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

Masterblaster (1987)

Masterblaster (1987)-* * *

Directed by: Glenn R. Wilder

Starring: Jeff Moldovan, Raymond Forchion, Donna Rosea, Joe Hess, Earleen Carey, Richard St. George, Yoshimitsu Yamada, and Big Mike Tiederberg












Somewhere in the wilds of Florida, the "First Annual Master Blaster Grand National Championships" is going on. Here, the best people in the world at paintball (truly something to be proud of in life) assemble to win the fifty thousand dollar prize. But something sinister is afoot. Someone in their midst is using real weapons and killing off these "weekend warriors" for real.  Will the Vietnam Vet loner/drifter Jeremy Hawk (Moldovan) be able to save the day, meanwhile romancing the ex-cop with a tragedy in her past, Samantha Rosen (Rosea)?

A clear attempt to marry the prevailing 80's trends of paintball and wilderness horror movies best exemplified by most of the Friday the 13th series, with a dash of Romps thrown in for good measure as exemplified by some of the crude and juvenile summer-camp humor, Masterblaster truly exemplifies the phrase "jack of all trades but master of none" and fails at providing fans of any of these three things with what they really want. But that's not to say the movie is a failure. The way we see it, these malformed elements place it in a unique position to be an underground 80's classic. The ridiculous music (check out the awesome title song by Ezo Hernandez), hair and clothes, not to mention the absurd cast of characters, provides entertaining fun for most of its running time.

Speaking of some of the crazy characters (the movie is a character study if nothing else), we have Moldovan as Jeremy Hawk (not Jay Sherman's friend from The Critic), a man who really knows how to look at stuff. His reaction shots are priceless and worth the price of admission right there. As this is a "rural" movie, we have menacing redneck Leon (Antoni Corone), Snake and Monk (George Gill & St. George, respectively), the Cheech and Chong of the film. Many of the competitors have painted-on beards, which seems odd for the people that are supposedly the best in the world at this activity. There's Yoshimitsu Yamada as Yamada, "The Shadow Warrior", a nod to the Ninja Boom going on at the time. The "Oriental" music on the soundtrack every time he appears could be described as ill-advised, if not downright racist. Speaking of the soundtrack, there's bizarre, funny male operatic vocals that appear at times. Just weird.

There are others vying for the top paintball spot, but top, top honors go to Ray Forchion as Lincoln. He steals the movie with his hilarious performance. The man really stands up for his Kobe beef.

It's silly, there's funny dancing, alliances between paintballers (or "blasters" as they are called), and it all has a Young Warriors (1983)-style schizophrenia to it. It's pretty clear the filmmakers had no real grasp of what makes things suspenseful or interesting, but that's what makes Masterblaster so engaging. In the grand tradition of other "paintball gone wrong" movies such as TAG: The Assassination Game (1982), Gotcha! (1985), Hostile Intent (1997), and Backwoods (2008) , Masterblaster is recommended, even with its flaws, for Moldovan's stare, the performance of Ray Forchion, and all the 80's goodness it provides.

NOTE: Masterblaster was released on VHS in the U.S. by Prism. The box states the running time is 95 minutes, but it is actually 80 minutes.

Comeuppance Review by: Brett and Ty