4/30/2014

Hammer (1990)

Hammer (1990)- * * *1\2

Directed by: Enzo G. Castellari

Starring: Daniel Greene, Melonee Rodgers, Donna Rosea, Jorge Gil, Jeff Moldovan, and Frank Zagarino










Hammer (Greene) is a Cop on the Edge. Back in ‘Nam, he and a group of buddies had a small clique known as the Storm Riders. When one of said old buddies, Greg (Moldovan) reaches out to him, seemingly in trouble, Hammer responds, but then Greg is murdered by a mysterious assassin (Zagarino). Now Hammer is a cop over the edge. He chases the man, but he escapes. It’s then that Hammer goes on vacation to Jamaica, and proceeds to go on a rampage and cause all sorts of havoc while there. Hammer must fight through corruption, drug dealers, liars, cheaters, and just about every sort of baddie there is. Will he ever make it back to U.S. alive? Find out today!

“Wow, there’s actually a movie with Daniel Greene, Frank Zagarino and Jeff Moldovan and it’s directed by Enzo G. Castellari? That’s amazing!” That quote was taken from...us, when we realized the movie Hammer existed. And you thought Fred Williamson was the only Hammer. Well, it turns out Daniel Greene can Hammer it up with the best of them. With his hair lookin’ better than ever, Greene puts in a winning lead performance. The greatness of Enzo just proves itself even more with this highly entertaining and enjoyable romp.


The opening chase between Greene and Zagarino is an impressive movie highlight, and they even get a jet ski chase again later. Zagarino is perfectly cast, because he doesn’t say anything and he’s the slippery bad guy who the audience can readily hate. Plus he has some awesome sunglasses. Weirdly enough, during the first chase scene, on the soundtrack we get the “Sweet Child O’ Mine” guitar solo, but it’s never credited anywhere. Could it be a possible under-the-radar steal? It does firmly place the movie in 1990, however. Right where movies should be.  It was also nice to see Masterblaster (1987) co-stars Moldovan and Donna Rosea reunited in a different movie.

In all fairness, the movie does start to run out of steam just a tad somewhere towards the middle/end, but that’s a common thing and very slight in this case. Enzo hits all the right action notes, including the time-honored final warehouse shootout. There really is plenty here for fans to sink their teeth into, and this movie should be more well known.

Featuring the catchy tune “Island Man” by Charlie Cannon, Hammer should satisfy anyone’s craving for classic early-90’s action. 

Comeuppance Review by: Brett and Ty

7 comments:

Drew Grimm Van Ess said...

Oh yeah, "Hammer". Not as good as some say, but better than others say. I think this is an underrated film that's gotten lost along the time that's past since it's release. It's reviews like this that keep those films going, bringing in a new audience. Good write-up, hopefully someone who hasn't seen this will stumble upon your review and give it a shot.

Ty said...

Thanks! Definitely underrated...Hope more people will check it out. It's a lot of fun. Especially the chase at the beginning.

venom said...

This film is on Youtube if anyone's interested.

Ty said...

Very cool!

Explosive Action said...

Great flick. The widescreen Japanese VHS is the way to go here!

Ty said...

Nice! Would love to see that.

Roger Renman said...

Thanks for the tip, Venom!