"Mac 10" starts with a shocker, because Nick Millard actually used his own name for this one. Most of his movies don't even have credits, others were made under ridiculous pseudonyms like Jan Anders, Otto Wilmer or (I guess he ran out of inspiration) Steve Millard. He must have been proud of this movie, and I can understand why. Millard always brought his A-game for the action genre. Don't get me wrong, I love his horror movies, but they're essentially just his friends and family muttering around his Pepto Bismol-colored house waiting to be killed. In his action movies, he gives us more locations, more actors, more ridiculous plot contrivances and thus, more fun. Hell, this time he even throws in an awesome funky soundtrack.
When it comes to the cast list, things do get confusing again. The movie supposedly stars 'Lloyd Allan' and 'Christina Cardan', but they don't mention which characters they play. At first I thought these were fake names, but Christina Cardan has been in other films and probably plays the main character's girlfriend. Could Lloyd Allan be the hitman? He's played by the spider guy from "Crazy Fat Ethel II", so that's a gap we could fill in then. We actually get to see many familiar faces from other Millard movies, which always warms my heart. Millard has stated he always uses the same actors because it's easier to write if you know who you are writing for. While I guess that's true, these are probably just the only people willing to shoot with him for (next to) nothing. Not to be rude, but I don't think Albert Eskinazi did a dozen movies with Millard because of his incredible acting abilities. Millard himself actually plays three (!) parts in this film, hoping we're too dumb to notice. We'd recognise you anywhere, Nick!
This movie actually gives us three stories for the price of one, stories that are loosely related at best. The main story is about Marland Proctor shooting his gun to retrieve a briefcase, but apparently that didn't eat up enough time so we also get subplots (okay: completely different plots) of a guy cheating at craps and most baffingly, one where Millard plays a native American man. It never gets as borderline offensive as you think, thankfully. Millard genuinely seems to be enjoying himself in this role, mainly because he gets to kick ass once in a while. There's an almost child-like bewilderment to this movie, which is only enforced by the complete absence of gun effects. Whenever anyone 'shoots' a machine gun, they just shake it around a bit to make you think there's recoil. It's not exactly a perfect illusion, to put in mildly, but it is incredibly endearing.
"Mac 10" used to share a page with "Gunblast", because Millard's later filmography is so obscure that it's tough to get reliable information. Hell, I've seen some of his actors in five or six movies without knowing their names. Millard sadly passed away in 2022, taking much of that info with him. "Mac 10" is definitely one of his most entertaining movies I've seen so far, I can only hope it's the start of a career revival. Millard himself might be gone, but he has left behind a long body of work that will live on forever. Now let me try to get that soundtrack out of my head!
P. S: Many thanks to The Devil's DVD Bin for letting me see this film. He had to do unspeakable things to get his hands on a copy, but it's not like it wasn't worth it.
