Six-String Samurai

First, the bad stuff. The film will not appeal to people who can't deal with camp, with pure Lynch-like strangeness, or people who demand a big budget production.

However, those who are willing to give an oddball film a chance will find this to be a real gem of an indie flick. Imagine if you will Buddy Holly, Mad Max, and Jet Li bundled into one character, fighting across a desolate warped postapocalyptic Nevada. The dynamics in the movie are all about conflict... Rock & Roll against Metal, Communism against Capitalism, bravery versus despair. Mix that in with "Weird West" touches, demented nuclear families, and warriors who duel with both blade and guitar. There is even a hint of the manga, "Lone Wolf and Cub" thrown in. That and some excellent Russian-influenced rockabilly.

Some of the scenes fall flat, sure... but few movies try to reach for such imaginative and demented heights... and few succeed to this extend on a shoestring budget. Despite its shortcomings, the action sequences are exciting and well-done, and one really sees an American Apocalypse which never was -- but in some ways happened, in our heads, at least.

This movie has so many faults. But why do I love it so much? First off the position of the bad guys is never really explained. I mean who exactly are the windmill people? What makes Buddy flip around when the kid cries? (Amen to the reviewer who mentioned the kid's psychotic episode inducing moan) Just what exactly happened at the end? The music is great but at certain times does not feel fitting for the situation. Buddy repeats the same lines over and over as if that will make them cooler. (ex. Float away little butterfly, swell, etc.)

However, there is so much to love. The instant Falcon appeared on the screen as Buddy, the kung fu rocker, I was amazed. I kept thinking to myself, "dang, this guy is awesome". The scenery and photography is gorgeous. As to a comment about erotic photography I did notice that there was a similar scene. Buddy and the kid are standing on opposite sand dunes. It looks like a pair of boobs to me, but that's just me.

As for the guy that complains that Death was given a wussy guitar, that seems to be the point to me. Heavy Metal is contrasted with Rockabilly and Surf Guitar. The director obviously prefers the latter, and so do I.

The dubbed voices are cheesy, but that doesn't make it any less cool. I loved the too short segment involving the "windmill god" himself. But what was with that kid who kept saying, "Tag! You're It!" To get all the nuances of the film you probably have to be an anime, hong kong, mad max, Sergio Leone junkie. I liked the fact that the movie was bloodless. It helps to keep the fun factor high.

This movie is just what the world needs. Meteor destroying the Earth, bah! A pale remake of a giant rampaging lizard, forget it. Take a trip back to the fifties when rock was revolutionary.

I had the rare honor of viewing this movie on Sunset the week it came out...and watching what was the accumulation of massive amounts of hard work...I thoroughly enjoyed the film...It's so original it's frightening...The choreography and a perfect mix of acid surf music thrust you on this adrenalin surged ride..that has been influenced by everything...Buddy(our hero) is the love child of Clint Eastwood, Mr.Blonde and Stephen Dorf. The sword play is incredible...but Jeffrey Falcon's acting could use some work...but, hey...who's watching the acting... He slices! He dices!...He goes through an entire hillside of Russian soldiers!...This movie is great following a night on the town...!

...if you like rock-a-billie and love a campy adventure in a post-apocalyptic world were Elvis, the KING, has just died and there's a guitar-strumming race across the desert to Las Vegas to see who will be the next King crowned - you'll love this bizarre piece of comic book fiction brought to life. Our hero & his sidekick are chased across the desert by Death(a cross between Tom Petty & Slash) and his archer henchmen. Our Hero slashes his way through one unbelievable fight scene after another. Falcon is truly amazing. The fight choreography alone is reason enough to watch this peculiar piece of cinema. The climax is a duel between our Hero(Rock-n-Roll) and Death(Heavy Metal). Who becomes the King? Watch it & love it.

When I saw this movie at in the rental section, I assumed it would be a rip-off of EL MARIACHI or DESPERADO. I rented it out of curiosity and found that I was mistaken. This film is quite original and a little bizarre, but it is definitely the kind of independent movie that is worth seeing.

The budget is low, the costumes and special effects are sparse, and some of the sound is non-synchronous. But this is all made up for with a story and directorial style that lends itself to "camp." The stylization of this movie is definitely what makes it worth seeing. It is kind of an over-the-top martial-arts, rock and roll, post-apocolyptic odessy-adventure.

I enjoyed the flow of the story, which breaks down like this: The hero is traveling across the desert to the post-apocolyptic city of Lost Vegas, to vai for his right as king. Along the way he is tested by other would-be-kings with the same goal in mind. This allows for constant samurai style action/fight scenes. But the story is compounded by the jugernaught he must inevitably face, which is manifested by his ultimate competition, a "Death Metal Band" lead by Death himself. The story is smart, allowing each fight scene to develop the characters. We see Buddy, the hero, to be a supreme, loan-wolf type fighter. And Death, stalking close behind, is ruthless and hard to beat. This sets the stage for their eventual conflict. The first conflict they have is ended permaturely by outside influence, which furthers the story by creating a score to settle in the final fight scene. I prefer when movies take the time to set up this kind of conflict. Rather than just throwing a good guy up against a bad guy and having one big fight scene, we get learn about the characters and the story. Business is left un-finished, which allows the audience to anticipate the climax. This adds suspense to the story and draws the audience in to the movie. The movie has a very good Second Act, which throws the main characters in to great peril, with the bad guy's having all the advantages. This is then resolved with a great third act, finding clever resolution. Very good story telling.

The movie is totally over the top and wierd, but the story is fairly concise and exciting. The circumstances are totally bizarre, but the director creates a world that is enigmatic and yet consistent. I would say this movie is kind of a "Mad Max in Wonderland." It is not your standard Hollywood tale, which, of course, made me like it even more. Not to mention, the entire movie is action packed.

I highly recommend this movie to anyone seeking an original action movie, but on a critical level, just to be fair, I will list the few problems that I found: I think the fight scenes could have used a little more choreographing. It looked like budget constraints were limiting the number of takes they could do, and they were making up for actual precision work with simple slow motion and tricky camera angles. Falcon appears to be fairly well trained in Wu Shu, the standardized style of Chinese Kung Fu, but he is no Jet Li...nor Zhuang Hui, for that matter. It looked like he could use just a little more practice (I don't think he nailed that Butterfly Flat Spin in the sand dunes fight scene with the Death Archers). However, he is good enough to be quite convincing, and he was genuinely a lot of fun to watch. The fight scenes still managed to be quite exciting, and again, I highly recomend this movie. Especially, to anyone looking for a good independent movie. In my opinion, there really are not that many independent action movies that are worth seeing. The TROMA team tries to make action movies, and they pretty much all stink. Don't think that SIX-STRING SAMURAI is another MR. KABUKI MAN NYPD. Buddy would kick the crap out of Mr. Kabukki Man!

I rated this film a 7 out of 10 on the IMDB. Go rent it and let your mind get a little bent. Its really pretty clever.