blastfighter

A year before his highly successful Demons , Lamberto Bava made this highly entertaining, rarely seen action flick. Blastfighter is really First Blood meets Deliverance, with slices of The Deerhunter , and even Evil Dead thrown in for good measure.

Blastfighter is about an ex-cop called Tiger Sharp ( a name so ridiculous that I'm surprised Tito Carpi didn't write this script), who's just got out of jail after seven years for killing the crim that killed his partner . He runs into an old buddy, who gives him a special shotgun called 'The Blastfighter' for no apparent reason (the ideal gift for anyone who's been wrongfully imprisoned for seven years, and is mad at the world). This gun can not only shoot your average shells, but also tear gas, explosive rounds, rockets, and anything else you care to imagine. It also either works as a pump action , or semi-automatic. This really confused me ...... wouldn't you always use it as a semi-automatic?

Then again, I guess pumping a shotgun looks a hell of a lot more impressive onscreen. Anyway , Tiger has had enough of the big city, so heads home to Georgia. Along the way he stops in at a general store , where Hoyt Pollard ( the kid out of Deliverance who played the banjo) makes a cameo appearance as .....you guessed it, a banjo player. He has hair in this movie, and if you're a fan of Deliverance , this movie is well worth seeing just for this cameo. Tiger returns to his isolated cabin for some peace and tranquility, which doesn't last

long. He runs into some of the local good ole' boys blasting every animal they can find in the woods near his cabin , and loading them onto trucks. Naturally Tiger gets on their wrong side. He goes into town , and who should pop up but his old buddy George Eastman. George explains that a chinese butcher has moved into town , and pays good money for deer, bears, etc. to ship to Asia for medicinal purposes. After a few more encounters with the good ole' boys , Tiger trashes the Chinese butchers shop. George restrains him, and tells him that this new industry is no different to when they hunted deer. This is the funniest scene in the movie, because when George has calmly delivered these lines of dialogue to Tiger , Michael Sopkiw screams "But Not Like That!" right at Georges face. You'd be hard pressed to find a more hilarious case of acute overacting. George seems embarrassed to be in the same scene.

Tensions rise more and more , with the good ole' boys finally killing Tigers friend , and his daughter ( who can't seem to keep her accent the same throughout the movie). He breaks out the Blastfighter , and wreaks bloody revenge......blowing away hunters left, right, and centre. He even blows peoples arms off. Of course he also has an Endgame style duel with the great George Eastman.

I was a little disappointed by this , because the cover made it look like a post-nuke , and I kind of felt ripped off. It has grown on me though , and George Eastman as usual is able to make almost any movie entertaining. He really seemed to enjoy his role in this , probably mainly because it was a welcome diversion from playing mutated monsters, and post-nuke dwellers. The soundtrack featured a country song that was very irritating , but it was used that much throughout the film that I had it buzzing around my head for days.....It also had a few homages to other movies. Apart from the Deliverance cameo by Hoyt Pollard , a number of scenes involving Tigers car seemed very Evil Dead inspired. His car was even the same make , and colour as Ash's.There are also cameos by Michele Soavi , (director of Dellamorte Dellamore), and if you don't blink you'll notice Massimo Vanni ( Great White, The New Barbarians) as Sopkiws dying partner. A pretty entertaining action film.... not a classic by any means , but anything featuring George Eastman and the banjo player from Deliverance is definitely worth a look.