They Paid With Bullets: Chicago 1929 (1969)

This is a Spanish-Italian film on the 1920s gangster scene in Chicago, and quite possibly one of the oddest films I've ever seen (and I've seen a lot).

Country boy Frank (Guglielmo Spoletini) gets drawn into the gangster war taking place in Chicago by accident and joins the gang of slick (and quite mad) Erik (Peter Lee Lawrence) rising through the ranks and eventually challenging Erik for his gang and his gal.

It is all glorious madness, the story is quite flimsy and held together by very frequent gunfights with tommy guns (all very badly choreographed but undeniably exciting). The acting is curious, ranging between vague and terrible (not helped by the bad dubbing - the version I saw switched between English and German dubs a few times for some reason). The film is brilliant obviously.

Gangster moll Ingrid Schoeller steals the show with her mysterious cabaret routines, epic sexiness... and randomly playing around with a voodoo doll.

Jigsaw (1962)

Based on a true story Jigsaw is a good solid and atmospheric police procedural following a murder investigation. Jack Warner leads the investigation which takes place mostly in Brighton.

The police investigation is quite complicated with a lot of good old fashioned thorough investigation. This is easy to portray in a multi-episode TV series but more challenging in a single film with limited time, however this film pulls it off with fast pacing and many short scenes.

The film lacks much in what you would call "action", its a realistic police investigation that is being shown - expect checking ledgers not high speed car chases and what a refreshing film is it for all that.

Mongkok Story (1996)

Mongkok Story is decent if unspectacular HK Triad film, definitely from the Young & Dangerous slash-tastic stable rather than the more cerebral side of the genre like Election. Not that that is a bad thing of course.

However when you see Mongkok Story you will probably get a feeling of deja vu as it re-treads familiar ground covered so often in HK cinema. Edmond Leung plays a young waiter who is seduced by the glamour of being a Triad, especially the local small-time hoodlums who frequent his cafe and their Dailo Roy Cheung. He joins this group but finds the Triad life is not so wonderful after all...

So when his Dailo is killed by the rival gang Edmond thirsts for revenge. So begin the slashing! Overall the film is pretty good stuff though nothing you haven't seen before. Good action and a slightly surprising ending.

Below The Belt (1980)

I've seen a few films about professional wrestling, and starring wrestlers, and they are all pretty awful... except for Below The Belt which follows Rosa (Regina Baff) as she leaves her dead-end life in New York to join the (wrestling) circus.

However this isn't the glitzy and media rich world of the WWE nowadays, this is the rather lo-fi wrestling scene of the 1970s (the film was made in 1974 though not released until 1980). Wrestlers did the hard yards travelling from town to town living out of a suitcase, shedding blood for a baying crowd for a handful of dollars. Although about wrestling this film can be seen more as a road movie... with head locks.

The relationships of the wrestlers makes this movie, the new blood and the old soaks. Hopes and dreams... for some still burning bright, for others fast fading away.

It's a terrific film, dosed in 1970s Americana: big cars pounding endless freeways, popcorn stands in grubby arenas in the back of small towns. Easily the best wrestling film I've seen, of course that doesn't mean much considering the competition. Just trust me that this obscure film really is pretty special. Like Rosa, the film might not look much but it's got it where it counts.

Megaforce (1982)

Megaforce is apparently an elite US rapid deployment team who drive buggies and ride flying bikes. They are sent to deal with a tinpot dictator somewhere in the desert and hilarity ensues.

That hilarity is unintentional (naturally). This film is horrific in many ways, with poor effects, a ropey plot and acting.

The main selling point of the film, the Megaforce, is also rather poor. "Elite forces" who'd struggle to blow the door off an old barn. It is well worth seeing of course for the pure cheese value.

Young Rebels (1989)

Young Rebels has the same director and writer (Amir Sheravan) and some of the actors (including the legendary Robert Z'dar) of Samurai Cop and Killing American Style but somehow lacks that certain something that elevates a bad film into cult classic status.

So it has bad acting, cheesy dialogue, a plot that makes no sense (and is basically one long fight between our heroes and a drug gang), gratuitous nudity and awful fight choreography but... Well it's not all bad, the film is unintentionally hilarious because it is so dreadful.

Plus without this film there may never have been Samurai Cop and a world without Samurai Cop is not one i'd want to live in.

Gymkata (1985)

Well it stands to reason doesn't it? Gymnastics and martial arts are a match made in heaven. Let's make a film about it...

Gymkata is a very odd film and definitely in the "so bad it's good" drawer with plenty of unintentional humour. An actual Olympic gymnast Kurt Thomas was bought in as the star (and truth be told he is a non-actor but you will see a lot worse acting in these kinds of films by people who are supposed to be professionals). Our hero is sent into a tiny Central Asian country where the US wants to put a satellite monitoring station. The reason a gymnast martial artist and not a diplomat is sent in is because this little country gets foreign visitors to take part in an extreme endurance event chased by local warriors. A cute custom though as it results in most entrants deaths it can't be doing much for the tourism industry.

Win the event however and you are granted your wish, and hence a satellite base. Which is why the US sends in Kurt Thomas and not Casper Weinberger who I suspect is not that good at kung fu.

So that's what the film is about and it is all very silly. The Central Asian country is basically still in the Middle Ages and a very dangerous land full of grotesque stereotypes and freaks. The action is good though but the gymnastics part of the film is a bit contrived, remote villages just happening to have a pair of parallel bars...