the audience applauded

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Adequate cheese ball entertainment should prove to be somewhat interesting for any fan of Lamberto Bava, son of Italian filmmaking maestro Mario Bava. Lamberto filmed all exteriors Stateside, in this tale of ex-cop "Tiger" Sharp (Michael Sopkiw, "Massacre in Dinosaur Valley"). Tiger has just gotten out of prison for his revenge-killing of the man who murdered his wife. Now he's trying to live a normal life, but he will soon be approached by Connie (Valentina Forte, "Cut and Run"), the daughter that he hasn't seen in ages. He makes enemies out of a bunch of mentally challenged redneck hunters, especially Wally (Stefano Mingardo), brother of Tigers' friend Tom (Italian genre & exploitation icon George Eastman).The title seems to suggest something at least slightly futuristic, but that is not the case. This is more a tale of a private war in a woodsy setting; ultimately, the finale strongly echoes "First Blood". The only thing remotely futuristic is the title weapon, something that definitely earns the adjective "badass". It can fire just about anything, it seems. But it doesn't come into play until the final 10 minutes of the movie."Blastfighter" is rough going for a while - it's a loud, sometimes chaotic, sometimes incoherent mess of a movie. It sort of improves as it goes along, and the characters become more engaging. The actors on screen are fine; also among them are future director Michele Soavi ("Stagefright", "Cemetery Man") and stuntman / actor Ottaviano Dell'Acqua ("Rats: Night of Terror"). Sopkiw is a decent B movie hero, handsome and rugged, and Eastman is always good value. But the people doing the dubbed-in American voices tend to be over the top, especially the gal doing Fortes' voice. It renders her character rather annoying.Overall, it shows you an amusing enough time, with a fun electronic score by Fabio Frizzi ("Zombi 2"), and a particularly lively finish that features explosions aplenty.Five out of 10.

Lamberto Bava does it again with this Italian action movie that manages to be almost as entertaining as his cult classic, DEMONS! In many ways the film follows the same action-orientated template with hostile rednecks replacing supernatural monsters and the heroes gradually picked off one by one by the bad guys. However, the realism of the film adds to the suspenseful aspect. Beginning fairly low key, we watch as events gradually build out of hand (Bava takes time to develop the situation instead of rushing it and making it unbelievable) until the rip-roaring climax that will please action fans everywhere. Before then, the film is packed with incident and genuinely manages to stay exciting all the while. The plot is not very complex and takes influence from a number of other films. FIRST BLOOD is the obvious choice, but there are also some surprising references to THE EVIL DEAD and even a western homage! This is a film packed with burning vehicles, gunfire and lots of heroic staples. Michael Sopkiw (MASSACRE IN DINOSAUR VALLEY) is great as the lead and gets to cross waterfalls, abseil down sheer cliffs and take part in some great stunt action. Stuntman Massimo Vanni even shows his face in a cameo as a dying cop and supplies some great death scenes. Sopkiw, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Bruce Campbell, breathes life into the character of Jake Sharp, who could easily have been unlikable and stiff. The character is solemn, introspective and rather rude to those around him, but nonetheless you find yourself rooting for Sopkiw as the film progresses.Bava fills a few roles with familiar faces to the exploitation fan. Playing Sopkiw's main adversary is the always imposing George Eastman (ANTHROPOPHAGUS THE BEAST) as hulking, crippled redneck, Tom. Eastman actually has a developed character (the only villain that has) and does well with his performance. The action sequences are well staged and make good use of the wooded locations for the chases. They're also bolstered by a stirring synthesiser score. The movie is pretty grim and kills off loads of "good" characters, plus a lot of animals get shot etc. Yet Bava still manages to retain the entertainment despite this overwhelming nihilism and rewards the viewer with the climatic destruction of about three dozen bad guys, all gun-toting rednecks without an ounce of wit or intelligence about them. When Sopkiw's amusingly kick-ass gun comes into play, the film explodes with gruesome gore effects (sadly excised, as usual, in the UK cut) and more explosions that you can believe possible. My only complaint is with the very end of the film which makes absolutely no thematic sense to this viewer. Otherwise BLASTFIGHTER is a must for fans of cheesy Italian action.

They obviously ain't seen BLASTFIGHTER then cuz this is one kick ass flick we got here! Made the same year as his equally lightning-paced film DEMONS, and featuring the exact same Claudio Simonetti score used in MASSACRE IN DINOSAUR VALLEY (a film I highly recommend BTW), Blastfighter is a hot little piece of celluloid. Genre favorite Michael Sopkiw (AFTER THE FALL OF NEW YORK) is here as the hero who seeks revenge on the redneck bullies who killed his daughter and ruined his life. Also, Joe D'Amato reg George Eastman co-stars doin' what he does best: playing a bad guy. Here, he actually has speaking lines! There's lots of action, a good storyline with a fair amount of suspense and drama, and of course loads of gory violence toward the end. Now, after seeing this, is L. Bava really as bad as most say? I think not. You might be very well surprised.

Lamberto Bava's best film so far plays like a variation of Deliverance and First Blood. For the first half of the movie, it remains in doubt rather Sopkiw is going to strike back at a huge passel of harassing rednecks. The scriptwriters here seemed to know what we wanted and made the movie flow accordingly. You can watch the film, hate a character, say whether he lives or dies, and you'll be pretty much correct. All in all this film packs a whallop, with a good Claudio Simonetti score (same as the score in MASSACRE IN DINOSAR VALLEY). The characters likable enough (except Sopkiw's LOAD daughter) and the climax was suitably exciting and violent. Basically the two hicks in DELIVERANCE here are replaced with 500 hicks, 90% of whom die in violent explosive ways. A good movie, lots of goods, not much to complain about. There were a lot of references to EVIL DEAD, such as the fact that Sopkiw drove the same model car, lived in a similar wooden shack in the woods, and even was made up to look like Bruce Campbell! Find this movie if you can.