often downright laughable. But our good friend Teddy did one thing extremely well, namely never wasting time on boring introductions or the overlong building up of tension. "Blood Debts", for instance, is basically a blatant imitation of the Charles Bronson classic "Death Wish", only ... faster! Within the first three minutes of the film, a bunch of idiotically laughing rednecks rape and murder the daughter (and her fiancé) of proud mustache-wearing Vietnam veteran Mark Collins. Barely another ten minutes later, Mark already finished avenging his daughter and single-handedly massacred the five culprits responsible. I'm not even sure if he really wanted revenge, or just needed an excuse to shoot up random thugs!

In case you wonder what else can happen throughout the remaining 70 minutes, don't worry! Mark joyously continues to play the angry vigilante and even shoots hoodlums in the head for stealing a miserable $200. The script loses its last little bit of sense when Mark's wife gets kidnapped, and he gets forced to work as a contract killer. Mark enjoys firing bullets into criminals so much that he doesn't realize he's doing the dirty work for a rivaling drug cartel, and he certainly doesn't seem in a hurry to rescue his wife. The police are also doing their part by sipping coffee around a desk and secretly rooting for the anonymous avenger. The climax is fabulous and legendary (within very secluded cult-cinema circles, at least), and involves homemade bazookas, flare guns and the most abrupt freeze-frame ending in history.

In case you and your friends like absurdly over-the-top exploitation from the Philippines, complete with atrocious acting from a washed-up American star (Richard Harrison) and dialogues so preposterous they make your head spin, this is your Saturday night main feature! Completely free of charge, we'll also throw in gratuitous nudity, cheesy romantic montages, musical scores shamelessly stolen from other films, and a goofball golfing incident. Final tip, make it a double-feature with Teddy Page's equally bonkers "Movie in Action"!